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In the final regular season game of his sophomore year at Miami Palmetto High School (Florida), safety Rob Hanna did what he did on every other play that season — drop back.

As he started to backpedal, the quarterback for Coral Reef Senior High School rolled out to his right. Hanna mirrored his moves, planting his back foot and pushing forwards toward the line of scrimmage.

Two of Coral Reef’s offensive linemen worked to the second level, trying to block Hanna. But they couldn’t. Hanna beelined to the quarterback, pounding him to the ground with his right shoulder as Hanna let the ball go. The quarterback’s heave went short, and Hanna’s teammate made the interception.

“I’ve never seen a kid change direction with the kind of speed he did on that play,” Miami Palmetto head coach Mike Manasco said. “That was the one play a lot of colleges saw early on.”

At Syracuse’s 2021 preseason training camp, Hanna forced turnovers similar to the ones he forced during high school, solidifying his spot at the back of SU’s defense. Head coach Dino Babers played Hanna as a true freshman because of injuries to the secondary and tasked him with the complicated rover position in the first season with the 3-3-5 defense. Now, he’s preparing for the 2021 season alongside Garrett Williams in a young secondary that lost three stars to the NFL draft.

“He was a very, very young player in a very, very big role last year,” Babers said. “I’m not going to say he settled down yet, but he’s got to be feeling a lot better than he was last year when we threw him out there the first time.”

The rover position is considered the most important position in the 3-3-5 defense. It serves as an extra player to complement the usual four defensive backs with the main responsibility of guarding the opposition’s best player on every down. Physicality is a necessity in order to tire the opposition’s best weapon throughout the course of the game. But that’s never been an issue for Hanna, Manasco said, as he’s “a linebacker stuck in a defensive back’s body.”

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Hanna transferred to Miami Palmetto as a sophomore after playing one season at Miami North High School. His impact was immediate. Mansaco plugged him in as a safety in a defense that graduated six Division I players two years later.

At Miami Palmetto, Hanna played the nickel position — meaning that he was the extra defensive back on the field. Hanna would guard receivers, call out a quarterback’s strengths and spy on the quarterback, mirroring his every move.

Manasco said Hanna’s instinct to quickly react to the opposition is something that Hanna always had. His football IQ had already developed, and the only change he needed was to gain some size, something Manasco said Hanna can still improve on before this season.

“The biggest improvements I saw in him weren’t football related,” Manasco said. “He came football ready, but through the weight room he really developed a physique and a strength.”

After an illustrious high school career — where Hanna led the team in tackles in three seasons — he moved to Syracuse. But at Syracuse, he wasn’t immediately plugged into the defense like he was in high school, and he wasn’t even the second option.

Andre Cisco, who was drafted 65th overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the spring, held the starting position at rover. Then-redshirt junior safety Eric Coley was starting at the other safety spot in the newly introduced 3-3-5.

But Coley suffered a season-ending injury in Syracuse’s season opening loss to North Carolina. Two weeks later, Cisco’s season ended after an injury in pregame warmups before a game against Georgia Tech. Hanna was put in as a last resort, but he understood what he had to do positionally he had already done in high school.

“We run a very college-style defense,” Mansaco said. “He’s so football savvy and football smart, there was a reason why he was able to play safety in college. For him to come in as a freshman and make all those calls is hard.”

Hanna said one of the only differences between his high school defense and Syracuse’s is the terminology — certain strength calls being different words. After he memorized the new terms, he was able to go out on the field and perform, ensuring his teammates were lined up correctly or even making the play on his own.

In nine games with Syracuse, he finished fifth on the team in total tackles, tied with Ifeatu Melifonwu. But the team finished 1-10, and the secondary suffered the most losses in the offseason out of any other position group with Cisco, Melifonwu and cornerback Trill Williams leaving for the NFL.

Before this year’s training camp, Babers said every position on the field wasn’t guaranteed, including a spot for three-star recruit Darian “Duce” Chestnut. Hanna’s position wasn’t guaranteed, and he said everyone on the team is competing on a “different platform” and vying for the same spots.

On Aug. 17, Hanna earned that starting spot after Babers announced he was at the front of the pack during a training camp press conference.

“We’re not doing anything new since we added the formation last season,” Hanna said. “It’s just learning more about the plays and getting stronger and getting faster.”

Published on September 1, 2021 at 12:23 am

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu