Naperville North senior Luke Keough looks forward to hitting hard these days.
That wasn’t the case when Keough was a reserve early last season, his first on varsity.
“I was nervous about tackling,” he said.
But starting at strong safety on Friday, Keough made six tackles and recovered a fumble he forced in the Huskies’ season-opening 40-21 against Homewood-Flossmoor.
“I felt more confident and in the moment,” he said.
The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Keough has become a difference-maker for the Huskies defense.
“I can pay him the highest compliment by just saying he is a heck of a football player,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said.
Keough’s teammates can see that too.
“Luke Keough is a guy you want to go to war with,” senior quarterback Aidan Gray said. “He is the guy who brings that energy to every workout.”
Keough’s turnaround began when he got some time at linebacker last season. Then an opportunity at safety arose. He started the final four games.
“They needed someone to fill a spot,” he said. “I stepped it up during the season.”
The stint at linebacker made Keough into a very effective and efficient tackler.
“I kept going and never looked back,” he said.
Keough’s experience playing another sport known for its physicality can’t be overlooked.
His older brother Sean, who played football at Benet, was the first in their family to take up rugby. He played it on the club level at South Florida.
Luke Keough and his brother Joe, who also played football at Benet and graduated earlier this year, have played together in a club rugby program that draws from Benet, Naperville North and Naperville Central.
Luke Keough plays the fly-half position, which requires being a superb kicker and directing the attack from the back. He also plays the scrum-half, retrieving the ball for the forwards and creating scoring possibilities.
“We play a lot of rugby during the summer, and that has helped out a lot with my tackling and just being very physical with football,” Keough said.
The correlation between the two sports is unmistakable.
“My favorite part about playing safety is just being able to come down and make a big hit on a receiver during a crossing route or breaking up a screen pass before it gets going,” he said.
In the Huskies’ system, Keough is tasked with tracking tight ends, slot receivers or running backs coming out of the backfield. The variety of assignments is his favorite part of the position.
“I love reading the quarterback and being able to see where he is going to throw the ball and be there before he throws it,” Keough said.
“In different coverages, I like to change up my style. When we play cover 3, I like to play very aggressively and help stop the run quickly.”
Junior two-way standout Luke Williams plays in the secondary with Keough.
“Luke is a great person and a wonderful teammate,” Williams said. “Anything you need, he is there for you no matter what.
“On the field, he brings the most energy and is that vocal leader. I am very excited by the things he is going to do this year.”
Whether playing safety or scrum-half, Keough prefers to go for the jugular.
“I want to beat the other team so badly they don’t want to play anymore,” he said. “That is the ideal goal of just having them quit on themselves.”
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.