Training Camp Day 1 Notes: Kyron Cumby’s Speed Impressing Lovie
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Even while entering his 40th year of coaching football at some level, Lovie Smith knows one valuable thing still can’t be taught - speed.
So, it should come as no surprise that the Illini head coach goes into this 2020 campaign knowing in his preseason practices who is the fastest sprinter on his football team. That title resides clearly with 5-foot-8, 180-pound wide receiver Kyron Cumby.
Illinois redshirt freshman wide receiver could be a weapon as a slot receiver and a special teams returner in the 2020 season.
Kyron Cumby Twitter (@KyronCumby2)
Smith, without being provoked specifically by a question, was quick to point out his excitement for Cumby’s potential as he approaches his second season on the Illinois roster.
Smith may have tipped his hand a bit in how he’ll intentionally try to get the football in Cumby’s hands when the Illini open the 2020 season at No. 19 Wisconsin on the Oct. 23-24 weekend as the high school sprinter’s speed could be a difference maker to pulling off the program’s first win in Madison since 2002.
“Can’t wait to see what Kyron Cumby can do,” Smith said Monday in a Zoom conference with local and statewide reporters. “When you got the title of fastest person on the team, you want to get them involved in some way to see what they can do. Him catching balls and also returning punts, I’m excited about that.”
Before reaching the four-game maximum threshold for a redshirt last season, Cumby had two punt returns (vs. Akron and at Minnesota) for 11 yards and a pair of receptions (vs. Akron and at Minnesota) as a slot wideout option for 31 yards. While a prep star at Plano (Texas) High School, Cumby acquired a 10.38-second 100-meter dash time and it was his speed that saw him attract scholarship offers from Power Five Conference programs such as Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech and Washington State before verbally committing to Illinois in June 2018. Coming out of high school with as a consensus three-star prospect, Cumby was scouted by most schools and recruiting services as a tailback but after 523 receiving yards on 43 receptions and five receiving touchdowns as a senior in high school, Illinois sold him on being a slot receiver in its new spread offense.
Illinois had six different players, including Cumby, get their hands on a punt in the 2019 season but the leading punt returner (Jordan Holmes) announced he was leaving the program in July. The last time the Illini returned a punt for a touchdown was 2013 when V’Angelo Bentley took a return back 67 yards in a 60-35 loss to Ohio State in Champaign.
Since 2014, Illinois has been in the bottom half of the Big Ten Conference in punt return yardage average.
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Lovie Trying To Avoid Already Witnessed Sloppy Week 1 Play
Illinois head coach Lovie Smith has said he’s tried to encourage his players to watch as much college football on television as possible in the previous Saturdays while the Big Ten Conference was in a pause.
The only conclusion the 62-year-old has following the opening games action he’s seen is sloppy play has dominated his television screen. Without a full spring football practice schedule and a condensed fall camp calendar has resulted in penalties, turnovers and teams needing a full month to get crisp execution on both sides of the ball. Through the first month of the college football season, 10 of the 72 Football Bowl Subdivision teams have a turnover margin of minus-3 or worse. With a conference-only, nine-game in nine-week schedule, Smith knows his team can’t afford to have poor implementation of a game plan when they open at No. 19 Wisconsin on Oct. 23-24.
“We just feel like we’re further along because we’ve had so many practices,” Smith said Monday. “We have gotten a lot of reps to say the least, a lot of good teaching reps. I think one of the biggest threats as a coach is you can’t scrimmage every day and have your team so beat up before you go into the first game.”
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Mississippi Rebels and Florida Gators players kneel before the game Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
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Illini Social Movement Gesture in Week 1?
The captains of this 2020 Illinois football team have yet to determine what and when during pre-game the Illini will show support for the current racial equality movement in this country. The only guarantee is there will be one.
“I’m a team captain so I think my job is to just get a gauge as to what we want to do as a team as a collective effort,” Illinois senior cornerback Nate Hobbs said. “I definitely have ideas but I want to talk that over with my team and let them think on that. I definitely think we need to do something to commemorate Breonna Taylor, David McAtee and George Floyd.”
When asked what he thought was appropriate for his team to do before they kicked off the game on the Oct. 23-24 weekend at Wisconsin, Illini head coach Lovie Smith gave a simple answer.
“To me, what would be appropriate would be is what our (players) would like to do,” Smith said. “We have a program that is about acceptance. Every major thing we do, the team talks about it first so the guys haven’t come to me on exactly what they want to do yet.”