Antonio Pierce has been texting Khaylan Kearse-Thomas all spring, making sure the redshirt senior linebacker knows how proud of him he is. More than most, ASU’s linebackers coach understands the spot his redshirt senior backer was in.
“I get it,” Pierce said. “I was a younger guy trying to beat out older guys and I was an older guy who got beat out by younger guys at the end of my career.”
Kearse-Thomas’ situation involves the latter. A year ago, heading into his redshirt junior year, it looked like he had a solid chance to start, if not get meaningful snaps every Saturday, at the MIKE linebacker position. Then a proverbial recruiting train stopped in Tempe and dumped off a load of talented freshmen.
After about two weeks of fall camp, it was clear, newcomers Merlin Robertson and Darien Butler were going to be starters -- for a long time. And even when it became clear senior Jay Jay Wilson was going to redshirt, redshirt freshman Tyler Johnson or redshirt junior Malik Lawal hogged the snaps.
It didn’t quite seem that Kearse-Thomas had a role. He took just 197 snaps in the regular season (for context, Robertson took 749,) tallying 20 tackles and only a single sack.
But then came the Las Vegas Bowl against Fresno State. With Robertson a last-minute scratch due to personal matters, the coaching staff slotted Kearse-Thomas to the starting outside linebacker role. He played 63 snaps, more than a quarter of his total to that point.
“I think it was good,” Pierce said. “I think it was more important for him to establish himself as a guy who can contribute and play a more extended role this year, and he’s doing that. But more importantly, Khaylan was a foot soldier.
“I think it’s hard for a guy who was a junior to get beat out by freshman and then basically be in a role-playing situation throughout the season and never really complain about it. And then when given an opportunity, he did well enough in the bowl game to earn an opportunity this spring.”
He headed into the spring with a new-found role, something that could carry him into the spring with momentum. But what about those other older backers who didn’t get that chance, like Wilson and Lawal? They both transferred following the 2018 season.
“I don’t shy away from competition,” Kearse-Thomas remarked. “They had their reasons for why they left and they actually asked me, ‘Are you going to leave?’ and I said, ‘No, I have no reason to. I feel like I’m in a good position.’”
A perfect example where betting on yourself yielded a nice playout.
Behind his off-season transformation -- headed by a strict diet and workout regimen laid out by ASU’s trainers -- Kearse-Thomas kept himself at about the same weight only now with less fat more muscle. Need proof of the change? Just watch him fly around the Sun Devils’ practice field this spring.
“He’s flashing. He’s a guy I saw in high school where you say, ‘OK, he’s a pretty good football player,’ Pierce said. “I’m not going to say you didn’t see that the first two or three years. I didn’t on film, and I didn’t see it last year. But now, it’s like, ‘OK, we have a guy on our hands who is going to be in the mix.”
Kearse-Thomas finally feels comfortable.
The Las Vegas Bowl start finally let coaches get a real full-game look at him playing outside linebacker. It was like high school all over again for the senior. At Etiwanda High School in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., Kearse-Thomas played on the outside in one of the few high school defenses that actually runs a 3-3-5 defensive scheme, the same as ASU.
He noted that he was elated when ASU defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales, a 3-3-5 disciple of San Diego State head coach Rocky Long, was hired in Tempe, picking up on the complex playbook much faster than most.
“I feel like I can see everything and I’m playing really one-way now so it’s pretty nice,” Kearse-Thomas said. “I’m rushing off the edge, I can beat a lot of tackles and just my coverage, I like to cover. I want interceptions.”
Though he hasn’t recorded any picks yet in spring ball, the 6-foot-1, 230-pound outside linebacker finally has assurance. Last week, Pierce proclaimed that the only “penciled-in” starting linebacker is Kearse-Thomas.
“Just everything, he’s a totally different player,” Pierce said. “Night and day from the guy who was here last spring,” Pierce said. “The way he’s been practicing, the way he’s been paying attention to details, his production,”
Added Kearse-Thomas: “It makes me feel good. Coming from last year to now, the progress that I’ve made, it’s just refreshing.”
After four years, he’s finally able to enjoy the fruits of his labor. When his snap count prospects looked bleak and his role was anything but defined, as his position coach, Kearse-Thomas stuck with it and waited for his opportunity.
Asked if Robertson’s absence from the Las Vegas Bowl paved the way for his breakout spring, Kearse-Thomas paused for a second standing in a side hallway at the Arizona Student-Athlete Facility.
“I would say that played a factor in it,” he said. “It gave me exposure at that position coming into the spring. And it just worked out.”
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