Devon Kennard: 'A commitment could be coming really soon'

By Ross Lucksinger, Inside Texas Editor
Posted Jan 1, 2009
Copyright © 2010 InsideTexas.com

Devon Kennard (WeAreSC.com/ESPN.com)

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. -- Devon Kennard is ready to start making his decision.

In a few days Kennard will get the last of his in-home visits from coaches, at which point he'll sit down with his family and figure out where he wants to spend the next phase of his life. Inside Texas met with Kennard after Longhorn practice out in Arizona, where the nation's top defensive end was getting more familiar with one of his three finalists.

On the sun-splashed practice fields at Scottsdale Community College on New Year's Day, the Texas Longhorns got a visitor. Phoenix Desert Vista defensive end Devon Kennard, the No. 1-ranked DE in the nation, showed up to Texas practice to watch the Horns.

“To get the opportunity to see a big time school prepare for a bowl game is a good atmosphere to be around,” said Kennard. “They're one of the final schools I'm looking at, so it was a good opportunity to get another glance at where I might be.”

Texas is one of three schools Kennard has narrowed his decision to, along with USC and Cal, and it may not be long before fans of each university find out where the talented DE is headed.

“A commitment could be coming really soon,” Kennard told Inside Texas. “I've been talking to the Texas coaches a lot and (USC) Coach (Pete) Carroll's probably coming to my house on Monday and Coach (Jeff) Tedford from Cal on Tuesday and this thing's really winding down.”

Texas head coach Mack Brown has already visited Kennard's home (for details inside Mack Brown's visit, see the Dec. 12th edition of the Inside Scoop), so after Tedford's visit on Tuesday, Kennard will have completed his official visits to all three schools and received his in-home visit from all three head coaches. And that point, Kennard said he will sit down with his family and make his final decision, meaning we could know very soon where he's going.

A recent report claimed that Kennard was a lock for USC, but Kennard denied that he's already made his choice.

“That's just them saying that. I haven't decided. I still really like Texas. I still really like USC. It's still up in air, I haven't decided yet,” said Kennard.

When he does decide, it'll be the end of a very long and winding recruiting process for Kennard, which is one of the reasons he's ready for it to be over.

“The whole deal's kind of wearing on me. I'm ready to figure out where I'm going to go, but it's a hard situation because it's a hard decision. I have great opportunities at a lot of programs, I've just got to decide what's best,” said Kennard.

At Texas practice on Thursday, Kennard wasn't able to talk at length with any of the Texas coaches because it's officially the “dead period” in recruiting (in fact, Thursday was the last day of the NCAA mandated down time for recruits). During the dead period, college coaches can have no in-person conversations with recruits and are limited to one phone call per week. Coaches are allowed to greet players and exchange basic hellos, but the coaches cannot engage in any active recruiting.

College players, on the other hand, are a different story. Kennard spent the entire practice with Texas sophomore tight end Blaine Irby, who is still sidelined because of the dislocated knee he suffered against Rice.

Irby and Kennard are old friends because of a family connection. Irby's older brother, Brian, coached with Kennard's older brother, Derek, at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix. A friendship formed between the two and they've stayed in contact since Blaine left for Texas.

Irby and Kennard walked around the practice fields together Thursday, watching the Horns go through their Fiesta Bowl preparations. As one would expect, they stuck mostly with the defensive linemen and Kennard was watching one lineman in particular.

Brian Orakpo, who won this year's Lombardi, Hendricks and Nagurski awards, plays the “Buck” position. It's a new role added to the Texas defense this season by coordinator Will Muschamp and the combo DE/LB position is one that Muschamp envisions Kennard playing if he came to Texas.

Along with paying attention to what he was doing in drills, Kennard also spoke with Orakpo for a bit after practice. Kennard told IT that he enjoys any opportunity to speak with the All-American.

“I've been down to Austin twice, so I've had a chance to meet him and get to know him a little bit, and he's doing what I hope to do, so he has a lot of insight that I listen to,” said Kennard.

The position itself is something that Kennard could see himself playing.

“It's a really fun position,” said Kennard. “It puts you in a position to make plays and, obviously, you can be successful at it because Orakpo's doing it right now. I really like it and I feel I'm capable of doing a lot of those things and I feel like the coaches can develop me into a better player so I can fit the position even more. So it's a really good situation.”

USC is recruiting Kennard for a position known to the Trojans as the “Leo”, which has many of the same concepts as Texas' “Buck”.

“It's not exact. (The Trojans) have a different defense so it's a different position, but they have a good amount of similarities,” said Kennard.

As for the Bears, Cal runs a 3-4, so unlike Carroll and Brown, Tedford envisions Kennard as an outside linebacker. But even though he'd be standing up off the line, it's a rush linebacker position, meaning he'd still be rushing the quarterback on a regular basis.

“Same concepts in all three places, but different emphasis on different things and that's what I'll be weaving out in the next week or two,” said Kennard.

Because the final in-home visits are coming next week, Kennard won't be announcing at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, where he's a guest but not playing because he's still rehabbing his knee from an injury that ended his senior season. The only specific he gave was that his commitment could come “very soon.”

“After this week, it's just whenever I feel comfortable, but I am trying to shut (the recruiting process) down,” said Kennard.

[Upate, Jan. 9: Kennard has had to push back his commitment timetable due to an unexpected change of circumstances. See: Inside Scoop -- Jan. 9, 2009 edition]

FOR MORE RECRUITING STORIES, CLICK HERE.

Also see, from Fiesta Bowl practice in Phoenix:

Fiesta Bowl New Year's Day Practice Updates
Offensive Players Discuss Keys to Beating Ohio State Defense
Fiesta Bowl Practice Notes, Day Two
Practice Updates and Notes from Meeting with Mack
More...

From Under Armour Bowl practice in Orlando:

Five Future Horns, One Common Goal
Video: Texas Recruits Learning About Future Teammates
Video: Mason Walters in Orlando
Video: Bling's the Thing for Ashcraft

From U.S. Army Bowl practice in San Antonio:

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