The Cardinal Countdown: 30 Days Until Kickoff

#30 Khane Pass

Class: RS Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 6-1/207

Position: Safety/Linebacker

Hometown: Columbus, GA

Twitter: @pass_khane

Thoughts: After taking a redshirt in 2015 I fully expected Pass to get a few reps here and there in the secondary last season, and about 8 or 9 games into the year it was playing out in that exact fashion. Pass was getting some special teams run and a few reps here and there at safety…and then everybody and their uncle started getting hurt. Khane was the “next man up” in that scenario and played significant time in the UK game and actually got the start against LSU. Khane had some struggles, as any freshman would, but I thought he performed fairly well under the circumstances. He grabbed 5 tackles against Kentucky and had another 5 against LSU in the bowl, of course, your safety getting lots of tackles isn’t always great news, and the results of those two games seemed to align with the fact that the secondary was getting lots of attention from both teams.

Fast forward to the Spring and over the summer and it appeared Khane may shift around some in the new Sirmon defense. Although that rumor was out there I was still a bit surprised to see Pass listed as the #1 OLB when Petrino unveiled the first depth chart prior to ACC media days. I think Pass certainly has the size and ability to excel in the linebacker spot but I didn’t anticipate him getting the start having played there very little. We’ll see how things play out over the next few weeks but if Khane earns that spot over Avery and Thomas (who are also very inexperienced), I’m comfortable with him getting time in that position, knowing full well we will likely see all three in that spot in the first few games. I was pumping up Khane some last year because I felt as if some of the fanbase thought he was a nice “and 1” that we grabbed to help land his brother Puma two season ago. That wasn’t true then and I think after a few games this year you’ll see that certainly isn’t true now. I’m excited to see how Khane develops in this new role and if he can turn into a solid piece of the defense transistioning into an upperclassman the next couple years.

Sweet Tweet:

Idle hands are the devils playground. Don’t get caught up in wasting your summer on silly stuff. I recommend going back and re-reading the entire countdown for this year. Already done that? Go back and read last years, and then shoot me a comment or tweet about how wrong I was on things. I take criticism extremely well.

#30 Jay Banks

Class: Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 6-2/206

Position: Wide Reciver

Hometown: Olive Branch, MS

Twitter: N/A

Thoughts: As recently as a couple months ago Banks was a student at Pearl River Community College, playing wideout for the Wildcats in 2016. After getting some initial interest from the Cards as a Senior in High School Banks spent a year in Poplarville, MS at the JUCO level. That one year appeared to be enough for Coach Petrino as he reached out to Banks and offered him a preferred walk-on position for the upcoming season. With the Cards depth at wideout you’d expect Banks to a practice player in 2017, but the good news is Banks is a “4 to play 3” guy, meaning he has four years left to complete his three remaining seasons of eligibility. If Petrino sees something in Banks he could actually throw a redshirt on him and still have three seasons left to utilize the tall and speedy receiver.

Good luck to Banks this year and moving forward, welcome to the squad, and welcome to The Ville.

Sweet Tweet: No twitter for Jay so let this video of fellow wideout and “extremely energetic” Emonee Spence creep into your memory…Banks. Get it. “Banks” Shut up.