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FSU Football: Why moving Hamsah Nasirildeen to linebacker is genius

By Kelvin Hunt

SOUTH BEND, IN - NOVEMBER 10: Miles Boykin #81 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish makes a three-yard touchdown reception against Hamsah Nasirildeen #23 of the Florida State Seminoles in the first quarter of the game at Notre Dame Stadium on November 10, 2018 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - NOVEMBER 10: Miles Boykin #81 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish makes a three-yard touchdown reception against Hamsah Nasirildeen #23 of the Florida State Seminoles in the first quarter of the game at Notre Dame Stadium on November 10, 2018 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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FSU football is looking to get its best players on the field where they can be most productive. I discuss Hamsah Nasirildeen’s move to linebacker.

FSU football went into the 2018 season with experience and talent deficits at the linebacker. So much so that true freshman Jaiden Lars-Woodbey spent a ton of time basically playing linebacker at the “Star” position in the defense.

It was revealed that Lars-Woodbey would be moving back to the safety position with former safety Hamsah Nasirildeen now moving to linebacker.

The coaching staff tried a couple of moves last year to help the team on defense with moving Stanford Samuels III from cornerback to safety.

However, I have to say moving Hamsah Nasirildeen from safety to linebacker is a genius move on paper. Willie Taggart spoke about the move prior to Wednesday’s practice:

"“He’s a great athlete. He’s big, tall, long, rangy, fast and a freak of an athlete. Kid can do a lot of different things for you…we look at him as one of our best football players and we want him closer to the ball so he can make plays…and he’s a kid that can make a lot of plays at that position.”"

Thoughts

Nasirildeen was seen somewhat of a Derwin James lite coming out of high school. They both played safety and had comparable size. In fact, Nasirildeen’s sophomore season was similar to James’ freshman season stats wise.

Nasirildeen had 91 tackles, an interception, two pass breakups and a quarterback hurry in just five starts while playing safety last season.

If Nasirildeen can have that much production, it’s common sense to move him to linebacker where the team still has question marks besides Dontavious Jackson.

Granted, the FSU defense was on the field more in 12 games last year (954 snaps) than they were in all 13 games in 2017 (906 snap).

The fact of the matter is Nasirildeen has the size and athleticism to play the position along with one of the most important traits of physicality.

He will absolutely lay the wood to opposing players, and it’s something that’s been missing from the position for quite some time.

Must Read. 3 Things Willie Taggart Did Right This Offseason. light

I think it’s a great move that allows Lars-Woodbey to play more of a natural role at safety. Both moves should help improve a FSU defensive secondary that was suspect in 2018.

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