Keevan Bailey could have done more to escape his father’s shadow.

He could have chosen any of the 21 other schools that were offering him scholarships to play college football.

Bailey still chose Colorado State, 60 miles up the road from where his father Champ Bailey earned a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame after 10 seasons as a star cornerback for the Broncos.

Keevan, though, isn’t fazed by his father’s stardom and won’t let the expectations weigh him down.

“I just brush it off, and I just do me,” he said Thursday after the CSU football team’s first practice in pads under new coach Steve Addazio.

Yet the sophomore cornerback invited more comparisons with his father through the success he had in his first year with the Rams.

Although he didn’t play in the first game of the season, the 5-foot-11, 175-pounder from Conyers, Georgia, quickly worked his way into the playing rotation. He grabed his first college interception in a Sept. 28 game at Utah State, made his first start two weeks later at New Mexico and finished the season with 19 tackles despite missing three games with an injury.

“He’s a very talented kid, has a great skill set, and as the season went on last year, you just saw things starting to click a little bit more,” said cornerbacks coach Anthony Perkins, the lone holdover from Bobo’s on-field coaching staff now working under Addazio. “At the beginning of the season, he was relying mainly just on pure athleticism, and as the season went on last year you just saw things starting to click a little bit more.”

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That progression has continued through the offseason, Perkins said.

Keevan has spent more time studying film to get a better feel for what he needs to improve upon. He has a better understanding of where he fits into the overall scheme of the defense. He’s had time to mature, both physically and mentally.

He’s making the most of every opportunity he has to improve, even while learning new terminology and schematic changes under new defensive coordinator Chuck Heater.

The basics of good defensive play remain the same, Perkins said.

“Great defense is doing your job;” Perkins said, “great defense is getting 11 guys swarming to the football, and great defense is finding ways to hunt the football and create takeaways. If you can play with great fundamentals, great effort and find ways to take the football away, the scheme really comes secondary to all those other things.”

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For CSU's cornerbacks, the changes aren’t really that significant, said junior Rashad Ajayi, a starter during the past two seasons. They’re often put on an island, forced to cover the opponent’s best receivers, one-on-one.

Cornerbacks have to learn to embrace that challenge, he said. To move on to the next play, regardless of what happened on the previous one.

And that’s where the playing experience Keevan gained last season will prove invaluable.

“To have experience on the field my freshman year, it’s a better feeling coming into my sophomore year,” Keevan said. “… Honestly, it wasn’t on my mind that I would be playing a lot (last season). I was thinking I have to work my way up; it’ll take time, because I didn’t even play in the first game.

“Now, I feel a lot more knowledgeable than I did when I first came in the fall.”

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Keevan knows he still has a lot more to learn. Not just to become a better cornerback but also to help his team reach its goal of winning a conference championship.

That’s where his focus is right now, he said. Not on trying to live up to the nearly impossible task of matching his father’s accomplishments on the football field: 908 career tackles, 52 interceptions and 12 Pro Bowl selections in 15 NFL seasons.

Keevan was in Canton, Ohio, last summer for his father’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He’s well aware of the success Champ had playing the same position he has chosen to play.

He shrugs off suggestions that comparisons to his father have made him mentally tough.

He’s just trying to be the best cornerback he can be.

“I think he has a very high ceiling,” Perkins said. “He wants to be really good at this. … It’s just awesome to see his progression, and I’m excited to see how much further he can go.”

Kelly Lyell covers CSU and other local sports and sports-related news for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, follow him on Twitter @KellyLyell and find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. Help support Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a subscription today.