The Cardinal Countdown: 60 Days Until Kickoff

#60 Tyler Haycraft

Class: Junior

Ht/Wt: 6-3/292

Position: Offensive Line

Hometown: Louisville, KY (Product of St. Xavier High School)

Twitter: @tyler70haycraft

Thoughts: I spoke about Tyler briefly back on Day 63 as the walk-on was giving his former St X teammate Nathan Scheler some company up front, fighting for the starting gig at center this spring. Similar to Nathan, I was surprised to see Haycraft in the mix for that spot as I assumed Bell, Burns, or maybe even Bentley would get a one time look from Summers as practice began. Sorry if this comes across as disrespectful but I assume Summers had some interesting conversations with Petrino as he came into the program saying “What do you mean two former walk-ons are our best option at center”. (Maybe a hint as to why a change was required to begin with) Knowing we had some vets up front I’m sure Summers fought the urge to throw the baby out with the bathwater so to speak, and start from scratch, but maybe giving Scheler and Haycraft a shot at the job was simply a reminder that ANYONE can take a starting spot based upon the performance we’ve seen the last two seasons.

As I discussed back then, while you should never say never in regards to one of these guys earning that spot, I think Robbie Bell ultimately gets the job for Week 1 as everything I’ve heard points to him playing well when given the opportunity. It’ll be interesting to watch this fall, if Bell does ultimately land the start how the battle will play out between Scheler, Haycraft, and a couple of the incoming freshman for that backup spot. As much as I’d love to see another walk-on or former walk-on fight their way into a good spot on the depth chart I have to say I’d be slightly more at ease if one of the true freshman played well enough to be a second team player from the jump.

Today marks the last offensive lineman that we’ll cover on the countdown this year. Hope you enjoyed the bonus coverage for this seasons opponents and their respective “key player” in my eyes. As we close up shop on this position group where are you now in your opinion of what we’ll see in 2017? Confident? Hopefully optimistic? Just gonna pray? I don’t know any better than you how things shake out but there is something in the back of my head that keeps telling me another year for McNeil, Christian, Thomas, Bell, and Foy, along with the emergence of Bentley, and the coaching change to Summers….the ship will be righted. Maybe not in Week 1, maybe not in Week 5, but things will improve, and hopefully once things click the Cards are still playing for something pretty big down the road.

Sweet Tweet:

Very excited I don’t have to stress about final exams anymore. Aren’t tests in general the worst? No pressure, but everything you’ve learned in the last six months to a year will be on this sheet of paper and if you don’t regurgitate that information correctly, well, you’re a failure. No pressure though.

There is only one test I can think of that I love, and that’s the “find the hidden song titles” test every single year on The Cardinal Countdown. That’s right folks, once again, the time has come to test your musical knowledge. In the post above are nine, yes NINE song titles from the pop music artist known as Justin Bieber. I’ll give you a good 30 seconds to act as if you “don’t listen to that garbage” before you scroll back up and start taggin’ those songs like you got a ‘Biebs tattoo on your inner thigh. First to post all nine in the comments gets 7370 Chron points added to your account. What can I do with 7370 Chron points, you may ask? The question is what CAN’T you do with 7370 Chron points?

Good luck.

Enjoy the holiday, celebrate you freedom, and stay safe out there kids.