X-GameChanger: John Kelly is ready to shred SEC defenses

Long before John Kelly began carving up opposing defenses, Tennessee’s junior tailback was “a wood-flipper,” shredding sidewalks, stairwells and skate parks in Minneapolis and Detroit.

With training camp starting Saturday, Kelly's time cruising UT's campus won't happen as often, but the Michigan native will take years worth of skateboarding sessions to the gridiron everyday.

“Skating has helped me a lot more than people think or realize,” Kelly told VolQuest.

“A lot more.”

At 9-years-old, John Kelly because enamored with skating after watching the X-Games on TV. A curious kid, Kelly was drawn to the sport’s creativity, eccentricity and self-discipline. He got his mom, Lateasha Orsborne, to buy him a “cheap board from Walmart," immediately practicing at a retirement community across the street from his home. He taught himself how to skate, providing daily entertainment for the elder residents by routinely falling down a set of three stairs.

“That was my first love, man,” Kelly said, beaming just reminiscing on his early childhood hobby.

“I used to kill myself on those things. I just got into skating on my own. I had no prior knowledge of it at all. I just saw it on TV and I was like, ‘I want to do that.’

“I was devoted to it. The retirement home didn’t really have too much of a problem with it because I was just a little kid. They were cool with it. Just like, ‘This little kid is up here everyday.’”

Kelly’s devotion quickly turned into an obsession, and trips to the skate park became a regular routine. At night, he’d watch countless highlights of Stevie Williams, Nyjah Houston, Ryan Sheckler and others, and during the day he’d make his own videos. At 12 or 13, Kelly “got good” and began to have serious dreams about going pro. He’d been mentored by several former local amateurs, and began working toward earning his own sponsors.

“I wanted to go BIG!” Kelly said.

There was just one problem.

At the same time, the now 5-foot-9, 212-pound running back was getting big elsewhere, emerging as a pee wee football star in Detroit. His coaches at Oak Park would later beg Kelly’s mom to convince her son to give up the street grinding for the gridiron. After Kelly skipped a couple football practices one summer, they called Lateasha furious, and she told them bluntly, “John’s at the stake park right now. If y’all want him, (you’re) going to have to go get him. Go convince him.”

“Man, they came up there like four deep,” Kelly recalled, laughing. “They were like, ‘Football is your future!’ So was like, ‘Man, I guess I’ll give this football thing a real shot.’”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Kelly became a local standout playing two-ways for Oak Park, ultimately spurning Michigan and Michigan State to play tailback for the Vols. With his original dream tabled, Kelly simply used all that time on a 7"X28" board to his advantage in football.

Countless hours had taught Kelly about balance, fearlessness and patience.

“When you’d be at the top just looking down at 13 stairs and be like, ‘Whoa. That’s a lot of stairs,’ you just have to just forget about it all and just go for it,” Kelly said.

“That’s just how I think when I run the ball. The gap isn’t always going to be there, but when it is you can’t hesitate. You have to just go for it. It taught me how to fall. I don’t want to just face-plant every time I get hit.”

Kelly learned patience through long hours trying to perfect a trick, but his true mettle was tested during his first year and a half in Knoxville.

Kelly knew what he was signing up for, but waiting his turn behind Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara wasn’t easy. In a day in age when many players — especially running backs — transfer to greener pastures, Kelly bided his time, and following a big second half to his sophomore season, he actually finished with more rushing yards than both Hurd and Kamara.

“There was no need to rush anything. Just going back to when I was a recruit, I always told the coaches that I’ll always be a man of my word. I’m not about to be a kid that’s committing to 30 different schools. I made the decision to commit here, so I knew the challenges that was going to be ahead of me. I knew what I was getting myself into,” Kelly explained.

“I didn’t know when I was going to get thrown out there, but if I did then I was going to be ready. That’s all I’ve focused on. Just being ready when I had my chance. I was.”

In his first real taste of big-time SEC football last year, Kelly gashed Texas A&M for 89 yards on just 13 carries. He had a crucial fumble, but his teammates, especially the offensive line, seemed to raise its play with Kelly in the game. Over the next month of Tennessee's season, Kelly climbed the depth chart as Hurd quit the team and Kamara sustained a knee injury. Seemingly overnight, "the Northern kid with swag" became a household name for the Vols, as his endless enthusiasm and "angry running style” were infectious to both players and fans.

Looking back, Kelly admits his teammates viewed him differently than other players on offense even before he bloomed last year. There was something about him.

Behind the scenes, Kelly emerged as a leader long before anyone had actually anointed him to be one. He practiced hard, was positive yet honest, and ultimately, his Energizer Bunny spirit helped calm a chaotic locker room. Kelly's communication skills — something he credits from years spent around skateboarding's vibrant culture and ethnicities — allowed him to connect with teammates of all backgrounds.

“He’s just an exciting runner,” senior offensive lineman Brett Kendrick said last fall.

“He’s fun to watch. He runs so hard. As an offensive lineman, that’s all you can ask for. He gives us a lot of praise and thanks us. It’s kind of locker room stuff.”

“We just fed off each other,” Kelly explained. “When we’re out there, they all know I’m playing for everybody. I’m going to go out there and put it on the line for everybody. It was definitely a different relationship as far as when I’m playing with those guys. I felt like a lot of the times the offensive line, they didn’t know how many opportunities I’d get, so they just went (hard) for me.”

Kelly finished his sophomore season with 630 yards and five touchdowns, including a 73-yard scamper for a score vs. Tennessee Tech — the longest run in a decade at Tennessee.

With both Hurd and Kamara now gone, the running back room officially — and finally — belongs to Kelly. He’s waited his turn, and now it’s his time. This summer, Kelly challenged himself to become even more vocal in the weight room and he's doing his best to ready a young group of tailbacks now waiting behind him.

He learned some valuable lessons from Kamara and he hopes to pass along similar messages to Ty Chandler, Tim Jordan and others.

“Alvin helped me a lot with my patience. To believe in my skills,” Kelly said.

“Back when we was at practice, he probably don’t even know this, but I used to try and copy all his moves that he would do. Some of the footwork that he had. I felt like it just looked better because Alvin got some swag to him, so I copied that. But he taught me to believe in myself and my skills. … I got some bulls behind me. I’m going to be a big brother to them, too.”

Kelly's Oak Park coaches were right, football is his future, but the junior with NFL aspirations "ain't never going to give up skating."

Tennessee's season is rapidly approaching, yet Kelly will always find a little time to hop on his board and go “Tony Alva, old school, cruising in the bowl.”

Skateboarding remains his escape and pet passion, but it's also the trigger for his competitiveness and confidence to the dynamo and leader on Team 121.

If he could spend all day perfecting a trick, he’s not fazed by a physical practice in the August heat. If he could walk away from a wipeout, he's not worried about facing Alabama or Georgia.

And after nailing a 13-stair jump, he'd definitely boldly declare he's the best tailback in the SEC.

“Damn right I am,” he said, grinning.