Boston College Defensive Backs Room in Good Hands Under Cory Robinson: Just a Minute

When Boston College football recruits come to Chestnut Hill, Mass., for official visits and to tour Alumni Stadium and the adjoining practice facilities, oftentimes they remark at how much professional and collegiate football experience the Eagles’ coaching staff possesses.

One of the BC football recruiting pitches is “Over 100 years of NFL and college football coaching experience,” according to 2026 defensive end/linebacker commit Dominic Funke.

First-year defensive backs coach Cory Robinson is one of the coaches on the BC football staff roster which has the track record to back that statement up.

Before coming to the Heights for the upcoming season, Robinson had stints with the Jacksonville Jaguars and New Orleans Saints, and spent time with college football programs such as Tennessee, Maryland, Rutgers, Temple, and Toledo.

Along the trek which eventually landed Robinson the BC coach assignment for the Eagles’ defensive backs, he was able to pick up numerous pieces of wisdom from players and coaches he spent time with—many of whom blossomed into NFL stalwarts, whether on the coaching side or in pads.

That is all to say that the Eagles’ secondary is in good hands for 2025 and beyond, and Robinson found himself in a perfect situation by inheriting one of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s best units for this respective position group.

“I can tell you that this is a tremendous group to coach,” Robinson said. “You know, just high care factor. They love each other, they love the game, they love this place, and man, it’s just, their energy is infectious.”

All of Robinson’s claims about the Eagles’ secondary in 2025 appears to be true, at least from what the unit showed during fall training camp.

Led by safety KP Price and cornerback Amari Jackson, BC’s secondary is a dynamic, boisterous collection of individuals who contain the depth and talent to be a lights-out position group this year.

In addition to Price and Jackson, returners Carter Davis, Cameron Martinez, Max Tucker, Ashton McShane, Syair Torrence, Isaiah Farris, and Omar Thornton, along with newcomers Ashton Cunningham, Omarion Davis, Marcelous Townsend, and Charlie Comella, have the speed, size, skill, and grit which it takes to succeed in the ACC and put the Eagles on the map throughout the entire FBS.

“The rest of the group, again, is just doing a phenomenal job of taking it day by day, making sure that we control the controllables, our attitude, our effort, [those things] should never be in question,” Robinson said. “And I think they’re doing a great job of embracing that, and it’s showing in how they’re competing in camp.”

Another reason Robinson mentioned that BC’s secondary has shown a ton of promise throughout training camp is because of the talent in the Eagles’ wide receiving corps.

DBs coach Cory Robinson on the unit:

“Just high care factor. They love each other, they love the game, they love this place. Their energy is infectious. They’re doing a phenomenal job of taking it day by day, making sure that we control the controllables.” pic.twitter.com/YN2jZYFRJ2
— Graham Dietz (@graham_dietz) August 21, 2025

BC’s secondary is tested everyday at multiple levels of the field against players with different sizes and skills, stemming from the “Big Three” of the unit, Lewis Bond, Jaedn Skeete, and Reed Harris.

Those three players, in particular, have a range of skill sets which test the defense in a multitude of ways.

Harris, who is 6-foot-5, tests the secondary in the deep passing game via contested catches, Bond is a smooth route runner who the secondary must jam at the line to be able to contain his agility, and Skeete is an overall playmaker with sticky hands who is able to find open space on the field more than any wideout on the roster.

That includes the Eagles’ tight ends, which are deeper this season than in 2024.

From big blocking tight ends like Jeremiah Franklin and Zeke Moore to pass-catching specialists like Ty Lockwood, Brady Clough, and Kaelan Chudzinski, the Eagles’ secondary is tasked with a wide array of looks, schemes, and routes to cover both in man-to-man and zone coverage settings.

“[The defense] is multiple, you know, we have a lot of variations,” Robinson said. “We have a lot in our toolbox and [BC defensive coordinator Tim Lewis] is a tremendous teacher of the game. He has a really good understanding of defensive football and processing it, and that allows us as assistants to be able to follow that lead.”

Robinson’s affinity for Lewis stems from this variable defense which the second-year coordinator has implemented into the Eagles’ defensive system.

Under Lewis, according to Robinson, BC is never one to run the same coverage, whether it’s zone or man, or blitzes and pressures on the same drive, which he appreciates.

Robinson also fell in love with BC head coach Bill O’Brien’s coaching style because of the way it extends football life and coaches the players to be coaches themselves.

“It’s about extended football life,” Robinson said. “And what I mean by that is we’re trying to teach these guys to be teachers and grow their understanding of the game, so that one day they may be coaches, or so that one day when they are out there on the field, they can make decisions and make choices as if they are a coach, because they have all the answers.”

Robinson has experience around NFL talent from his past, and he believes with this style of coaching, he can better position the unit to become NFL talent someday as well.

He hopes this will have a trickle down effect in years to come within the BC football program ranks, and not just for the position group he is mandated to coach.

“Having a wealth of knowledge and things like that, I think it’s only going to continue to, you know, grow the football knowledge of the program, and ultimately extend football life for these guys that want to play professionally,” Robinson said. “They’ll have those opportunities, and they’ll be mentally wired in a way that they can go in and can handle it.”