The Cardinal Countdown: 82 Days Until Kickoff

#82 Dontez Byrd

Class: RS Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 5-11/170

Position: Wide Receiver

Hometown: Louisville, KY (Product of Ballard High School)

Twitter: @_SpeedyByrd

Thoughts: This will be Byrd’s third season with the program and he has had some pretty good “compact” receivers to learn from while here (Rogers, Robo Clark, De La Cruz). While I would never speak for anyone else, I have to think bringing an offensive minded coach like Petrino into the program after signing up to play for a slower paced run first offense (Strong/Watson) was probably a positive for a player like Byrd. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think any of the players were happy to see Charlie go, after all, they committed to play for him along the University, but some of the offensive players had to like what they’d seen from Petrino’s squads in the past in terms of offensive production. Byrd got his feet wet last year on special teams and appearing in a few of the heavy back sets McGee likes to run seeing action in 12 games and grabbing a couple tackles. With the addition of the uber-atheltic Traveon Samuel in the 2015 class I feel as if he and Byrd will split time filling the “slot receiver/speed guy” role with McGee relying on a combination of the two in an effort to replace Eli Rogers. The x-factor in all of this depth chart craziness is where Quick lands. I initially thought he would be on the outside but with Staples, Savage, Bagley and now it appears Standberry all starting to get those reps I think Quick slides back into the slot. If that assumption holds true we now have four legitimate threats at the slot position with Quick, Byrd, Samuel and Swabeck and on the outside we have all the guys mentioned above along with Gio and Alphonso Carter (formerly Paul Harris).

Oh, and that doesn't include incoming freshman Devante Peete, Jaylen Smith or Trey Smith.

Yeah...we're loaded.

Sweet Tweet:

Had A Nice Workout today

— Dontez Byrd (@_SpeedyByrd) May 28, 2015

Some of these weight room videos that UofL posts are just ridiculous. I mean, seeing Griffin Uhl dead lift a Buick doesn’t really help boost my self-confidence as a grown man who’s out of breath after carrying my 2 year old daughter down a flight of steps. I didn’t think my decreasing athleticism was all that noticeable but I was obviously wrong. I went home for a few days over Christmas…saw the family, had a good time and then two weeks later I get a postcard in the mail saying “Congratulations, you’re going to receive a free one year subscription to Men’s Health magazine compliments of…..DAD.” Real subtle pops. Yeah, I went back to the cookie tins a couple more times than everyone else, maybe I did some quality control on that package of Reese’s Christmas trees, but that doesn’t mean you gotta call me out for it.

Can’t wait to dive into that “52 Ab Exercises To Get You Shredded” editorial. Looks amazing.