Draft Scout Snapshot: A closer look at the Cardinals' picks: Round 6/177 - Justin Bethel, CB/S, 6-0, 199, Presbyterian...The Cardinals have had success with corners from small schools (Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Greg Toler). Bethel joins a roster full of defensive backs. He blocked nine kicks in college. - The Sports Xchange
Justin Bethel/Presbyterian football Videos
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Analysis
Strengths: Looks the part with good height and length for the position (32½” arms and 9¾” hands). Fluid footwork and smooth backpedal, doing a nice job quickly changing directions. Exceptional vertical leaping ability. Shows very good closing burst, taking decisive angles to the play. Heady player with good awareness and doesn’t get fooled easily. Aggressive but disciplined. Versatile experience at both cornerback and safety as a four-year starter, collecting 280 total tackles. Stand-out on special teams with a school-record 9 blocked kicks. Three career punt returns with two returned for scores.
Weaknesses: Lacks elite top-end speed and doesn’t flash a second gear to routinely recover after false steps. Opens his hips too early in his transition and will allow his pads to rise. Loses balance when he gets too upright in his stance. Unpolished instincts and needs to show better anticipation in coverage to recognize what the offense is doing. Only an average tackler because of his limited strength, more of a hugger. Needs to do a better job using his limbs to be physical at the point and consistently finish in run support. Didn’t encounter elite talent at the FCS-level and will face a learning curve dealing with the speed at the next level.
--Dane Brugler
2011 Season
The Two-time Big South Special Teams and Defensive Player of the Week was a Buck Buchanan Award finalist and a FCS College Football Performance Award DB, National DB and National Defensive Performance Award winner. He became the all-time leader in blocked kicks this season as well as the all-time leader in career solo blocks. Bethel leads the team in tackles with 87, 3.5 of which were for a loss. He has a sack to his credit and has recorded four interceptions, one of which he ran back for a touchdown against California, where he also had a blocked punt that he ran back for a score for the team's only points of the game. Bethel was a Big South Pre-season All-Conference Selection and earned the third All-Conference nod of his career and his and PC's first Defensive Player-of-the-Year award for his performance on the field this past season. Bethel was just the second defensive back to be named Big South Defensive Player of the Year and the first since 2003. Bethel was fourth in the league in tackles, third in passes defended and second in interceptions. He recorded double-digit tackles in four games, including a career-high 15 at Furman this season. Bethel is the PC career leader in tackles, as well as interceptions.
2010 Season
Big South Second-Team Defensive All-Conference... Started 10 games, missing one with an injury ... Recorded a team-best 47 unassisted tackles ... Was in on 59 total stops ... 15th in the Big South in tackles per game with 5.9 ... Finished the year averaging 6.6 tackles per game in league play, which was third most ... Tallied six solo stops at Wake Forest and eight total tackles at Clemson ... Had six tackles and forced a fumble at The Citadel ... Garnered eight tackles and had a quarterback hurry against Coastal Carolina ... Posted six stops and recorded an interception, sealing the win over Gardner-Webb ... Accounted for a season-high 11 tackles against Liberty ... Blocked a kick against Stony Brook, becoming the Big South's career leader in the category ... Totaled five tackles and recovered a fumble in the win over Davidson.
2009 Season
Started all 11 games ... Earned second-team all-conference accolades ... Recorded a team-best 79 tackles, 55 of which were solo ... Recorded 10 stops against Elon ... Totaled four tackles including a sack at The Citadel ... Notched a season-high 13 tackles (11 solo) at Stony Brook ... Posted double figures in tackles against Liberty (11) and at Coastal Carolina (11) ... Had 4.5 tackles for loss on the year ... Forced one fumble ... Blocked three kicks, two of which came against Gardner-Webb ... Also recorded a 26-yard run on a fake punt against the Bulldogs.
2008 Season
Saw action in 12 games ... Totaled 54 tackles on the year, including 37 solo stops ... Had a career-high 10 total tackles at Appalachian State ... Recorded two interceptions ... Returned his first interception for 16 yards, which came against North Greenville ... Amassed four pass breakups ... Blocked two kicks, with the first coming against Western Carolina and the second at Charleston Southern.
High School
Played for Jeremy Saitz and former PC wide receivers coach Jeff Scott at Blythewood H.S. ... Will be reunited with PC Defensive Line Coach Reuben Wright, who was the Defensive Coordinator at Blythewood during the state championship run in 2006 ... Named Blythewood's Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Defensive Player in 2007 ... All-region accolades in 2007.
Personal
Justin Andrew Bethel was born June 17, 1990 in Sumter, S.C. ... Son of Chris and Brenda Bethel ... Has three siblings ... Majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Music.
Draft Scout Player News
09/07/12 - DB Justin Bethel was drafted as a safety but he's practicing at cornerback, too. Bethel has a long way to go as a defender but he should excel on special teams. He blocked three kicks in the preseason.
04/30/12 - A closer look at the Cardinals' picks: Round 6/177 - Justin Bethel, CB/S, 6-0, 199, Presbyterian...The Cardinals have had success with corners from small schools (Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Greg Toler). Bethel joins a roster full of defensive backs. He blocked nine kicks in college. - The Sports Xchange
02/26/12 - Justin Bethel of Presbyterian is the first player from the tiny Clinton, S.C., school to be invited to the Scouting Combine. A 5-11, 196-pound defensive back, he projects to cornerback but has the range to slide to safety. But bet your socks the Blue Hose star -- yes, that's the Presbyterian team name -- will find his way into a role on special teams. He blocked nine kicks in four seasons and said he was just as prolific in high school with his 76 3/4-inch wingspan. "My senior year I had four or five blocks," he said. "I don't know. It's just something I've had a knack … I get a real good start-off coming off the edge, two or three steps I'm jumping. Because of my kind of long body I can get there. So it's just a knack for it. It's something I've been doing." Football has almost always been secondary for Bethel. He was more interested in carving chicken than dissecting Xs and Os. "To tell you the truth, I got a half-scholarship (offer) from Charleston Southern. But I was like, I'll wait," he said. "It was funny, because I wasn't even planning on playing football after high school. I was going to go to Johnson & Wells for culinary arts. Because I had taken culinary classes for the past three years in high school. But I would have had to pay for it. Football was free. Football vs. having to pay for it. I said, I'll take the free." - Jeff Reynolds, The Sports Xchange
02/23/12 - Presbyterian College's football standout Justin Bethel (Blythewood, S.C.), who was invited to the 2012 NFL Combine, will head to Indianapolis this weekend to work out in front of NFL scouts. This year's combine, which started Wednesday, features hundreds of athletes looking to make a name for themselves before the draft. Bethel is part of the day four arrival group that will come in on Saturday, Feb. 25 and train until Tuesday, Feb. 28. During his time, he will run the gamut from medical examinations and physicals, to media interviews, to NFLPA meetings and finally to workouts in front of NFL scouts. Bethel, who played in the 87th East-West Shrine game Saturday, Jan. 21, has been training at the IMG Academy in Florida, while continuing the fulfill his degree requirements to graduate from Presbyterian College. Bethel, who is the first Presbyterian College athlete to be invited to the NFL Combine, racked up several post-season accolades. He was named to the Phil Steele FCS All-America Team, as well as the Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS All-America Team. He was a first-team and second-team selection, respectively. He also earned the College Football Performance FCS Elite Punt Returner Award. Recently he was also named to the College Sports Journal All-America team. - Presbyterian Football
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