Patriots reserve wide receiver Kelvin Kight has always considered himself to be the underdog. His father, Jerome, coached him in football and basketball from the time he was six years old until he entered high school. Playing with the DeKalb, Ga., Yellow Jackets Pop Warner league, Jerome Kight always had his son “play up,” meaning he was facing bigger, older players.

“My father always put me in a position where I had to work harder than other people to be the best,” Kelvin Kight said recently.

Kight has put that underdog mentality to good use since New England began training camp more than three weeks ago. He is one of 12 wideouts on the roster, and with names like Moss, Stallworth, Welker and Brown in that unit with him, it’s hard to see where the 25-year old journeyman will fit in.

His father may not coach him on the field any longer, but it is at times like these when Jerome Kight provides a different type of counseling.

“He gives me encouragement on those days it feels like it’s getting hard,” Kelvin said. “He’s a big part of my life; it’s a blessing.”

Though he has enjoyed steady advancement with the Pats since being signed at the start of training camp last year, Kight is by no means a lock to be with New England when the regular season gets under way on Sept. 9.

Kight has donned the colors of five teams since graduating from Florida in 2004, where he was a Gators teammate of current teammates Reche Caldwell, Jabar Gaffney and Chad Jackson. In Kight’s senior year, he started all 13 games and had a team-high 39 catches, but his numbers were not substantial enough to get him drafted.

That’s when his travels began. St. Louis signed him as an undrafted rookie, but he was cut just a couple of weeks into training camp. It was then on to Green Bay a month later, where he earned a spot on the practice squad for 10 weeks, only to be cut and brought back two months later.

Kight saw his first game time with the Packers, getting into one contest in 2004. But he wasn’t in their plans for 2005, and had a brief stint with Jacksonville, released on the eve of the ’05 regular season.

No teams came calling for the next four months. At the close of the season, Minnesota signed Kight, but he was cut again during training camp.

And that’s when New England brought the 6-foot, 210-pounder aboard. Kight spent most of the season on the Pats’ practice squad, but was elevated to the 53-man roster before Week 14, when the team traveled to Miami.

Kight played on special teams against the Dolphins, and two weeks later, in Jacksonville, he had two firsts: his first career start and his first career catch, which came on the first offensive play of the game for the Pats. It was a nine-yard gain.

He continued to play on special teams for the remainder of the season, including in New England’s first two playoff games.

With 11 other receivers on the roster, Kight finds himself in an all-too-familiar fight for a job.

“The way I see it, all I can do is go out and compete,” Kight said. “I can’t worry about where I am (on the depth chart) at the end of every day. Wherever the chips fall, they fall.”

smanza@projo.com