[LeeCoUKFan]

Flannigan will play safety this fall

Justin Rowland
CatsIllustrated.com Football Recruiting Analyst

Just a year from now, Ryan Flannigan expects to compete for a starting linebacker spot in the Southeastern Conference.

But this year at Blinn Community College in Brenham, Texas, he will be playing in the secondary for the first time in his life.

"Right now they've got me at safety," Flannigan said. "I feel I've improved my coverage a lot, especially one-on-ones. I can come down and bump players and play zone better too. It's my first time playing safety.

"It's been a major adjustment. I wasn't really used to getting out on the slot or even sometimes out on receivers. It had just been covering running backs. I feel like it's going to help me in a major way though."

Only time will tell if his improved coverage skills will compensate for what he's missing at linebacker, namely, experience and more body mass which will be essential in the SEC grind.

Flannigan said he currently checks in at 6-foot-1 and 215-pounds, so if he could add 10 to 15 pounds over the next year it would give him a much better chance of actually competing for a starting spot at UK next year.

"Our first game is Saturday," Flannigan said. "We're playing Georgia Military and I think we're going to be pretty strong. We've got a lot of sophomores returning from last year. A lot of us have to step up. We know what we have to do on offense and defense."

Chad Scott and D.J. Eliot are the coaches from the UK staff that he stays in contact with most regularly. They expect Flannigan to finish up at Blinn in December and enroll a semester early in January so he can have that extra preparation time.

All Flannigan is taking right now is a math course.

He said that both he and teammate Shyquawn Pullium will take their official visits to UK in September the weekend of the Florida game.

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1540166