TideFans 2009 Crown Jewel Countdown - #20 - WR Kendall Kelly .

[LCN]

Share
 

Ratings system - http://www.tidefans.com/forums/recru...countdown.html

#20 - WR Kendall Kelly 6' 3" 215
Gadsden , AL
Coached by Joe Billingsley at Gadsden City high school .

TideFans consensus rating - 3.5
BET - 4
CS - 3.5
RTO - 3.5
LCN - 3

Recruited by Bobby Williams and Nick Saban .
Kendall received honorable mention 6A All-State honors as well as playing in both the Army All-American Game and the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game .
7th ranked WR by ESPNU
25th ranked WR by Scout.com
26th ranked WR by Rivals.com

Kelly managed only 130 yards receiving and 5 scores along with 78 rushing yards in what was an injury plagued senior season .

Kendall is a pretty imposing target with the size , hands and hops to go up in traffic and win his share of battles for jump balls . Kelly has good speed yet lacks ideal acceleration and will need more development when it comes to sharpening up his route running skills . Kelly has a lot of upside and should become a quality receiver in the future , if health allows , but he's still pretty raw making a redshirt season highly likely for 2009 . Kendall chose Alabama over Auburn , Clemson , LSU , Southern California , Tennessee and Texas .

[Bamaball2001]

	Quote:	LCN
	#20 - WR Kendall Kelly 6' 3" 215 Kelly managed only 130 yards receiving and 5 scores along with 78 rushing yards in what was an injury plagued senior season . Kendall is a pretty imposing target with the size , hands and hops to go up in traffic and win his share of battles for jump balls . Kelly has good speed yet lacks ideal acceleration and will need more development when it comes to sharpening up his route running skills . Kelly has a lot of upside and should become a quality receiver in the future

I think Kendall will turn out to be one of the steals of this class. By "steal" I mean that I was never completely comfortable that he was a "Bama Lock". I have no inside information but it was my gut feeling that he may have been thinking AU until they fired Tubbs and all Hades broke loose at the Barn.

With that said back the "steal" part...As you said Kendall was injured most of his senior year in HS. And, I think I remember reading that his HS offensive scheme was not designed to get big numbers for the WRs.

I believe that, at 6' 3", with a 38" vertical (9 1/2 feet of ups) and 4.45 speed coach Mac's system will exploit his God given gifts. If he red shirts it will only give him more time to shake off his senior year in HS and become a force at WR for us.

RTR!

[Crimson Surfer]

Kendall Kelly was the top wide receiver prospect in Alabama and one of the best in the country. He is a big, strong, fast, and athletic reciever that adjusts well to the ball in the air to make the catch. He also is explosive after the catch with good vision to find the seems in the defense. Despite having injury problems his senior year and even playing out of position some at TE he was selected as a USAA. It is kind of surprising with his talent level that we rank him below the other WR signees in this class. I think that is based more on his injuries and senior performance than his potential. I think he has the potential to be a very good WR for Bama. I am unsure if he will redshirt or not. He could earn some some playing time this season depending up his health and how well he adjusts to the college game. It wouldn't surprise me to see him redshirt to get completely healthy.

Crimson Tide Ink 25 on National Signing Day

	Quote:
	An athletic receiver out of Gadsden City High School ... U.S. Army All-American ... No. 66 overall nationally in the ESPNU150 and listed as the No. 7 wide receiver ... a Rivals250 player that is listed as the No. 26-best receiver prospect in the nation ... Scout.com lists Kelly as the No. 25 wide out ... Rivals.com lists him as the sixth-best player in Alabama ... rated No. 9 on The Birmingham News Super Senior list ... No. 9 on the Mobile Press-Register's Elite 18 and No. 86 in the Press-Register's Super Southeast 120 ... 96th nationally by Tom Lemming's Prep Football while also garnering All-America honors from Lemming ... a SuperPrep All-American and listed as the No. 9 prospect in the state ... No. 15 on Scout.com Southeast 150 list ... garnered honorable mention 6A All-State honors from the Alabama Sports Writers Association ... played in the Alabama/Mississippi All-Star Game ... member of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Super Southern 100 ... saw limited time as a senior due to injury, but still caught nine passes for 130 yards and five touchdowns while rushing 13 times for 78 yards ... hauled in 34 receptions for 595 yards as a junior with 189 yards and 13 total touchdowns in 2007, garnering 6A honorable mention All-State honors from the ASWA ... coached by Joe Billingsley ... was high school teammates with fellow Crimson Tide signee Dre Kirkpatrick ... chose Alabama over Clemson, Auburn, LSU, Southern California, Texas and Tennessee.

[buzzincuzzin]

He could be productive this year if he can beat the bump-n-run. For a couple of years now I've suffered from separation anxiety.

[M2J]

All I gotta say is you know you've got a monster class when you can argue that guys like Kendall, Ming, Bonds aren't even in the top 20 of your class. LOL, these are the type of guys that may be THE crown jewel or top 3 in some other SEC schools classes or in some of our classes prior to Saban.

And I'm really excited about Kendall, I'd be extremely shocked if he left Bama without making a big impact on the field, when healthy he's just an amazingly gifted athlete with good speed and great size and leaping ability.

[BAMAMICH]

Yea, I'm really surprised that KK landed at 20 ... really thought he would have made into the top 15 if not the top 10. I agree with others in saying that I am excited about seeing KK contribute, he could be that other big WR we need to help compliment JJ.

[runtheoption22]

I think 20 is about right for KK. I have Bowman, Norwood, and Bell ahead of him as WRs go. KK will have to do everything right to crack the rotation this year. A RS year is needed, and he has the potential to be a very good WR for Bama.

[M2J]

I think Kendall needs a RS year too, he needs to get healthy and he needs to learn a bit, though in a year or 2 I wouldn't doubt he could be the 2nd best Wr taken out of the last 2 stellar classes (of course Julio is 1). And I say that believing the other 3 Wrs taken from this class can be great too

[BEATtutorsee]

Another guy that will need to heal up from injuries and remain healthy in order to make an impact for us IMO. If he can Kendall has a ton of raw talent and could develop into one of the better WRs in the conference. I don't believe he'll ever be a "homerun" type deep threat but he has the chance to develop into a terrific all-around WR IMO.

[BigEasyTider]

I think the best way to describe Kelly is that he is a big-time splitter.

In terms of raw size and athleticism, he's an extremely rare find. After his junior season he drew comparisons to Julio Jones, and those comparisons were / are legitimate. Even in the SEC (or hell, the NFL for that matter) it's just very rare to find legitimate 6'4 and 220 pound wide receivers with blazing speed.

Unfortunately, he is coming off an injury-hampered senior season, and admittedly he is very raw. The physical tools are there, but he has a long way to go in terms of route-running, etc. Clearly he has a lot of work to do, and a redshirt year would be a good idea if we can manage it. He's further away from contributing than his star-rating would indicate.

Exactly how his career will play out is hard to say. He's got the raw physical tools to be Terrell Owens, but I could easily see him being another Tarry Givens as well. I think it all boils down to whether or not he can turn the raw tools into actual production, and I don't know that he can do it. If he can he's probably a future NFL All-Pro, if not... All in all, I can see why we waited late on him, and why we didn't pass on him. He's got enough problems to give you some legitimate concerns, but he's got such incredible upside that it's ultimately almost impossible to say no.

Fortunately, though, I do feel a lot better with Saban and company around, plus we should have a stable quarterback situation as well. This would be one of the highly-billed prospects destined to be a bust under Dubose, just like Givens was, but with a guy like Saban around it could be a totally different story.

[bamachile]

Wow! KK at 20! Well, you who are close to the fire certainly know more than I do...

Kendall is one of my 'watch-list' guys. I figured him for a RS, but I hope to see him tearing it up in a couple of years.

[LCN]

	Quote:	M2J
	All I gotta say is you know you've got a monster class when you can argue that guys like Kendall, Ming, Bonds aren't even in the top 20 of your class. LOL, these are the type of guys that may be THE crown jewel or top 3 in some other SEC schools classes or in some of our classes prior to Saban. And I'm really excited about Kendall, I'd be extremely shocked if he left Bama without making a big impact on the field, when healthy he's just an amazingly gifted athlete with good speed and great size and leaping ability.

Yep . If Shula were still around , Kerry Murphy would probably be the Crown Jewel for a third consecutive year

[M2J]

	Quote:	LCN
	Yep . If Shula were still around , Kerry Murphy would probably be the Crown Jewel for a third consecutive year

Sad, but possibly true