The Cardinal Countdown: 86 Days Until Kickoff

#86 Devante Peete

Class: RS Junior

Ht/Wt: 6-6/204

Position: Wide Reciever

Hometown: Pompano Beach, FL

Twitter: @dp5_MT

Thoughts: This time last year I was really high on the potential of Peete in the 2017 season. He had earned a few solid reps as a true freshman in 2015 (most of us still remember those catches in the Auburn game rocking the ‘Murderbird’ unis) and turned into an animal on special teams in 2016, playing so well in fact he was voted as a team captain for a second straight season heading into 2017. I projected he would be a solid contributor in the wideout group and still offer big play abilities on special teams. His size has always been impressive and the reports out of the spring were that he was working his tail off to be in top physical shape for the upcoming season. Then in late August, just days before the first game of the season, news broke that Peete had suffered a torn ACL and would be out for the year. A crushing blow for Devante and according to an article from the Courier-Journal a crushing blow to the entire team, seeing a captain, who had put in so much work during the offseason go down and miss all of 2017.

The spin zone out of this situation for Peete was that he had yet to burn a redshirt and had the opportunity to sit out 2017, work his way back towards being 100%, and not lose a single game of eligibility. During this past winter after the bowl game wrapped up everything I read seemed to indicate that Peete was progressing as expected. The coaches seemed encouraged with where he was in his recovery and had a positive outlook with him getting back to where he was at prior to the injury. Petrino decided to hold him out of the Spring game back in April, a decision I agree with, but he was in uniform and dancing around on the sideline most of the game not appearing to show any signs of lingering pain. I know being in football shape is a completely different animal, but if you can drop a Bloc Boy ‘Shoot’ or the Roy Purdy (I googled those) in April, I feel okay about him grabbing a tackle or three this season.

As we forecast 2018 I pick up right where I left off one year ago. A hell of a special teams player works his way into more PT at wideout and makes some significant catches this year…in the redzone (I’m talking Petrino endzone fades people, real crazy stuff). We have a very talented group of wide receivers so splitting reps will be a requirement for all of them, including Dez, Seth, Marshall, etc and Peete having a 6-6 frame with good hands and speed is a weapon both Petrino and Puma may look to utilize early. I’ll be cheering hard for the young man to make a full recovery and get a chance to show his teammates why they consistently vote him as a team captain both on and off the field.

Sweet Tweet:

Snakes On a Plane…Jake the Snake Roberts…“Why’d it have to be snakes?”…That snake from the Brittany Spears video…don’t care, Warriors in 4.