The Football Brainiacs

Image courtesy of Oklahoma QuickTwitch

Under the radar and off the grid are terms you hear thrown a lot. Papi White came out of Seminole h.s. this time last year after running for 3,220 yards (12.8 yards per clip) and 41 touchdowns. Before we profiled him, a lot of coaches had never even heard of him. Growing up playing 8-man football, I was naive enough to think that if you could play, then people would find you. To a degree that’s true, but camps, publicity, and a coach who promotes your game are just as important. If not more so when it comes to getting offers.

My junior and senior year, I had over 100 tackles each season with numerous QB hurries and sacks. I kept waiting and hoping that someone would notice my game, but at the smallest classification of ball in Oklahoma (Class C) there weren’t a lot of coaches beating down our door. Coupled with the fact that we didn’t have a great tradition at my high school, there were a lot of things working against all of us who were trying to get noticed.

Fast forward 18 years and Papi played about 20 miles from where I went to school. Seminole was the “big school” in my area back in my day. Seminole is 3A after all and having more than 20 or 30 people in a class was something I couldn’t even imagine. You’d think that with Seminole being a school with some good tradition, it would be easy for Papi to get noticed. As we get further along with the site, I see more and more guys come across my desk who you see and wonder why they haven’t gotten more attention.

A guy who fits this description is Kaden Jackson from Kingfisher, Ok. Kaden stands 6’3″ and goes about 270 lbs. He won the 3A state championship as a shot putter throwing 50 feet as a freshman and 54 feet as a sophomore. If he keeps improving at that rate, he may approach 60 ft. this year and be well into the 60’s by his senior year. When you hear about this, and a guy being able to throw 50 as a freshman in high school, you automatically assume that he’s explosive, athletic and powerful. If you assumed that by just looking at those numbers, when you turn on his junior film, you are proven correct. When I saw Kaden’s film for the first time, I started looking for what could be wrong with him. He must be small, or go to a really small school, or have a tail or something. There was no way I was really seeing what I was seeing. I watched it two or three times, but every time I looked for something new.

Athleticism…check.
Agility…check.
Size….check
Power…holy crap!
Explosiveness…good lawd!

Watching Kaden go at it is a sight to behold. When you see how powerful his hands are, and how people react to him hitting them, it’s no mystery how he throws the shot as well as he does. Whether he’s playing d-tackle or guard, this kid just blows people up. Do yourself a favor and watch his tape. I haven’t seen many kids who cause as much damage by just touching people. Several times defensively he separated the ball-carrier from the rock with a crushing blow. Then offensively, at guard(where I see him playing in college), the word bulldozer doesn’t do him justice. Maybe if you had a D-6 cat with dynamite strapped to the blade, then we could talk, because people go exactly where Kaden allows them to go.

Scout.com was the only corporate site who had a profile for him, but it didn’t have a lot of info (UPDATE: Rivals has a profile on Kaden – Rivals). Kingfisher won the state championship this past year too, so it’s really hard to understand how someone like him goes unnoticed. Before we anoint him as the next Larry Allen, I’d really like to see what he’s able to do this next year. Going into his senior campaign, he’s definitely someone who is on my radar. Don’t be surprised if you see him blowing up during the spring and going into the summer. This guy is devastating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPxs-yg8_dk

UPDATE (12:02 pm): Rival’s does in fact have a profile of Kaden: Rivals