Kayden Weeks.
By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MOUNT ULLA — West Rowan defensive tackle Kayden Weeks is a 15-year-old sophomore, but he is already a terrifying force for opposing offenses to deal with.
Like his buddy, 15-year-old running back Devaunh White, you’re going to be hearing about Weeks for a long time. The rest of this season and two more.
“Kayden wrecks drives,” West head coach Louis Kraft said. “He changes game plans. Teams usually don’t try to run the ball between the tackles against us because of him, so he’s impacting the game even when you don’t see it on the stat sheet. There are games when no one comes in his direction, but he’s still averaging 2 TFLs per game.”
TFLs (tackles for loss) are the key stat for an interior defensive lineman, although Weeks is nimble enough to line up at defensive end from time to time. Weeks, who is 6-foot-2 and about 280 pounds, had three TFLs in the win at Carson that may have turned around the Falcons’ season.
“I can play all over the line,” Weeks said. “One of the best games I’ve had was against North Rowan. I had two sacks and one of them came at a critical time and helped us turn the game around after they started strong.”
Usually, Weeks is lined up between the center and a guard, so it’s not hard to double-team him, but it’s difficult to control him.
Kayden’s dad is Stephen Blanton, who was a tough defensive lineman at Salisbury High 25 years ago.
If the Weeks name sounds familiar, he had some famous brothers at West before him. One of them, Kortez Weeks, probably is the greatest receiver in West history and did well in Division I college ball at Elon.
“Kayden has got a lot of good West blood in him,” Kraft said. “He’s got a super mom who is all-in as far as him being a great human being.”
Weeks played on the West jayvees as a freshman, although he was an “eight-quarter” guy who also got some reps with the varsity.
“The talent was obvious last season, but the motor we wanted to see from him wasn’t always there,” Kraft said. “Something kicked in for Kayden last December and January. He made some positive changes, working harder, shaping his body some, getting stronger. He’s been an upbeat kid this season, a pleasure to coach and to be around. He doesn’t have a lot of bad days.”
There isn’t a defensive player in the county that Kraft would trade Weeks for. Weeks has gotten that good, that fast.
The latest challenge for Kraft, Weeks and the Falcons was against South Rowan last Friday.
South is a team whose offense is built around a veteran offensive line and the running game. That’s mostly been power back Nic Woolf, who racked up a pair of 200-yard games early in the season and was the Rowan County rushing leader coming into the game. Woolf is a hard-charging, fearless between-the-tackles runner.
“We did talk about Woolf some before the South game because our guy (White) was second in the county and we wanted to make sure he came out of that game on top,” Weeks said. “South wanted to run the ball. We knew if we could stop the run on first down, we could make them throw it. We could make them do what they didn’t want to do. When you can do that, you’ve got the game.”
Long story short, Woolf was able to plow for South’s only touchdown in a 48-6 loss, but he netted only 8 yards on 10 carries.
“The first play South ran was with Woolf, I made the tackle, set the tone right away,” Weeks said. “As a defense, we played fast and we we played physical. We controlled our gaps.”
Meanwhile, White was barreling for 188 rushing yards. He’s now the county rushing leader by quite a bit.
“Devaunh and I are close friends,” Weeks said. “We work out a lot together.”
West (3-3, 2-1 South Piedmont Conference) isn’t a great team yet, but some important young pieces are in place for the Falcons to be great again.
“We’re getting better in the secondary every week and getting better at defending the edge,” Kraft said. “When Ja’mih Tucker is playing well at the corner, the temperature rises for our whole team. (Safety) Lucas Watts is making plays all over the place. It’s coming together for us. We’ve got a lot of big football games ahead.”
East Rowan is next for the Falcons. That’s another team that really wants to run the football, but Weeks is going to be tough to move out of the way.
