It can often be hard, and dumb, to try taking big things away from a spring football game, but Kris Moncrief's performance Thursday night showed the linebacker has taken a nice step forward since last fall.
In second season in 2019, Moncrief recorded 40 tackles and 5.5 sacks playing the Jack linebacker position, an outside linebacker-defense end hybrid position. The Cajuns moved him to inside linebacker last season, but without a full off-season to learn his new role, Moncrief was disappointed in his production. His 25 tackles were a career low.
"I didn't have a year up to par, to where I could tell my teammates that I held up my part of the defense," he said Thursday.
Thursday the junior grabbed the attention early, intercepting Levi Lewis on an pass to the end zone. He finished the night with the pick, four tackles, and two tackles for a loss. Coach Billy Napier said the full spring routine has really paid dividends.
"Last year he missed out on this opportunity," Napier said. "We moved him to inside linebacker and the pandemic hit. He missed out on that opportunity, all those reps, all those walk-throughs, all those meetings last spring kind of set him back. But this spring he's taken off."
"Coach (Galen) Scott helped me realize it's a jump and you just have to do you, learn what you do," said Moncrief. "Coach Scott helped me a lot and I thank him for that."
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