Kyle Kennard Just Won The Bronko Nagurski (Nation’s Best Defensive Player)

Spalding Jacket

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Not going to lie, I am shocked. His time at GT I only remember a 4 sack game against an FCS school and his fumble recovery against Miami. Otherwise quiet, he reminded me of Keshun Freeman. Played his responsibility right, but just lacking athleticism to capitalize. Happy for him, but same time sad that he couldn’t stay and help us that way.
 

Tundeballer

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Happy for him. Sad that it never came together at Tech. From what I saw of him this year, it’s a guy who was a 5th year senior on a really good defense with a bunch of dudes and he made the most of opponents having obvious passing downs. Don’t think he significantly got better. Had less tackles this year than the last couple of seasons with us. He’s not a first rounder on any of the mock drafts I’m seeing with guys who have half his sack totals getting projected higher.
 
kg01

kg01

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:unsure:

This must be a typo. I distinctly remember arguing with a guy on the site who said all Kennard did while he was here was make 2 plays against Wake Forest. Said Kennard was basically trash and he was glad he was gone.

Live look at that guy ...

Cant Speak Nathan Fillion GIF
 
stinger78

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Kennard showed flashes of this performance at GT but never put together a full season of it. Don’t know if it was the coaching at USCe, his light just clicked on, or a maturity developed to max out every down that opened this door. Congrats, Kyle!
 
4shotB

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Richland County said:
He is the perfect example of money motivating him to big #'s. There coaching is that much better? I don't think so btw.
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maybe he is just another example of a guy who worked his butt off and was miles better his last year than he was in the first few. training, conditiong, experience and maturity matter. there is a world of difference between a 22/23 yo and an 18/19 yo. Charlie Thomas and Adam Gotsis come to mind as examples.
 
GTBillyJosh

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Congrats to Kyle! Really happy for him.

We could really use a strong edge rusher like him again. Romello Height has been pretty good this year, maybe he'll turn it up in his final season like Kyle. We'll need it - we're losing 6 Senior DL this year to graduation (6 of the 8 in DL rotation), some big shoes to fill on the DL.
 

MWBATL

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Some guys are much better because their teammates on defense make them look better. I think Kyle drew double teams at GT while at South Carolina he may have been able to perform against more 1 on 1 blocking. (NB-this is speculation on my part, but can help explain why a player might excel in a different situation beyond even their own personal development)
 

Richland County

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4shotB said:
maybe he is just another example of a guy who worked his butt off and was miles better his last year than he was in the first few. training, conditiong, experience and maturity matter. there is a world of difference between a 22/23 yo and an 18/19 yo. Charlie Thomas and Adam Gotsis come to mind as examples.
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ok
 
Jerry the Jacket

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Good for him. He was average to good while at Tech. I think he just finally matured and figured some things out when he got to Carolina. He did get Tech a lot of mentions on TV during Gamecock broadcast. You know their defensive captain and player of the year is another former Tech player, Demetrious Knight. I understand Beamer will be sending Key a thank you check.

Go Jackets!
 
Techster

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Kyle Kennard was more than just a few good games at GT. He put a LOT of pressure on that backfield his last season here. He may not have made a bunch of sacks or TFLs while here, but if you paid attention, he was always in the backfield making the QB or RB nervous.

He went off to the SEC, had more help on the DL, and put together a phenomenal season. That's called maturity and development. IMO, GT got robbed of the final product when he left. GT helped him mature and develop, and USCminor got the final product. Had he stayed, with our rotation of DTs and Sylvain back, he would have probably had the impact he did at USCminor at GT.

I keep saying GT has become an incubator of DLs for other schools. Unfortunately, Kennard is an example of that.
 
4shotB

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I just saw that KK had 11.5 sacks for SoCar!!! According to a formula I found on the joint SEC/ESPN website that is the equivalent of 20 sacks in the B10, 65 sacks in the ACC and 86.4264 sacks in the B12. For any other teams I got an error message on my calculator.
 
4shotB

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Techster said:
Kyle Kennard was more than just a few good games at GT. He put a LOT of pressure on that backfield his last season here. He may not have made a bunch of sacks or TFLs while here, but if you paid attention, he was always in the backfield making the QB or RB nervous.

He went off to the SEC, had more help on the DL, and put together a phenomenal season. That's called maturity and development. IMO, GT got robbed of the final product when he left. GT helped him mature and develop, and USCminor got the final product. Had he stayed, with our rotation of DTs and Sylvain back, he would have probably had the impact he did at USCminor at GT.

I keep saying GT has become an incubator of DLs for other schools. Unfortunately, Kennard is an example of that.
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I hope the fact that we have good coaching now plus a top down commitment to be good at this game that we can slow down the exodus.
 
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