The Cardinal Countdown: 24 Days Until Kickoff

#24 Zykiesis Cannon

Class: Senior

Ht/Wt: 6-0/185

Position: Defensive back

Hometown: Mauldin, SC

Twitter: @CannonSoSwift

Thoughts: I feel like Cannon was one of the unnoticed guys on a very good defense last year. In the countdown I pegged him as a 2^nd team guy who would get some decent reps over the course of the year, but not only did he appear in 12 games, he actually slid into a starting role for 8 of those and was a consistent performer on a very good defense. If I gave you a few guesses about who was in the Top 5 in tackles last year for the Cards I ‘d probably hear Kelsey, JHC, Stacy Thomas, maybe Chucky…but who would throw out Cannon (who actually finished 4^th)? Not many. In a defense that was heavy on recognition because they were playing lots of 3 or 4 year guys, Cannon slid right into an open spot at safety and silently did his job. The recently released depth chart showed Cannon holding onto his starting spot opposite Chucky at safety heading into the fall, but we all know he’ll fight to keep that the next few weeks.

Cannon is a perfect example of a young man coming into the program, waiting for an opportunity, cutting some teeth on special teams and eventually moving into a starting role on what many expect to be another Top 20 defense this season. Good stuff.

Sweet Tweet:

Time sure does fly. At the time of this tweet Bobby Petrino had only been back at Louisville for 21 days and the Cards had not competed in a single ACC athletic event as a member of the conference. Fast forward to today and the Cards have already won a handful of ACC Championships across multiple sports and were co-champs of the Atlantic Division last season in football. It’d be pretty cool for the “first ACC class” to go out with a conference crown...and maybe a little more.