Aden Kelley is Too Good to Be True, Tremendous Talent and Excellent Teammate

Oklahoma State defensive tackle pledge Aden Kelley is a smart young man that loves football, loves his teammates, loves his coach, and making friends and family proud.

THOMAS -- Traveling to Thomas, Okla. is a trip back in time, at least from a football standpoint. Roff Field is getting a makeover as they have added a new artificial turf playing surface and are building a new home side to the stadium with twice as many seats and a new larger press box. That is the new, but the old is the Terriers have won a lot of games, 62 over the past seven seasons under 52-year-old head coach Bob Ward. Ward is a throwback coach that loves his players, but dishes out the tough love when needed. You'd better show up everyday at Thomas wearing your "big boy" pants. Speaking of big boy, Oklahoma State commitment Aden Kelley is plenty big as the 6-3, 290-pound two-way tackle is also a throwback. 

Coach Ward is careful not to have Kelley going full speed against his own teammates too much. In fact, during team defense portions of the Thomas practices, the scout offense does what most opponents do in games, they run away from Kelley. 

When Kelley is on the field, and he plays both ways and also snaps on field goals and extra points, he goes full speed. That includes picking up his teammates after putting them on their backsides and then telling them he loves them and is just trying to help them get better. 

"Yes sir, I love being around the guys. I've got a lot of good friends and I've been around for a lot of years," explained Kelley. "I moved here in the fifth grade and all of them were nothing but welcoming. I try to be that, to the new freshmen, just be a leader, try to be that way to everybody, and be a leader."

For Ward, having a player like Kelley is great. A player with elite talent that wants to fo everything he can to not only improve, but to help others get better and have a great attitude.

"There's no doubt that being able to play a little bit is, no doubt, the high point on that list," said Ward. "You know every (college) coach we talk to talks about how articulate he is, how polite he is, and how much of a man that he is on the phone. That is a credit to him and to his family."

The record is special and Kelley; who picked the Cowboys over TCU at the end and offers from Illinois, Iowa State, Kansas, Memphis, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, SMU, and Syracuse as well as 10 others; wants to leave with a championship. Ward talks a lot to his team about the desire they should have to become memorable like the 2014 Thomas team that went 15-0. Kelley wants that for himself and his classmates.  

"It's special, we have a lot of potential here, a lot of potential," Kelley says getting almost as wound up as his head coach. "We have stuff that we have to work on, a little stuff here, a little stuff there. Tons of potential and we're a very unique class that has a lot of talent and we love the game and love the sport."

Throwback, no other way to describe him. He's a good student that loves agriculture and will like major in something like Ag Econ or Ag Business. Someday he'll be ranching and farming. You can tell that is in his blood, but so is taking the man in front of him and physically whipping him and then making plays. He is country strong from top to bottom and mentally strong as well. You cannot help but get excited about the possibilities he has as a football player and a person. He doesn't care about statistics, but Kelley had an amazing 71 tackles last season playing upfront and spent enough time in the face of opposing quarterbacks that they usually knew the pregame meal menu at Thomas. 

When he gets to Stillwater and OSU, I predict it will not take long for him to get up to speed for defensive line coaches Joe Bob Clements and Greg Richmond. Kelley told me he is glad to know where he is going, so he can focus this fall on where he is.

"It was great, it was great," Kelley said of the recruiting process and making his commitment to Oklahoma State."It was a stress relief because the recruiting process was really overwhelming at times. It's a blessing to be in the position that I am. I am so excited and so ecstatic to get up to Oklahoma State and get some work in. First things first, we have some work to get done here first." 

I'm pretty confident that the work will get done this fall in Thomas then Oklahoma State fans can look forward to Kelley bringing his "old school" attitude to college.