Sereno goes from defensive end to safety

Bear fans can relate to the crisis that caused Morris High School defensive coordinator Andy Peterson to move rush end Tim Sereno, the Redskins' cross between Mark Anderson, Alex Brown and Adewale Ogunleye on the edge of their 5-2 defense, to their end-all, be-all position of weak safety.

While injuries deprived the Bears of cornerbacks Charles Tillman and Nathan Vasher and nickel back Danieal Manning during Sunday's 48-41 victory over Minnesota -- elevating a practice-squad name like Zackary Bowman, the pride of Sarah Palin's Alaska, into the Chicago lexicon -- Peterson already had run into a scenario that did not pale in comparison.

A high ankle sprain, the type of malady that makes football coaches cringe, limited the two-way ability of all-state senior tailback/safety Adam Tondini. Junior Jake Perry, another tailback/safety, suffered a knee injury in the season opener. With the conference schedule set to kick off in Week 3, Peterson nearly needed to serenade the 6-foot-1, 197-pound Sereno.

Just imagine the voice of Bulls public-address announcer Tommy Edwards capping off a starting lineup.

And, now, the man in the middle ...

"Tim fits the mold," Peterson pointed out. "I tried him there during the summer, but the first two teams we played at the beginning of the season ran more wide-open things and we needed his pass rush on the end. But when we got into the conference, we figured we would put him back in the middle of the field, and good things have happened since then."

As bad as things snowballed for Morris in a 1-3 start, the happenstance of the Redskins' 3-1 record over the past four games traces to the removal of the not-so-tiny Tim Sereno from his three-point stance. And as soon as he became the defense's safety net, opponents have been unable to score more than 7 points per game.

Following a 29-0 loss to Oswego in Week 4, Morris (4-4, 4-2) responded with a 24-6 victory over Romeoville, a 7-0 loss to Southwest Prairie Conference leader Plainfield Central and back-to-back victories, 28-7 over Plainfield South and 41-7 over Oswego East.

That establishes Friday night's playoff eliminator against host Plainfield North (4-4, 4-2), with the Redskins relying on their newest middle man.

"Yeah, the tough part is you get yelled at for not stopping the run and you get yelled at if they throw the deep ball on you, too," Sereno said. "You have to play it very carefully."

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A year ago, the underrated Stephen Wagner carried on the Morris legacy of weak safeties, the latest in an illustrious line that included John Dergo and Brenton Valentine. With Drew Tondini a cornerstone at inside linebacker, twin brother Adam and Perry would share time in the offensive and defensive backfields, allowing the edgy Sereno to wreak havoc.

Peterson's plan sparked Sereno to 71 tackles in 2007, with 20 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks as the Redskins rolled to a second-place finish in the Class 5A playoffs. Of course, then injury and illness struck the 2008 contingent with the impact of a hurricane, forcing Peterson to finalize his version of Proposition No. 15 to Sereno.

Simply, he's a difference maker.

"Athlete," Peterson said, nodding. "He's just an athlete. He had played D-end and made a lot of plays because of his size and his speed, and we needed somebody like him back there. When you look at some of the guys who have played there over the last couple of years with Dergo, Valentine and Wagner, well, those are three really physical, fast guys."

"Our weak safety is basically almost another linebacker, and the only other things are he has deep pass coverage and he has to come up and stop the run in a lot of situations," Morris coach George Dergo said. "Because of the injuries to Adam and Jake, we were struggling to come up with that guy. We needed somebody to step in there, and Tim was the best available athlete we had to do that."

Asked for the requisite attributes, Dergo mentioned Sereno as "the biggest, the strongest, the fastest." Those qualities have helped him compile 42 tackles (18 solos), a sack and a fumble recovery despite missing most of the Plainfield Central loss due to a mild concussion -- the rare transformation from defensive end to safety seeming like night to the light of day.

"It's the responsibility," Sereno said of the change at safety. "You're the last resort. There really is no one behind you to save you like there was at D-end. I don't have Adam or Drew or Wagner there behind me anymore."

"All of our top players have played that position," said Dergo, his son being among the best. "If they're not a linebacker in our defense, then they are the weak safety and that guy has to go all over the field. He's your spy guy, he's in all the plays and he's the guy who has to make plays for you."

Delivering play after play for the past two years has been Drew Tondini, his 87 tackles with 57 solos leading Morris to date. Adding Sereno alongside has brought some extra jam into the box.

"If he sees a run, he'll come up and stick it," Drew Tondini said. "He doesn't just jump on the pile. He comes up and he wants to make the tackle, and that's always good to see."

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The 5-2 defense has been a staple of the Morris program for decades, with two tackles flanking a nose guard. The pair of bookends fluctuate as true ends or stand up like outside linebackers, providing a 3-4 look. Walk up the weak safety, in this case Sereno, and the current rage of the 3-5 zooms clearly into the focus.

Even without injuries, the emergence of juniors Kevin Henry and Tyler Thetard at defensive end with senior Tyler Ness as an interior lineman cleared a path for Sereno to segue to weak safety. Junior Devin Singer slotted at inside linebacker with Drew Tondini, and suddenly, the Redskins were sold. The key to the sale, though, was making Sereno a go.

Simply, he's a different player.

"He was one of our tougher guys last year as that rush end," Dergo said. "He would come off the corner really hard, but there wasn't a whole lot of responsibility for him except to come off that corner hard. That's what we had him set up to do, and I thought he was going to be that end this year, too. We just needed him more at weak safety."

"Last year was a lot of fun," Sereno recalled. "There wasn't a lot of responsibility there on the end, either. It's an easier job and you can get away with a lot of stuff. I feel pretty comfortable at safety now, and the experience of the last couple of games has been good for me. You know, we have gone through a lot of big changes on defense, so it's not just me."

Unlike the 4-3 scheme, which employs a parallel free safety and a strong safety, sometimes it is only Sereno. It can be the ultimate island, requiring a skill set that merges the dichotomy of finesse and roughhouse.

"Tim has the size, he has the speed and he knows how to deliver a blow," Peterson said. "He had to figure out the angles back there, so that was kind of new for him. He was used to seeing things from one side and you have to deal with both sides, but now he's getting his reads down from the middle of the field. And if he plays in college, that's where he's going to play -- at safety or outside linebacker."

"He's a physical athlete," Dergo said. "He's fast, he's strong, he's rangy and he has some height to him. His arms are long, his legs are long, and we have two guys who are playing pretty good at defensive end in Henry and Thetard. That made it even more important to have a strong weak safety in the middle of the field like Tim."

Once in that middle, Sereno initiated his own Redskins' history class by popping a couple CDs into the DVD.

"I tried to go back and watch JCA tapes of Dergo, watch (2006 middle linebacker Kyle) Komperda, watch Brenton a lot," Sereno said. "I grew up watching those guys and they were amazing. It's hard to fill those shoes, but I'm going to try my best."

"The more that he gets reps, the more he's starting to come along," Tondini said. "He's really good at reading the run, and he's still working on his pass coverage. He's learning, but he's actually coming around."

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Showing how much trust George Dergo has developed in Andy Peterson, his response to the Sereno switcheroo was classic to anyone who knows Dergo, as in "I'm still trying to figure it out because that's Andy deal. He can explain it better than I can." Seconds later, Dergo deciphered the decision better than Bill Belichick.

"Tim fits the mold," Dergo said, repeating a sentiment earlier stated by Peterson. "It's a thinking and reacting position, and with his speed and lateral movements, he can cover the entire field. If you think about the guys who we had go down with injuries, I think it was a real smart move."

Aside from the brain-power possibilities, the weak-safety shoes that Sereno has worn of late calls upon an acumen not far from last year's menu.

"He was big and physical at defensive end, but he's also fast, which helps him out at safety," Tondini said. "He's a physical player, and that's what a lot of the great ones like Dergo, Valentine and Wagner would do at that spot. They came up and made those huge tackles for us."

"As the weak safety, in reality, you are a linebacker and you are a defensive back, too," Peterson said. "You have to play it all when the linebackers get blocked, and you are the last stand. For the most part, Tim has done a great job of learning on the fly, and it's exciting to have that kind of athlete in the middle of our defense."

Both Morris and Plainfield North remain in the middle of a quagmire known as the playoff picture. A win puts one in. A loss leaves one home. Summing up the season, however, Peterson noted that "the last 3-4 weeks, we've had a one-game attitude, wanting to win the next game. Whatever happens with the playoffs, if we get in, whoever we get we deserve it because we messed up."

Regardless, the Redskins cleaned up the mess by righting the ship on the offensive and defensive lines, leaving the flexibility for tweaking.

Maybe the premium example of that will be the mention of Sereno's name, the intonation like introduction of the starting center at a basketball game.

And, now, the man in the middle ...