Texas Football: 3 defensive players Kwiatkowski will elevate

Anthony Cook, Nickel

One of the highest-rated cornerback recruits that Texas landed in the past decade to 15 years is the 6-foot-1 and 185-pound rising senior converted nickelback Anthony Cook. Kwiatkowski, Choate, and the Longhorns made the move to convert Cook from safety/cornerback to nickelback in fall camp, which looks like a good move considering how much he’s bulked up.

The 6-foot-1 and 185-pound weigh-in that Cook had entering spring camp likely won’t hold true for much longer. He bulked up a ton if you look at him in fall camp, which is likely what pushed this move to nickelback.

Cook spent most of his snaps with the Texas defense in the past three seasons either covering the slot or as an outside cornerback. It doesn’t look like that will be the way that Kwiatkowski utilizes him entering the regular season.

An indication of how effective Cook can be in more of a nickelback role is that he had his highest tackling and run-stopping grades last fall in the two games where he lined up in the box most often. He did start to look like much more of an effective player at strong safety than he did as a corner, especially out of the slot.

Covering the straight-line speed was a problem in the past for Cook. He’s got a lot of the fundamentals that you would look for out of a top-tier cornerback, and those coverage skills can still very much be utilized in a nickelback role.