PROSPECT SUMMARY – KENNY RANDALL

Kenny Randall was originally recruited by Temple expecting to sign there, but was unable to obtain a qualifying SAT score. The mishap resulted in him playing Norfolk Academy (New York) for four months. While there, Charleston was the only school to offer Randall a scholarship at that point in his career.

Ideal Role: Developmental 0- or 1-technique.

Scheme Fit: 3-4 defensive front.

FILM EVALUATION

Written by Jordan Reid

Games watched: West Liberty (2019), Frostburg (2019), Concord (2019), Fairmont State (2019), Valparaiso (2019), Glenville State (2019)

Best Game Studied: Frostburg (2019)

Worst Game Studied: Concord (2019)

First-Step Explosiveness: Randall’s first steps vary. When noticing that it’s a pass, he only sees one way to defeat his matchups and that’s running right through the midline. Possessing high strength levels, he’s often able to attack the chest of blockers and squeeze the pocket on throwers.

Flexibility: Inconsistent with his pad level overall, Randall has moments where he can play high and it results in him getting caught in the wash against the run. When playing with leveled pads and using his athleticism to his advantage, he has the strength necessary to quickly overwhelm and demolish whatever's in front of him. As primarily a 0-technique, he must learn to keep his pads leveled as a run defender.

Hand Counters: Randall has proven to have an effective arm over move. Outside of that, there have been minimal glimpses of working other moves. A large reason is because he has so many quick wins at the point of attack strictly off of his strength. Winning solely on power has delayed his development with moves—which is an area that will need to be developed with him on the next level as his strength levels could often be matched.

Hand Power: Containing well above average strength levels, he’s routinely able to dislodge matchups that are in front of him. As a pass rusher, he’s prone to run directly down the middle of the center. Teams often schemed to keep two blockers on him, but he’s proven to have the ability to penetrate and rip through the attached hips of both blockers.

Run Defending: His current best attribute is the value that he provides as a run defender. Having high levels of comfort as a two-gap defender, he’s able to maintain control of both A gaps. Being able to make plays over both shoulders were seen and he’s sacrificial with his body in order for second-level players to roam free as well as his creating single matchups for his counterparts up front.

Effort/Motor: Randall plays with plenty of energy in many different areas of the game. He has a quick crank to his motor as a run defender. He also contains range in his game. Making plays outside of the A gaps were seen as he hustles in pursuit to the ball in order to reappear in plays.

Football IQ: Showing awareness as a pass rusher, he’s aware to not overrun throwers. After generating penetration, he peels off and makes tackles. Proven to have a commanding presence as a run defender, depending on the gap that rushers attack, Randall often sticks his arm out and is able to quickly slow down their forward progress.

Lateral Mobility: He's a bit of a short stepper, but Randall has moments where he keeps his shoulders square and runs flat down the line in order to make tackles. Keeping his shoulders parallel to the line of scrimmage could serve to improve more consistently as he seeks to get up the field so quickly that he can catch himself in no man’s land leaving a void in the middle.

Core/Functional Strength: Arguably the strongest part of his game, Randall has a well above average anchor in the middle. They have been sporadic, but there have been moments of him locking out, keeping his sightline clean over both shoulders, and then shedding from blockers. Those types of plays will need to become more consistent, especially as a 0-technique where he will be tasked with occupying multiple interior gaps on a down-to-down basis.

Versatility: Throughout his career, Randall has spent a majority of it as a 0-technique. Even in subpackages, there hasn’t been much experimentation with his overall position. Because of his explosiveness, he could prove to shift over to a 3-technique in creative four-man fronts, but that hasn’t been seen much on his tape.