E AST LANSING, Mich. — I take it back. I take it all back.

My complete lack of faith in cornerback Raheem Covington is no more.

Covington, Northwestern’s oldest and most experienced defender, has never impressed me. I can vividly recall blown coverages, missed tackles and ugly penalties. There were times I wished head coach Randy Walker would put someone — anyone — in for Covington.

But the senior sometimes has risen to the occasion, most recently in Saturday’s game against Michigan State and its much-heralded wide receiver Charles Rogers. NU’s undersized corner (Covington is generously listed at 5-foot-9 in NU’s media guide, although he’s probably closer to 5-foot-6) was all over the Heisman hopeful, limiting him to just three catches for 53 yards.

And last year Rogers didn’t do much better against Covington, who kept him under wraps to the tune of 68 yards on five receptions.

Don’t get me wrong. Covington clearly is not the second coming of Charles Woodson.

He’s just not as bad as everyone seems to think.

Covington has generally gotten a bad rap at NU. Students cringe when the defensive back lines up against one the Big Ten’s premier receivers. And they’ve had good reason to do so. (Read: Covington’s performance against Michigan’s Marquise Walker in 2000, in which the wide receiver had nine receptions for 134 yards.)

I’m sure it didn’t help that Covington played opposite cornerback Harold Blackmon at the beginning of his career. BlackMonday, taken by Seattle in the seventh round of the 2001 National Football League draft, still graces the roster of that franchise — something Covington likely will never accomplish.

While he can’t and shouldn’t be compared to BlackMonday, Covington has matured in his position while the rest of the defense has gotten younger. He has learned, mostly from experience, how to be a cornerback. Each year he has upped his takeaway numbers, grabbing one interception in 2000, two in 2001 and two already this season.

Covington has managed to cover receivers who are faster than him, more talented than him and sometimes up to six inches taller than him. When he snagged his first interception Saturday, he took advantage of an underthrown pass by Michigan State quarterback Jeff Smoker and boxed out Rogers as the ball fell into his hands.

And he wasn’t done. Covington had his second interception of the game in the third quarter, giving the senior the first multi-interception game of his career.

In fact, during Rogers’ best reception of the game — the one that broke the NCAA record for consecutive games with a touchdown catch — Covington wasn’t covering him. On that play Rogers went over and around safety Mark Roush and cornerback Marvin Ward, who were in zone coverage, to pick up the score.

Covington’s pass defense was, actually, one of the highlights on a porous defense that gave up 276 yards on the ground.

But he’s not as good as he thinks he is. Not yet, at least.

“I took it personal all week, matching up with Charles, because he’s a great receiver and I consider myself a great corner,” Covington said. “I took it personal to shut him down. … It kinda hurt being that I shut him down for the most part and we still lost.”

I can give you some credit, Raheem. You’ve played better recently. But “great corner”? Not quite.

Walker was more tempered in his praise of Covington on Saturday.

“I thought Raheem did a good job,” Walker said. “He’s our best corner and most experienced guy. Of course, we have no experience. … But I thought Raheem had a great day. I thought he played hard. Charles is going to make some plays. We’re not going to shut the guy down. He’s too good.”

Walker can see Covington for who he is: an adequate, sometimes good cover cornerback. He will never be brilliant; he will occasionally be terrible.

Covington doesn’t always deserve the scorn he receives from NU students. He certainly doesn’t deserve the grimaces from the stands everytime he takes the field.

While he probably will never dazzle the crowd, Covington is getting steadier this year.

And if he continues to improve, he might eventually be as good as he thinks he is.

Amalie Benjamin is a Weinberg junior. She can be reached at [email protected].