The Cardinal Countdown: 21 Days Until Kickoff

#21 Greedy Vance

Class: Freshman

Ht/Wt: 5-10/155

Position: Defensive Back

Hometown: Kenner, LA

Twitter: @iam_jvxiiii

Thoughts: There is no denying that ‘Greedy’ is in the Top 10 of all-time great Cardinal names. Yes it’s a nickname (real name Jamie) but if I’m recruiting a corner to come play for my program give me the greediest one of the bunch er’y damn day.

Vance was a former Arkansas commit who realized during his recruitment that he had accidentally committed to play football at Arkansas…honest mistake. Coach Brown put an emphasis on Vance and was able to pull in one of the top gets in this class who was hoarding Power 5 offers like it was Lysol back in March. I got to watch a bit of Greedy back when he committed and my concern at that time was his size. I know 5-10 guys can play much bigger than that but 150lb made me a bit nervous. Once again, not sure why I was concerned as Greedy tweeted out a back in mid-July he was already up to 163 since arriving on campus, and this ain’t the “COVID 15” folks are talking about , this is 13 pounds of “I dare ya to come at me off the line” type weight (Shouts out to Sports/Nutrition program).

In the clips below from Vance’s championship season you can see he doesn’t hesitate to mix it up a bit, has good footwork, and great field awareness capitalizing with a couple interceptions, a couple pass break ups, and a fumble recovery just because he was conscious of where the play was happening and remained focused through the whistle. Nice to see this early.

Sweet Tweet:

I’m not trying to start a burger war here but…’Homerun Burgers’ is a bit underrated. I’m going full Tatis Jr every time you give me the choice to partake.

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#21 Aidan Robbins

Class: RS Freshman

Ht/Wt: 6-3/230

Position: Running Back

Hometown: Louisville, KY (Product of Manual High School)

Twitter: @theaidanrobbins

Thoughts: Pulling in Aidan a couple seasons back was big for the Cards because he was not only a nice pickup for the running back room, but a local prospect who came aboard when frankly, not a lot of local prospects were choosing the Cards. Robbins has the ability to fall victim to the ‘Rudy’ treatment but the Cards have a really nice back who I see contributing a fair amount during his career.

Robbins was a Top 10 player in the state of Kentucky during his recruiting process and was sniffing being a Top 50 back in the country. At 6-3/230 Robbins is without question the ‘Big Show’ in the RB room having three inches on the next tallest player and a half foot and 30+lb larger than the presumptive #1 Javian Hawkins. A torn labrum out of high school set him back a bit but Robbins saw some time against EKU last year and I expect he’ll see more action in 2020 either out of the backfield or using all 6-3 230 on special teams. I hinted on his post last year that I was looking for the staff to redshirt Robbins so we could get four full seasons of contribution out of him and I’m glad they did just that.

Right now Hawkins and Hall are the clear 1/2 punch and Maurice Burkley seems to be getting significant reps in the supporting role as well during the fall. If Robbins can’t find a spot this season all signs point to some space freeing up in the backfield in 2021 and beyond. Robbins size and early vocal presence point to him a player who will be competing hard to fill that void.

Sweet Tweet:

I know this is a football post, but sad news announced yesterday that the Kentucky Derby will be run without spectators. Here’s hoping we see the Cards ‘stable’ running around with or without spectators a week later just a few furlongs away. (By the way, my cousins barber knows a guy who cleans the stables on the backside over at Churchill, and he told me the horse coming out of barn 3 always finishes in the money on Derby day. #StoneColdLock)