It's just a compliment to Surtain at this point. Don't overthink it. Minkah and Eddie didn't have the same path. Eddie's sophomore year he was getting picked on quite a lot at cornerback. His Junior year they moved Eddie to safety. Losing most of our starting safeties, including Landon Collins the previous year, it was almost made out of necessity. As it turned out, it was a natural position for him and he dominated that position at Bama immediately. We now had a safety that had corner skills for all these spread happy teams we were playing and getting torched.
I don't see how that mirrors Fritzpatrick in the way we used him all over the field. Minkah was called a strong safety but Bama was using him all over the field each game. He often lined up more as a slot corner than a safety. Every blue moon he even went to outside corner. In the championship game against Georgia, Minkah lined up primarily as a nickelback/linebacker. That's the type of in-game versatility that is being described for Surtain.
