Versatile Cheek looking to make impact

KAPLAN — Landon Cheek showed great versatility on defense in 2021, earning an honorable mention to the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Class 3A All-State football team in 2021 after an outstanding junior campaign.
His coaches are counting upon Cheek, a free safety and three-year starter for Kaplan High School to continue to play a leading role in the Pirates’ defense this season.
“He led the team in tackles (with 83 stops),” Kaplan coach Cory Brodie said. “We’re really going to rely on him a lot this year to be back in the secondary and make a lot of calls for our younger guys that are going to be starting for us.”
The defensive backfield outside of Cheek is largely made up of juniors. Brodie said that six to eight of the players up front on defense are sophomores.
Cheek said he doesn’t expect to have to correct what some of the younger players are doing too often.
“All the guys, they pay attention,” he said. “They listen, so they make my job easy.”
Cheek, who also plays some slot receiver, showed he could play against the run or the pass last season, Brodie said.
“He was just a guy that flew all over the field (last year),” the coach said. “He made some stops in the backfield from free safety on runs, which is pretty impressive. We could move him around, blitz him a little bit, drop him in coverage, so he was a Tyrann Mathieu-type player, maybe not at the same level, where we could roll him down in the box, play him high. It was just a nice utility to have.”
Cheek said he enjoys making plays in the backfield.
“I’m a smaller guy, so a lot of people don’t think that I can really hit, but I surprised them maybe now and then when I hit them pretty good. Tackling is my favorite thing to do.
“I love getting in the backfield, especially on a blitz straight off the line when they aren’t really expecting it.”
Brodie said he plans to use Cheek similarly this year, possibly moving him into the box against strong running teams.
“He’s one of our better tacklers,” Brodie said. “We’re going to rely a lot on him as the quarterback of our defense. I think he’ll be able to step up and do what he did last year.”
Cheek said the key to his success last season was preparation.
“The key was just studying, watching a lot of film on the other teams, looking at their tendencies, what they like to do a lot, whether it be run or passing,” Cheek said. “Just giving it my all in practice. The scout team giving us good looks (at the opposing offenses) last year was a big key.”
The coach said the Pirates would play more two-high safeties this year, with two safeties deep.
“Team goal is definitely to not allow more touchdowns (to be scored), especially on deep balls or long plays,” Cheek said. “We had good runs on defense, but we would have just one bad play, and then we’d just fall apart.”
Cheek said he’d like the Pirates to get deeper into the playoffs. He’d also like to improve his stats from last year with a few more tackles and more than the three interceptions he made.
“I expect that we’ll be good,” Cheek said. “We have a couple of sophomores this year that playe