Scouting Combine Defensive Line: Rags-to-Riches Kinlaw
Part 2 of our three-part series on the 25 defensive linemen includes South Carolina’s Javon Kinlaw, some other SEC standouts and a Canadian star. (Underclassmen are noted with an asterisk.)
Raekwon Davis, Alabama (6-7, 312): Davis was a three-year starter and three-year all-SEC performer for the Crimson Tide, though his production waned from 69 tackles (10 for losses) as a sophomore to 55 tackles (5.5 for losses) as a junior and 47 tackles (three for losses) as a senior. Of his 11.5 career sacks, 8.5 came as a sophomore.
While he wasn’t an All-American as a senior, he was proud of earning his diploma in exercise science. "Where I'm from, most people don't graduate or even see a Division I school," Davis said in a news conference. "The graduation part is a big accomplishment. I was excited. I worked hard for it, and it was the best experience of my life.” He added: “Nobody can take that away from me. Football can end at any time, but you’ll still have one thing you can fall back on. You spend three and a half years to get it, nobody can take it away, and you can do whatever you want with it.” While the numbers weren’t great, he was happy with his final season – especially when compared to his junior year, when he said he was too focused on the NFL. “I improved a lot,” he told the Tuscaloosa News. “On my double teams, how I pass rush, I feel like I improved. To other folks, they got they own opinions.” He was shot in the leg just before the 2017 season opener and recorded a sack a few days later.
Jordan Elliott, Missouri* (6-4, 315): In two years at Mizzou, Elliott recorded 5.5 sacks and 16.5 tackles for losses. In 2019, he had 2.5 sacks and career highs of 44 tackles and 8.5 tackles for losses to earn second-team All-American. He started his career at Texas, recording eight tackles in six games in 2016. He had to sit out the 2017 season due to NCAA transfer rules.
Elliott learned a lesson about responsibility during that year in Texas. One night, he forgot to hang his parking pass on his car and it was towed away. Because he didn’t really need the car to get around campus, he didn’t act urgently to get it back. Eventually, it was auctioned off. “I didn’t know where they were towing it, and they would never answer the phone,” he told The Athletic. “Two weeks go by, and I’m still trying to find it, and I go to this lot where they towed my car. And the car’s gone.” The redshirt season of 2017 paid huge dividends. Because he couldn’t play on Saturdays, he was able to focus on his body. “Just finding myself and realizing that if you can persevere through this, you can persevere through anything,” he told the school newspaper. “I feel like that’s a part of my mentality now and part of my philosophy in life.”
Leki Fotu, Utah (6-5, 335): Foku was a two-year starter. As a junior, he was first-team all-Pac-12 with three sacks and 5.5 tackles for losses. As a senior, he earned some second-team All-American honors with one sacks and nine tackles for losses.
Fotu’s family is from Tonga. Football runs in the DNA with three brothers playing college football: David at Utah, Joe at Illinois and Anthony at Arizona. Rugby was his first love but it was his mother who pushed him to try football, according to 247 Sports. “When we moved out here to Utah I thought I was just going to play rugby, but then my senior year she wanted me to do football because rugby didn’t have any offers scholarship-wise for college. I went back to football and tried all of that and everything is going the way it is now.” He’s a big man with bad intentions but a huge soft spot in his heart for his sister, who horrifically died when she was 3. A few weeks later, his dad died from a stroke. “When I’m out there, working and sweating,” he told the Salt Lake Tribune, “I think of them. I know I’ve already been through hell, so I can handle it.” He puts on a show at any restaurant or with his choice of footwear.
Neville Gallimore, Oklahoma (6-2, 302): Gallimore was honorable-mention all-Big 12 as a junior and a first-team choice as a senior, when he had four sacks, 7.5 tackles for losses and two forced fumbles. His four-season total included nine sacks, 18 TFLs and five forced fumbles.
A native of Ottawa, Ontario, he was the first Canadian player selected to compete in U.S. Army All-American Bowl. He attended Canada Prep, a school centered on football. According to the Ottawa Citizen, there are only 42 students and tuition starts at $16,500, not including insurance and some travel expenses. The team plays many top U.S. high schools. “I wanted the chance to show how well I could stack up against American competition,” Gallimore told the Globe and Mail. “For me, it's been a confidence booster and the expectations are high. The coaches who see our film are a lot more respectful of it when they see us playing other American kids. A lot of people questioned my decision, but I'm glad I came here.” While Canadian, the family’s roots are in Jamaica. “As soon as you walk into my house, you’re walking into a Jamaican home,” Gallimore told The Oklahoman. “The smells, the food, the music, even the language that’s being spoken. It’s something that they can’t hide. … The culture is so rich, the atmosphere, the environment is so rich. I feel like it’s just something you want to be a part of. I’m happy that I was raised around that.” He earned a degree in cultural awareness and is pursuing a master’s in human relations.
DaVon Hamilton, Ohio State (6-4, 310): A first-time starter as a senior, he posted six sacks and 10.5 tackles for losses in 2019. He didn’t boost his stats against a bunch of nonconference lightweights. All of the sacks and 7.5 of the TFLs came during the final six Big Ten games and the national playoffs against Clemson.
Blocking Hamilton is no picnic. As center Harry Miller told Lettermen Row, “He has the most massive arms I’ve ever seen in my entire life. To have him as a noseguard, and just thinking about having to reach him and think about blocking him and think about pass protection against him, it is a thing that strikes fear into me. Talk about playing in anonymity: His name was spelled wrong in the program for years (Davon rather than DaVon). “I mean, there’s a lot of people [that would need correcting] on a daily basis,” Hamilton told Lettermen Row. “I’m just trying to do my job as best as possible. The big thing I was trying to do at the beginning of the season was to be consistent. I feel like a lot of teams are wanting to look for that, and it’s just going to help my team out for my part. That’s just what I’ve been focused on.” As a kid, he played soccer. In one game, Hamilton tackling a boy who had been picking on a girl. “At that point, we probably figured he would be better at football than soccer,” his mom told the Columbus Dispatch.
Benito Jones, Mississippi (6-1, 329): Jones saved his best for last, with career highs of 5.5 sacks and 10 tackles for losses as a senior. He also posted his lone interception in 2019. His four-year totals included 10.5 sacks and 31 TFLs.
"The four years here, it's a real unique thing I'd say," Jones told the Clarion Ledger before his final game. "Being at home. The moment after the game I think it's gonna hit me. You can't come back and play anymore. It ain't gonna hit me during the game. Just after the game it's going to hit me.” His father, Billy Ray Jones, was his idol. Just days before his Ole Miss debut, his father died of congestive heart failure. “He was standing in the kitchen saying, ‘I wanted daddy to at least see me play in my first college game,’” his mom told the Clarion Ledger. “He just broke down and I stood there for him and said he’s there in spirit to see you play.’” In his debut, he had 1.5 tackles for losses against Florida State. “Losing my dad was tough, but I fought through it and that was (the toughest) adversity of my life,” Benito said. “(After) losing him I can go through anything. I just kept balling and kept playing. I know he was watching from a better place.”
Javon Kinlaw, South Carolina (6-6, 310): Kinlaw earned some first-team All-American honors following a superb senior season. He finished eighth in the SEC with six sacks and added six tackles for losses. The team captain and December graduate earned a bunch of team awards, including the Unselfish Teammate Award, Tenacity Award and Outstanding Student-Athlete. In two seasons, the junior-college transfer tallied 10.5 sacks and 18 tackles for losses.
Kinlaw literally will be a rags-to-riches story, one that was told by the Greenville News. His mother came to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago in 1995. In 2008, she moved her family from Washington, D.C., to Hyattsville, Md., to pursue a business opportunity. The opportunity fell through, leaving her and her children homeless. “It was really difficult for me, but I knew at that time that I was going to try to do something better.” He spent one season in junior college before arriving at South Carolina tipping the scales at 350 pounds because of his fondness for the free food. His childhood drove him down the path to the NFL. “We were really homeless the whole time we was staying up there. We stayed with my mom’s friends,” Kinlaw told the Post and Courier. “Out of all those situations I’ve been in, I still dream of things like that. I don’t want to go back to situations like that, so I have to keep pushing.” In great shape and with his eye on the prize, he dominated. “Javon makes you smile as a coach. He’s physical. He’s a tough-minded guy,” defensive line coach John Scott Jr. told The Athletic. “There’s not many 6-6, 300-plus pound guys who have his athleticism. He’s strong, and he’s got something that only God can give you, extremely long arms. He can separate off blockers with quick twitch. If you had to draw up the body type for that league, that would be it.” He’s got a baby girl; at the Senior Bowl, he said 9-month-old Eden was 31 inches long with size-5 shoes.
Rashard Lawrence II, LSU (6-2, 308): Lawrence had a breakout junior season with four sacks, 10 tackles for losses and 54 tackles. All of those set career highs. He wasn’t as productive as a senior with his 2.5 sacks and six TFLs among 28 stops, but the team captain was named second-team all-SEC. He capped his junior season with two sacks and four tackles for losses in an MVP performance against UCF in the Fiesta Bowl. Six of his seven pass breakups came as a junior and senior.
An “old soul,” he’s called “Uncle Phil” – a TV character on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – by his teammates. When he was 3, he cried to watch football. When he was 13, he had a full beard. "I've seen him go from a boy to a man," his dad told the Advocate. “He's done everything that I could ever want him to do.” Lawrence was a three-year captain and a member of the SEC’s academic honor roll. "I take a lot of pride in that," Lawrence told the school athletics site. "Football can end at any time. We're student-athletes. Being able to graduate in December and know that I have life after football is very important.” He likes singing to Gwen Stefani songs. “He's a big Teddy Bear, because he's so sweet,” former LSU linebacker Devin White told the school athletics site. “He doesn't have a bad bone in his body. He makes straight A's, and people don't even talk about it. He does whatever anybody asks of him. If a fan asks him for an autograph, he makes sure he'll do it, because that's the kind of guy he is.” The best of being recruited was the food.
Introducing the 25 Defensive Linemen
Part 1: Auburn duo and dynamic twins
Part 3: Baylor's defensive lynchpin
Introducing the 20 Tight Ends
Part 1: Kmet, Moss and the Bryants
Part 2: Small-school stars Trautman and Taumoepeau, and five SEC standouts
Introducing the 25 Offensive Tackles
Part 1: Becton, D-III stud Bartch and Charles
Part 2: Jones and plenty of NFL DNA
Part 3: The Big Three of Thomas, Wills and Wirfs
Introducing the 17 Guards
Part 1: Bredeson, Hunt, Jackson and Lewis
Part 2: Stenberg, Simpson and Throckmorton
Introducing the 10 Centers
Big Ten’s Biadasz, Ruiz Lead Way
Introducing the 55 Receivers
Part 1: Aiyuk, Bowden did it all
Part 2: Duvernay, Edwards and Gandy-Golden
Part 3: LSU's Jefferson among TD machines
Part 4: Lamb, Jeudy top receiver class
Part 6: Ruggs, Shenault produce big plays
Introducing the 30 Running Backs
Part 1: Cam Akers, Eno Benjamin and J.K. Dobbins
Part 2: Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Zack Moss
Part 3: D’Andre Swift and Jonathan Taylor
