CHAPEL HILL – Consistency is the key for junior safety Cam Kelly.
Play great one week, back it up the next. That has been the mission since North Carolina’s returned to campus in January a few weeks after the Orange Bowl, and it remains the mantra given to Kelly by defensive coordinator Jay Bateman.
“The number one thing I talk to Cam Kelly about is consistency,” Bateman said. “There were a couple of games last year where he played at an elite high level, and there were some other games that he, frankly, didn’t.
“So, I try to explain to him, ‘If one week you play great and the next week you make mistakes we can’t survive – it’s really hard to play at safety. Maybe at nose guard, but at safety, that’s gonna be a hard thing for us to swallow.’”
The high-end games?
If you go by Pro Football Focus’ grading, Kelly was at 65.0 or higher four times in wins over Syracuse, NC State, Duke, and Miami, but below 50.0 in victories over Virginia Tech and Western Carolina and a loss at Virginia. Though, to Bateman’s point, Kelly had nine tackles versus the Hokies, including one for a loss of yardage.
But perhaps the grading illustrates the inconsistency from series to series or even snap to snap. Hence, the offseason mandate. And to help satisfy the need for the 6-foot-1, 210-pound native of Chesapeake, VA, to meet Bateman’s standard, he hit the weight room hard in January and continues an impressive regimen that will take him into fall camp in August.
“With Coach (Hess), Coach (Jon) Heck, Coach (A.J.) Blue, Coach Dean (Moege), everybody on our strength and conditioning staff, just really getting after it moving the weight,” Kelly said.
There is more for Kelly to add to what he brings to the field. And really, it begins inside the Kenan Football Center.
“Definitely step up into a leadership role making sure the young guys are getting all the plays and make sure our defense is communicating well and making sure we’re seeing eye-to-eye on everything,” he said. “And making sure we run Jay Bateman’s defense to perfection, because once you do that, there’s not a lot of things that will be open. And if you play fast and physical, nothing’s gonna get by you.”
Given the overall talent and growing experience in the back of Carolina’s defense, less should get by the Heels this coming season. They are competing for playing time, no doubt, but there is a culture within the secondary, something the safeties and cornerbacks share. The “Rude Boyz” are there to hoist each other up with the understanding that the sum of the parts is greater than the individual.
“A bunch of talented guys all that are stepping up,” Kelly said, referring specifically to the safeties. “And we all want to be leaders, so there’s a great vibe in the safety room. Competing with each other (because) we want to be so versatile we can move to any position in the defensive back room and holding each other accountable.”
Kelly arrived at UNC in the summer of 2019 and didn’t learn he could play until a few days before the Tar Heels’ opener versus South Carolina. He started the fifth game of the season, which was versus No. 1 Clemson, but Kelly tore his ACL and missed the rest of the campaign. UNC didn’t have spring practice a year ago so here he is finally playing through a full 12-month cycle as a college football player for the first time, and his growth has been obvious.
Bateman loves his potential, especially now that Kelly has settled into a groove on which he’d previously missed.
“Cam Kelly should be one of our best tacklers,” Bateman said. “He’s big, he’s fast, he’s smart. When he’s played really well, he has been that. When you look at the Virginia Tech game, we didn’t play great on defense, but Cam Kelly was a machine tackling that game.”
And this coming fall, Kelly hopes to be that guy on a regular basis.
