Senior Kam Chancellor breaks up a pass in the Orange Bowl against Cincinnati. Chancellor replaces Victor Harris as Tech senior leader.
His presence, lurking in the secondary, could be pivotal for the Hokies defense in 2009.
That’s because for three years, Chancellor moved from one position to another, learning formation-by-formation, play-by-play, a new role — every single year.
This year, he remains at free safety for the second year in a row and is ready to go.
When Chancellor came to Tech in 2006, just a few days into his first practices, he made the transition from quarterback to cornerback, from offense to defense.
After playing most of his true freshman year on special teams and making an appearance in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in place of an injured Brandon Flowers at cornerback, Chancellor moved to the rover position in 2007.
There, he racked up 79 tackles, starting in all 14 of the Hokies’ games and looked comfortable in his new position.
Last year, however, the Hokies were forced to move Kam once more — to the free safety position, to fill the void left by former All-ACC second team honorable mention safety D.J. Parker.
In 2008, Chancellor ranked sixth on the team in tackles with 52 and hauled in two interceptions, doubling his career total. He struggled with the new role at first but settled in by the end of the year.
This year, he’s back in the same position and just happy to be comfortable.
“It feels good being back in transition playing free,” he said. “It feels great because now I don’t have to learn a new position and I don’t have to go back and study extra, extra more, I mean. I have to just go study being better at free safety, being better at technique and learning the offensive schemes.”
That extra time to study will be crucial for a player that head coach Frank Beamer, defensive coordinator Bud Foster and the entire Hokies team will be relying on in the defensive backfield this year.
“Kam Chancellor’s an outstanding football player,” Foster said.
Foster said that his staff was “trying to get (Chancellor) to the ball, maybe in some blitzes and things of that nature,” this year.
Foster honored Chancellor this summer with the team’s lunch pail, a symbol of the team’s work ethic passed down through the years by the hardest working Hokie hands.
“Now, I don’t have to focus much on me anymore,” Chancellor said. “I can focus on the team, just being a team player and getting the team together. Just leading by example and leading our defense down the right road.”
Earning his leadership role, as a Hokie, took years of hard work on the football field but also required work off the field as well.
Chancellor explained that an internship he held over the summer at Lakewood Parks & Recreation in Norfolk, Va. helped him become the vocal leader the Hokies needed.
Over the summer, Chancellor said he “watched a lot of film on Alabama, especially.”
“I did a lot of footwork drills and I ran a lot,” he said. “And this internship I had, I had to talk to a lot of people, so trying to be more of a vocal leader and learn how to talk to people.”
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