Able-bodied: Kameron considers communication key to success

Kameron Able, a fifth-year senior on the Morehead State football team, features a dash of Ronald Reagan and a pinch of Dick Butkus.
 
As was Reagan, Able is a great communicator.
 
Maybe not great enough to have spurred the demolition of the Berlin Wall, but good enough to put up a stout defensive wall.
 
Then there's Butkus, the linebacker formerly of the Chicago Bears. Able doesn't pretend to be NFL Hall of Fame-good, like Butkus, but he's proven to be plenty reliable at his job for MSU.
 
Mix in a few secret ingredients and you have the recipe for a success story.
 
An injury kept 6-foot-2, 228-pound Able out of Morehead's 56-6 romp over Lincoln (Pa.) Saturday, but he is probable for this weekend's game at Drake.
 
Able started the first two games of the season, getting in on a team-leading 19 tackles, including three solos and one tackle for a loss.
 
"Communication is one of the things we focus on throughout the week, and it's definitely the linebacker's job to make sure that you know what everybody's doing in front of you and behind you," Able said. "It kind of came with the role and it's just something that you get use to from playing it through the years. Overall, playing it since I was in third grade has helped me kind of be able to transition each year with the communication with the guys and getting everybody lined up and ready to go."
 
Able has been a Butkus fan nearly as long as he has been playing.
 
"If we're talking idols, Dick Butkus is definitely my idol," Able said. "I've watched him. I actually wrote a speech on him when I was in grade school. He was kind of like who I wanted to be."
 
Kameron is not the first Able to experience collegiate athletic success in the commonwealth. His grandfather, Forest "Frosty" Able, played for Western Kentucky in the 1950s and scored 1,221 career points. He briefly reached the NBA with the old Syracuse Nationals.
 
Kameron Able's path to the MSU starting lineup has been a long one.
 
He came to Morehead out of DeSales High School in Louisville. There, he was credited with 134 tackles, 57 solos, as a senior.
 
Several small-college programs around the state recruited him, but Able picked MSU because "I just liked the feel and the atmosphere, and it just felt like it was the right fit for me."
 
After a redshirt year, his first season of college ball amounted to two games and four tackles. That increased to eight games and nine tackles as a sophomore.
 
Last year, with his playing time increased partly due to an injury suffered by Luke Keller, Able played 11 games and started twice. He finished with 36 tackles.
 
Now, it's his time.
 
Zack Moore, MSU's defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, has not been surprised that Able has thus far succeeded.
 
"Not to say that he hasn't done a good job, but he hasn't exceeded my expectations, because this is exactly what I expected," Moore said. "The thing that I think Kam brings to the table that maybe some people don't is that he's always a guy that -- I think he leads more by example than verbally.
 
"What I'm saying here, talk is cheap. If you can't back it up and if you can't take care of yourself and your assignments on the field, then nobody's really going to listen anyway. So when he speaks, people listen."
 
Able says moving from a reserve role to starter has made little difference in how he prepares for each game. Whether a fourth-stringer or a first-stringer, being mentally prepared and knowing the play calls is a must. In the case of a second-stringer, as the saying goes, you're only a play away from entering the contest.
 
Finally getting to start is "kind of a surreal feeling," he said, "but I just tackle every week the same as I would if I wasn't starting and just go out and work."
 
He says he has room to improve in every facet of the game, but he's most concerned with "playing faster," reading keys and being able to communicate.
 
Moore thinks that's an approach that has only fueled Able's success this season.
 
"Kameron has always been a really hard worker," Moore said. "He's real diligent in his mental preparation and off the field as well. And I think that with whatever physical limitations that he has, that he makes up for that through his knowledge of what we need to do and what the opponent does. And he picks up quickly on things that happen out on the field as well."
 
Able's ability to study and be a quick learner has paid off in the classroom as well.
 
A math education major, he will finish classes in December and student-teach in the spring. Next year, he plans to be teaching high school math.
 
And perhaps latch on as an assistant football coach?
 
"Coaching or refereeing," he said. "I don't know how I want to be involved in football, but I definitely want to be involved in the game after I'm done playing."