With three seniors who roamed the ISU defensive backfield as safeties last season gone, the free and strong safety positions in the ISU defense are anything but safe this spring.

“At safety now everything is wide open,” said ISU assistant coach Bobby Elliott.

Elliott has been eying the defensive backs’ communication skills and on-field intelligence through the first five spring practices as he tries to replace the departed David Sims, Michael O’Connell and Zac Sandvig.

“The first thing is they’ve got be able to get it mentally right, they’ve got to be able to direct traffic, get our corners lined up, make the calls [and] recognize formations,” Elliott said. “If they can’t do that it doesn’t matter what kind of an athlete they are.”

Senior Ter’Ran Benton and sophomore Jacques Washington have had the first crack at the positions in the spring with senior Earl Brooks, sophomore Deon Broomfield, redshirt junior Durrell Givens and redshirt freshman C.J. Morgan also getting repetitions.

Benton has been the jack of all trades in his first three years in the Cardinal and Gold, spending time at cornerback early in his career and then manning the nickelback spot last year. Ten pounds heavier than last season, the Arlington, Texas, native had his first chance to run downhill and utilize his frame at practice Tuesday.

“I’m throwing all of my 207 pounds at the little receivers,” Benton said.

At 6 feet, 207 pounds, Elliott believes Benton has both the prototype body for an ISU safety and brings plenty of experience from a variety of positions throughout the ISU secondary.

“Ter’Ran is a smart football player, he will have played every position in the book by the time he leaves here which I think is really an important thing,” Elliott said.

As the top nickelback and now getting reps at safety, Benton has been preparing to be ready for defensive packages where he could be at either position.

“It’s a lot,” Benton said. “When I’m at corner I’m feeding off what the safety is telling me and when I’m at nickel I’m doing what the safety is telling me also, now it’s me that has to talk and get the plays right.”

Benton isn’t the only senior in the ISU secondary as 2010 All-Big 12 second-team cornerback Leonard Johnson returns for his senior campaign. Currently No. 1 on the depth chart at right cornerback, Johnson will be the veteran member not just of the secondary but of the entire ISU defense.

“I have high expectations for Leonard. I’ll be very, very disappointed if he doesn’t have a great senior year and so will he,” Elliott said. “He could be as good as there is in this league but he’s got to be focused to do that and he was focused last year in the last half of the season.”

At the opposing cornerback is sophomore Jeremy Reeves, who made key interceptions last season in wins over Northern Iowa and Texas. Elliott will rely on the experience from Benton, Johnson and Reeves to help the secondary adjust to whichever new bodies will be in at the safety positions this season.

“All of them are veteran players I expect them to really be excellent players in the Big 12,” Elliott said. “They’re good enough to win for us and if they focus and improve they’ll be as good as we need to win.”