Soft-spoken Sheffield making noise on the field

By Drew Champlin

Published: October 14, 2008

TROY — Cameron Sheffield didn’t have a hard time proving his worth on the football field, but as a freshman he was definitely quiet off it.

“I don’t know about shy,” said Sheffield, now a junior defensive end for Troy. “Well, yeah, shy, but if you didn’t reach out or say anything to me, I probably wasn’t going to talk to you.”

On the field, Sheffield played his way into the rotation his first year. Now, he’s a starter and he’s blossoming into one of the best defensive ends in the Sun Belt Conference.

“Very quiet kid,” first-year defensive ends coach Randy Butler said. “Everybody talked about how well he played last year and I watched him on tape last year, he really played well. He’s a very conscientious kid about doing things the right way.”

Since the season-ending injury to Kenny Mainor in Game 3, Sheffield and Brandon Lang have played just about every snap.

Sheffield earned a starting spot last year, but he leads the Trojans with 3.5 sacks (second in the Sun Belt) and two forced fumbles and is second with 4.5 tackles for loss. He’ll make his 17th career start for the Trojans (3-2, 2-0 Sun Belt) Saturday against Florida International (3-3, 2-0) in a 6 p.m. home game.

His best game might have been in last week’s 30-17 win at Florida Atlantic, where he forced a fumble and had two sacks — one on a botched flea-flicker attempt.

So, the junior is quietly having a breakout year. While he’s starting to dominate on the field, his easygoing demeanor shines off the field.

“I think he’s a baby,” said quarterback Tanner Jones, a suitemate of Sheffield’s during both of their first years. “He plays (sissy) video games and never plays any cool ones. He’s like a big teddy bear.”

Jones said he walked into Sheffield’s room and saw him playing a video game he wasn’t sure about.

“Zelda, or something like that,” Jones said. “I can’t remember. I couldn’t watch it. A real big guy playing a video game like that, I couldn’t watch it.”

Jones let him play Tiger Woods golf, but “he was horrible.” At that point, he decided not to let him play Halo, one of Jones’ favorites.

His video game skills took a hit this summer when he broke his left wrist playing basketball. Sheffield said he went up to block a shot and landed wrong while trying to avoid someone.

He couldn’t lift weights — he’s still 10 or 15 pounds lighter than he needs to be — but it hasn’t slowed him down.

“He wears a soft cast, but he can’t add to his bulk weight up top because he can’t lift,” Butler said. “He’s still running around pretty good, though.”

Still, it wasn’t a good first impression to make on a first-year coach. But it’s Sheffield’s third position coach in three years at Troy.

“When we had the team meeting, I actually didn’t go,” Sheffield said. “They said he was chewing everybody else out because of me. I know he said if anybody else gets hurt doing something outside of playing football, they’ll pay for it.”

Butler, sensing Sheffield’s good intentions, offered better advice.

“I want them to have fun, but shoot from 3-point land,” Butler said. “Don’t get near the basket.”

Sheffield, an accomplished high school basketball player, then announced his retirement from the sport until his football days are over.

Halfway through his junior year, coaches wish they had redshirted Sheffield in 2006 — the year teammates got used to his quiet and soft nature off the field.

“They thought I was going crazy,” Sheffield said. “Somebody started calling me Killer Cam.”

The nickname is still there, but this time for the right reasons.

QB race still ongoing: Junior Levi Brown and sophomore Tanner Jones split reps evenly in practice Tuesday, lengthening the decision coaches have to make.

It could come today, or it might be held until game time, head coach Larry Blakeney said Tuesday. Wide receiver Jerrel Jernigan is also in the equation, but more so as a running option.

“It’s going to be closer to game time,” Blakeney said. “We’re trying to be as open as we can. They’re so close statistically, it’s unbelievable, not only in the spring but now.”

Blakeney and offensive coordinator Neal Brown have been looking over film and stats from practices.

“Neal’s got some good reasoning for what he’s thinking and we want to be sure it proves right,” Blakeney said. “I really believe both will play unless one is pretty hot. It might be a deal where we don’t announce one until game time.”