The Cardinal Countdown: 40 Days Until Kickoff

#40 Kaheem Roach

Class: RS Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 6-1/198

Position: Defensive Back

Hometown: Miramar, FL

Twitter: @_IVKaheemR

Thoughts: Kaheem was a nice addition to the secondary back in 2016, a group we knew would be thinning out some over the next couple seasons and was looking for some new blood to emerge. Roach took a redshirt out of high school but actually saw some time in seven games last season. I thought I remember taking some notes last year that “Hit stick” Roach was getting some special teams reps but in going back and looking through some of the tape I couldn’t locate him (100 Chron points to the first screenshot of Roach playing special teams in the comments).

Roach spurned LSU, Auburn, Central Florida, and others to join the Cardinal Caravan and I think this new Coach Brown scheme will benefit his aggressive playing style and allow him to flash some speed (former track athlete as well) on that side of the ball. While one would assume Roach would fit the more traditional free safety role I’m not sure yet how Brown will utilize him based upon positions of need and where he might have the best opportunity to see the field. The early depth chart has him slotted at strong safety but that is all very preliminary. It’s hard to pull away any useful information on that side of the ball the last two seasons so my new approach is to clear out some 80’s song lyrics from my head (temporarily of course) and ask myself if Coach Brown and Coach Satterfield would recruit this player today to come play in their system. The answer for me on Roach is absolutely, for a lot of the reasons that I mentioned above. The staff still has three seasons of eligibility to get Roach in the right spot and consistently contributing. Losing at least three players from that secondary next year will open some doors, now is the time to take advantage.

Sweet Tweet:

I’m okay with this….except when Louisville is sitting on like a ‘city cancelling’ 7” snow, and momma needs some ice cream, and you merge on the interstate at the perfect time right behind that big beautiful plow. Yeah, I’m cool with being a follower then.