Gone are Kamari Cotton-Moya, Evrett Edwards or Reggie Wilkerson, the trio which combined for 32 starts last year in Iowa State’s defensive backfield.

The 2018 Iowa State secondary will be forced to figure it out on the fly, especially at safety. Both starting cornerbacks are returning from a year ago, but the safety spots are a question mark.

One of the players stepping into a bigger role in 2018 is redshirt senior De’Monte Ruth. Ruth has played cornerback most of his career so far and has found a home on special teams. Now, in his final collegiate campaign, defensive coordinator Jon Heacock is hoping Ruth can emerge as a safety.

“He’s doing good, he’s doing good,” Heacock said. “He’s playing like a senior.”

Ruth recorded 29 tackles last season and made some big plays on special teams. His biggest play came in a 45-0 blowout win over Kansas.

Ouch. pic.twitter.com/N6pMDuNDWS

— Alex Halsted (@AlexHalsted) October 14, 2017

“You could tell everybody enjoyed it [in the film room],” Ruth said with a smile. “It was just a big roar.”

Ruth’s goal as a safety will be to bring that hard-hitting ability to the defense.

The rest of the unit is also inexperienced at safety. Perhaps the biggest addition to the room is Greg Eisworth, who has not played a snap at the Division I level but played a year at Trinity Valley Community College. In just one year on the field at Trinity Valley, Eisworth compiled 47 tackles and two interceptions.

He reportedly had offers from Colorado, West Virginia and Houston before eventually committing to Iowa State.

“The spring gave me a good jump start,” Eisworth said. “The safeties are doing a good job of accepting me and coach Heacock is a great coach.

“The most challenging thing is going against our offense.”

Eisworth said the combination of strong coaching on the offensive side of the ball, along with veterans like Kyle Kempt at quarterback, have made practices tough. But for such an inexperienced group, that might not be a bad thing.

That does, however, mean lots of learning on the fly. Younger players are seeing time early. There aren’t as many experienced veterans flying around at safety.

“Those guys have done a good job,” Heacock said. “We’re moving a bunch of them around. We’re feeding them water with a fire hose.”

It’s not unlike the linebacker spot last season. Last year, Joel Lanning and Marcel Spears held two of the starting linebacker spots. Neither of them had started a game at linebacker before, leaving Willie Harvey as the lone returning starter in that unit.

Lanning and Spears turned out to be successful last season and Spears, now a redshirt junior, still has time to blossom into an even better weapon.

Heacock and the rest of the coaches hope the secondary can progress like the linebackers of 2017.

“They’re trying to take it all in, and we’re not slowing down,” Heacock said. “I think they’re playing well.”

Warren getting snaps at safety

According to Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register, redshirt senior running back Mike Warren has been taking snaps at safety during fall camp.

Warren, who rushed for over 1,300 yards as a redshirt freshman in 2015, could follow in the footsteps of Lanning, who made the transition from quarterback to linebacker a year ago.