SIAA Freak of the Week: Corey Kiner
Freak is a term thrown around too much in the sports world but sometimes it's the first phrase that crowds the cranium when a gaudy athletic feat takes place.
What about an entire game's worth of head-turning and gasp?
SI All-American is introducing our salute to these dominant high school football players in a weekly feature, of course titled Freak of the Week.
High school football is underway in several states and the wild, almost Fantasy sports-type statistical performances are piling in. FOTW candidates can be dominant in the trenches or beyond the numbers, but it was the Friday performance of Corey Kiner, the LSU commitment from Cincinnati (Ohio) Roger Bacon High School, that pushed SIAA to get this feature going.
The running back went for seven, yes seven(!), scores in a 82-28 win over Norwood High.
[Related: Kiner 100% Committed to LSU]
"I feel like I'm playing alright," Kiner told LSU Country. "I got to game one and two and started feeling a little sluggish and then last night, I still wasn't making my cuts at full speed like I need to so it just takes a little time."
We didn't notice him at less than full speed during the 363-yard rushing performance.
"Bacon’s run-game was simple, yet well-coordinated and ultimately executed," Edwin Weathersby II, SI All-American Analyst, said. "On tape, it appears the emphasis of the rushing attack was to attack the edges of the box versus Norwood to acquire plus numbers for Kiner outside, based mainly from shotgun alignments. This fits his skill set well, as he possesses good vision and mental processing, which he routinely illustrated by finding secondary alleys on the edges and naturally making appropriate decisions as the ball-carrier.
"Kiner also displayed sudden move traits via quick feet and a burst off his cuts, somewhat in a darting fashion on the second level."
The compact back, listed at 5-foot-10, 210 pounds by his high school, has already tallied 781 yards and 15 touchdowns in three games as a senior. He's over 7,000 total yards and 100 touchdowns as a prep star.
"Another element he displayed, is balance, especially post-contact, which is a quality I liked of his based off my junior tape study on him earlier this spring," Weathersby II said. "Run-discipline and play-execution are often overlooked qualities of a runner, since running back is such an instinctive-based position. However, Kiner ran with good discipline early in each carry, which led to him being able to allow his natural run instincts and explosive run traits to acquire additional yardage which, as his final state line proved, was often."
SI All-American tabbed the future Tiger as the No. 9 running back prospect in the class of 2021 in the preseason rankings released in August. He sits just outside the inaugural SI99 prospect rankings and was under heavy consideration before the 2020 season kicked off.
Check out Kiner's historic performance, resetting his own school record for yardage and touchdowns, below.
Have a Freak of the Week candidate? Hit @SIAllAmerican (Twitter) or Facebook and let us know over the weekend!
John Garcia, Jr. contributed to this report
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