Football: Kelley adjusts to new role on Cajun defense

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • August 19, 2009

This past summer gave Lance Kelley an opportunity to get comfortable, both on and off the field.

After being a multi-position athlete at St. Thomas More, Kelley played wide receiver when he came to UL. He sat out as a redshirt in 2007 and was expected to be a major contributor last season but suffered a broken left fibula and tore ligaments in his ankle in Week 2 at Illinois.

The injury knocked out Kelley, who caught two passes for five yards in the first two games, for the rest of the season. After undergoing surgery in the offseason, the sophomore moved to strong safety for spring drills.

Kelley admits that it was tough at first making the change over to defense. His comfort level, though, has improved so far through two weeks of fall practice.

"It’s not near as bad as it was in the spring," Kelley said. "Over the summer I kept my head in the playbook and worked on route recognition. Getting my ankle healed up helped a lot, too. I can make a lot better breaks on the ball and react better now."

Kelley is currently working behind projected starter Chris Richard, a sophomore, at strong safety. Kelley played some defense in high school, helping in pass coverage late in games at STM.

UL defensive coordinator Kevin Fouquier has been pleased with Kelley’s progress on defense. His aggressiveness and toughness fit the bill for a defensive player.

"Lance was about 85 percent (health-wise) in the spring, and the bullets were flying a little bit," Fouquier said.

"But now he’s doing really good. He’s having a really good camp for us."

For now, Kelley says his injured leg and ankle are "right around 100 percent" at the halfway point of camp, but that he’s a "little tight" after practice.

There’s also a chance that Kelley could be a factor on special teams.

He was doing kickoffs at one point last week, competing with two kickers — redshirt freshman Brett Baer and junior Tyler Albrecht.

"I feel like I can kick it pretty far," said Kelley, who punted in high school. "I need to work on my consistency, but I feel like I can kick for us if I work at it, at least as a back-up to have on the road."

Learning day

After thunderstorms pounded the area, the Cajuns practiced in full pads Tuesday in the Leon Moncla Indoor Practice Facility.

They spent a portion of the workout installing their red zone package as the offense looked strong in middle drill, pass skeleton and team periods.

"I didn’t think that they executed earlier in the day on some things," UL head coach Rickey Bustle said.

"I thought that the offense executed really well in the red zone."

UL will install its goal line and short yardage packages today, Bustle said.

Odds and Ends

Linebacker Antwyne Zanders left on a cart in the final minutes of Tuesday’s afternoon workout. The senior led the team in tackles two years ago and was a second team all-Sun Belt Conference selection. He tied for the team lead in stops last year and was an honorable mention all-league pick. "I don’t know what happened," Bustle said. "Knowing him, it’s probably something to do with the heat" "» Former UL wide receiver Jason Chery made his pro debut on Monday night with the Carolina Panthers and scored on a 31-yard pass play from quarterback Hunter Cantwell in the final minute of a 24-17 loss to the New York Giants. Chery led the team with 35 receiving yards on two catches.