From Goose Creek to the NFL Draft: Javon Kinlaw matures and becomes a star
Both coaches had the same revelation the first time they laid eyes on Javon Kinlaw.
Chuck Reedy had only heard about him, a transfer from the Washington, D.C., area. Steve Buckley had recruited him, trying to get the lineman from South Carolina to junior college in a state he’d never been, Mississippi. Each man described Kinlaw getting out of a car. One recalled eyes going wide, the full scale of the young man, a 6-foot-5, 260-pound 15-year-old, coming into view, perhaps drawing an impolite word to underscore the shock.
“I remember looking at my defensive line coach. I said, ‘Son of a ...,’ ” Reedy said. “If you want to draw up a football player, it was him.”
On Thursday night, Kinlaw will in all likelihood become a first-round NFL Draft pick. The product of three years at the University of South Carolina, one year at Jones County Junior College and three at Goose Creek High School will probably ascend in his profession and become the highest picked Gamecock since Jadeveon Clowney in 2014.
Buckley and Reedy are both pleased and proud to see where Kinlaw is. But each coach knows what it took. Few have the gifts he does, but many are undone by why could’ve held him back: himself.
“In the beginning, I really questioned if he could make it,” Buckley said.
Kinlaw shared details of his upbringing through much of the pre-draft process. He and his family dealt with homelessness in the Washington area after his mother brought him and his brothers to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago.
Reedy remembered hearing about Kinlaw’s upbringing when the hulking sophomore was first with the team. Kinlaw had to take the train to school. Sometimes he didn’t have the money, or just rode all day because it was warm.
And keeping his focus was still a challenge.
“I would dare say I had him in my office an average of one time a week,” Reedy said, “just talking to him about what he could do. Telling him that he could be exactly what he is now. He didn’t understand that when he was in the 10th and 11th grade. It didn’t register with him.”
It’s not that he was in any particular trouble, but the seriousness about school wasn’t there, at times his approach to football, too.
‘At the beginning, Javon did not like school’
Reedy said there were moments, but only maybe one out of every 10 plays. For the most part, Kinlaw leveraged his size and power, did what that allowed, but didn’t tap into that extra gear. One play that stood out came in Kinlaw’s sophomore season, when he raced across the field on a run away from his side and chased down the ball-carrier on the far sideline.
Two seasons after Kinlaw arrived, Reedy retired, and at that time the coach had his doubts if Kinlaw could reach his potential, simply because the motivation — in the classroom and on the field — wasn’t fully there.
Much of that task fell to Buckley and his staff, and early on it was far from easy.
“We had a lot of hard conversations,” Buckley said. “At the beginning, Javon did not like school. Didn’t want to go to class.”
Kinlaw took an unusual route even getting to Ellisville, Mississippi, because, as Buckley explained it, he didn’t actually finish high school. Kinlaw instead took the GED and arrived in junior college in the spring to get a jump on a three-semester program.
In telling his own story at the Senior Bowl, Kinlaw described not eating for the first few days at junior college until he learned he could eat for free. (This ended with him departing Jones particularly overweight at near 340 pounds.)
He also became very familiar with Carla Collins.
The academic director for the team, she’d spent time at Southern Mississippi and Miami. She had to get him on board in a spot he wasn’t inclined to.
“Sometimes she had to be like a coach and show tough love,” Buckley said. “Her and Javon bucked heads many a day, but once he reached the plateau of trust, the game changed.”
It wasn’t easy or quick. Buckley said that push and pull carried through into the start of the season, as did questions of his position.
The coach saw not necessarily the future pro, but a long, gawky kid in need of development. He even called Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp to ask about potentially making Kinlaw an offensive tackle (with the ultimate plan of playing him wherever he had the best long-term future).
“He was not a good player for us the first two to three games,” Buckley said. “About the time that the academics clicked and he began to truly trust us and trust the process, his football ability began to shine also.”
In that time, the coach remembered Kinlaw drawn to the simplicity of life in Mississippi. He grew close to a family who worked in the school’s administration, Jennifer Griffith and her husband, Greg. On their farm, Kinlaw spent time with their sons, learning to hunt and fish.
When Kinlaw left Mississippi, Buckley felt confident those questions of motivation on the academic side were a thing of the past. His player had found that focus and drive.
But it fully crystallized two years later.
New journey starts with NFL Draft
Kinlaw was considered a strong candidate to depart after his junior season for the NFL. He had perhaps not been as excellent as some hoped that year (Buckley said he’d been only “average” because of a hip issue), but with his frame and ability, many players in Kinlaw’s spot would have taken the jump.
But two semesters from the degree he earned this past December, Kinlaw said he wanted to stay and finish that.
It didn’t hurt that Kinlaw returned to campus healthy and finally applying that full vim and vigor his coaches had hoped to see on every down.
“He was chasing the ball,” said Reedy, who coached college ball for nearly two decades. “He was making a difference on every play.”
When Kinlaw made that choice, he was already closing in on fatherhood. His daughter, Eden Amara, was born in the spring of 2019. Already a homebody, he spoke about how that focused his life even more, even as he had to balanced school and football in Columbia and spending time with Eden and her mother in Johnsonville, South Carolina, nearly two hours away.
“I just think it gave him a sense of urgency,” Buckley said, “that there’s more to life than just him.”
With the draft on Thursday night, he’ll be in a good position to provide for her for a long time.
The Javon Kinlaw who gets taken Thursday night will bring with him parts of every place he has been. He still returns to Mississippi on occasion. He has been shaped by that place, along with Columbia, the nation’s capital and his home country. And even as his career takes off in the way his coaches had hoped but at times doubted would happen, he’s not far removed from the journey, tribulations, folks and lessons that got him there.
“Javon is a cat who is never going to forget where he’s been,” Buckley said. “Whether it was in Washington, D.C., whether it was in Charleston, whether it was in Ellisville, he’s never going to forget the people that helped influence his life, and I believe that.”
When is the 2020 NFL Draft?
How and when to watch on ABC, NFL Network and various ESPN channels
Round 1: Thursday, April 23, 8 pm Eastern
Rounds 2-3: Friday, April 24, 7 pm Eastern
Rounds 4-7: Saturday, April 25, Noon Eastern
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 9:22 AM with the headline "From Goose Creek to the NFL Draft: Javon Kinlaw matures and becomes a star."
