There is a good reason why BYU cornerbacks coach Jernaro Gilford is a nominee for the 2023 Broyles Award, an annual honor that goes to the top assistant coach in college football.
BYU’s cornerbacks have not only emerged as the strength of the defense, but the strength of the entire team as the Cougars have flailed their way through a difficult 5-6 season, to date.
“Kudos to Eddie’s (extended) family for raising a great young man. He has a college education, he’s playing big-time college football, and is being an example for not only people in his family, but for all the young kids who have watched him growing up. It is definitely a phenomenal story.” — BYU DBs coach Jernaro Gilford on Eddie Heckard
And an argument could be made that the best player on the 2023 BYU football team is a cornerback, Weber State transfer Eddie Heckard. Imagine where this defense that ranks among the worst in the Football Bowl Subdivision would be without Heckard, who will play his final game as a Cougar on Saturday (1:30 p.m. MST, ABC) when BYU plays at No. 21 Oklahoma State, barring a major upset.
Fellow Weber State transfer Kamden Garrett, who plays the hybrid cornerback/nickel back position, will also suit up in royal blue and white for the final time, unless the Cougars somehow win as 18-point underdogs and get bowl eligible. The third standout corner has been Jakob Robinson, a transfer from Utah State who has one more season of eligibility remaining.
“Our corners have played really well,” defensive coordinator Jay Hill said a few weeks ago. “Jernaro has done a great job with that group.”
Mory Bamba, Caleb Christensen, Jacob Boren, Marcus McKenzie and junior college transfer Jayden Dunlap have also contributed to the corner position this season, and on special teams. McKenzie’s season-ending midseason injury was a big blow to the Cougars’ punt coverage unit, as he excelled as a gunner and made some big plays in early-season games from that position.
“It’s all about the players. We have been holding our own. We have been up and down. I would have liked for us to make a few more plays. At the same time, we have made plays that nobody thought that we would have made,” Gilford said, shrugging off praise for his selection as a Broyles Award nominee.
“We knew coming into it that the Big 12 was a powerful offensive conference. Some of the best wideouts in the whole country are in this league. It has been that way for years. So the good thing is the guys are up and ready for it. They have been dreaming about this since they were young.”
Christensen and Boren walked on Senior Day and are moving on, while Gilford expects most of the others back, in addition to guys such as Zion Allen, Dylan Flowers and Evan Johnson. Replacing Heckard and Garrett will be difficult, especially Heckard, who has arguably been the Cougars’ top transfer portal acquisition in 2023.
Gilford said he’s confident in the future of the position.
“As a coach, your job is to always try to restock and always try to recruit somebody better than the kids that you have,” he said. “That’s our job. We don’t always get it right. Who is to say? But that is what we are looking for, especially when you have guys that can really play like Kamden, Eddie and Jakob.
“You want to bring in guys that you think can compete with them, or you think are better than them. So you can kinda keep up the scheme and the style of play that you play,” Gilford continued.
A former BYU defensive back himself from 1999 to 2003, Gilford joined the coaching staff in 2016 and was the only defense coach retained when Hill became the DC last December. He is developing a reputation for producing NFL talent, with Los Angeles Chargers’ starting cornerback Michael Davis among the players he has sent to the league.
Kaleb Hayes, who is on the New York Giants’ practice squad, is also a Gilford protege, along with Chris Wilcox (Chargers’ practice squad) and D’Angelo Mandell (Cowboys practice squad).
Gilford says he tries to keep in touch with all of his former players.
“I just shoot them random texts and congratulate them and let them know I am always watching them,” he said.
And he uses Davis’ story often as an example of a player who never gave up on his dream. Davis was famously benched his senior season at BYU, but kept plugging away and signed an undrafted free agent contract in 2017 with the Chargers. He’s been in the league ever since.
“Oh yeah, we talk about that a lot. At the end of the day, you just need an opportunity. Life is going to knock you down. It is going to knock different people down in different ways in different times,” Gilford said. “If that is your dream, just stick with it. And if you stick with it, you have a chance to be successful.”
Heckard starting to eye NFL draft
Speaking of someone who rebounded marvelously when life knocked them down, Heckard is a prime example of that.
As has been documented by the Deseret News and in a recent “Deep Blue” feature by BYUtv, Heckard’s father was murdered when he was 12 and living in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
Now he’s a college graduate from Weber State working on a second degree at BYU and wrapping up a phenomenal lone season with the Cougars.
“I am really trying to not think about the end of my college career that much,” he said last week. “I don’t want to get in that mode. When it is over, it is going to be over. But I treat every game right now like I still got more to play.”
That said, Heckard will begin preparing for a hoped-for invite to the NFL combine and BYU’s pro day as soon as the season ends, be it this Saturday or after a bowl game.
He believes he improved his NFL draft stock by transferring to BYU for his final season of eligibility, even if the season hasn’t gone as well as he would have liked.
“I am still happy I came here. The (Cougars’ rough season) hasn’t tarnished my experience at all,” Heckard said. “In my opinion, we have had a good season, and we can still have a great season. We got a game left to prove that we are an elite defense.
“What this school has done for me off the field is real. I am happy I came here. I don’t have any complaints. Even if we went 0-12 or whatever, I would say that. I know I came here for a reason bigger than football, too.”
Heckard has three interceptions in 2023, while Robinson has four. Heckard has broken up five passes and forced two fumbles, stamping himself as BYU’s top playmaker on defense.
“Kudos to Eddie’s (extended) family for raising a great young man,” Gilford said. “He has a college education, he’s playing big-time college football, and is being an example for not only people in his family, but for all the young kids who have watched him growing up. It is definitely a phenomenal story.”
Utah colleges have been good to Garrett
Although Garrett and Heckard are both from Las Vegas and played at Weber State before transferring to BYU, they never knew each other growing up in Sin City.
“It has been fantastic. I can’t complain at all. The people here have treated me great. It has been a much-needed experience for me. I have enjoyed my time here and I am going to continue to enjoy it until April.” — BYU DB Kamden Garrett
Garrett’s childhood was different than Heckard’s as his single mother (Karen Leggett-Hayden) married his stepfather (Michael Hayden) and “he treated me like his own, so I consider him my real father,” Garrett said.
“He gave me two other brothers that he had. We are a real tight family now,” he continued. “I never really had to struggle, basically. Or if I did, I didn’t know I did. But yeah, it was always good, always OK.”
Garrett will graduate from BYU’s business school in April, all while preparing this winter and next spring for the NFL draft.
“I gotta get my degree,” he said. “That’s what is most important to me.”
Like Heckard, Garrett said he has no regrets about making the move from Ogden to Provo.
“It has been fantastic. I can’t complain at all. The people here have treated me great. It has been a much-needed experience for me. I have enjoyed my time here and I am going to continue to enjoy it until April,” Garrett said. “I love it here. No complaints. My family, when they came, they love it here, too. So it has been great for me.”
Bottom line, Gilford said, is that Heckard and Garrett have been as good as he expected they would be when defensive coordinator Jay Hill brought them with him from Weber State.
“On and off the field, they have been absolutely fantastic,” Gilford said. “Just the way they carry themselves, the way they help others, has been great. … They have come in and created a brotherhood in our room.”
