The Cardinal Countdown: 22 Days Until Kickoff

#22 Yasir Abdullah

Class: Junior

Ht/Wt: 6-1/235

Position: Linebacker

Hometown: Miramar, FL

Twitter: @AbYasiir

Thoughts: Abdullah has been in the program for awhile and at this point I think the majority of the fanbase is on as the same page as I am when it comes to Yasir. Dude is a stud.

I really like what I saw on the tape from Yasir back in 2018 but even I was a bit surprised that he played in eleven games on defense and special teams his first season, but his work spoke for itself, including a blocked punt that year. A solid offseason positioned Abdullah to get some significant PT in 2019 and he took full advantage in ‘Satterfield’ Season 1: Episodes 1-13, appearing in all of them and getting a leading role (start) eight times. He followed that up again in 2020 with some big time plays and another stack of starts that has many folks looking at him as a big time contributor in 2021.

One of the big issues last year, and a bit the year before, was lack of defensive penetration and the opposing QBs setting up shop in the backfield. Yasir, out of high school, was a threat to always get pressure as he had strength and speed. Last year Yasir lead the team with 3 forced fumbles, lead the team with 39 TFL yards, and was second on the team with 3 sacks. He did some work, but the challenge is those numbers need to go up even more this year as the defense should be much better overall, and trying to fight off seven or eight guys is much different than three or four. While I’ve been a big Abdullah supporter since way back he’ll be the first to agree that he needs to do even more this year as an upperclassman and leader on that side of the ball. Looking forward to seeing the man create some chaos in ’21.

Sweet Tweet:

I always knew he was one of us…..