| Editor's note: Throughout the season, Pro Football Weekly will run a
continuing series of articles spotlighting top prospects for the 2002 draft. 
In personnel circles, the word prototypical is tossed around with great frequency. In
the case of Miami (Fla.) OLT Bryant McKinnie, feel free to tag him a prototype.
The Hurricanes list McKinnie at 6 feet 9 inches and 336 pounds. His vertical jump of 32
inches is better than some linebackers. His 40-yard dash time of 5.0 seconds is the kind
of speed expected of a tight end. Believe it or not, McKinnie has even registered a 4.95.
Most impressively, in 40 career college games, McKinnie has never allowed a sack thanks
to a laughable wingspan of 94 inches — yes, 7 feet, 8 inches.
"If God could draw a left offensive tackle on a board, the model left offensive
tackle, Bryant is what he would draw," said Mark Duda, McKinnie first collegiate
coach at Lackawanna Junior College in Scranton, Pa. "Tall, long arms, enough body to
make bull-rushers a non-factor."
McKinnie hasn’t always been sought after. Until his junior year of high school,
McKinnie marched on a football field only to play the bass drum in the Woodbury (N.J.)
High School band. When McKinnie decided he and football could mix, coaches put him on the
defensive line and Mount McKinnie registered 13 sacks.
"I put him there to start, because he was an angular, 6-8, 280 when he came
here," said Duda, a former defensive lineman with the St. Louis Cardinals from
1983-87.
Drawing from past experience, Duda knew McKinnie wouldn’t be able to protect
himself — regardless of his greater degree of athleticism — because of his size.
The tallest defensive end in the NFL right now stands 6-foot-7.
"Even from my time, Too Tall (former Dallas DE Ed Jones) and those guys would just
get chopped and be taken out of the play 90 percent of the time," Duda said.
McKinnie wound up at Lackawanna because he did not qualify academically at the
University of Iowa. Hawkeyes’ recruiting coordinator Frank Verducci coached Duda at
the University of Maryland and lived in New Jersey. Verducci called Duda to tell him about
an athlete he found — a kid who ran the 400 meters in high school.
"I knew he was an athlete, but I thought he was a receiver or something,"
Duda said. Without meeting McKinnie, Duda made him part of the team.
McKinnie entered training camp extremely raw and unfamiliar with the type of training
common for a Duda-coached team. During his early days in Scranton, McKinnie was
embarrassed that he bench-pressed 60 pounds less than his body weight so he went to the
basement of offensive line coach Al McElroy to improve his strength. He hasn’t
stopped.
"Bryant has added 40 pounds of solid muscle and he hasn’t even been here two
years," Miami offensive line coach Art Kehoe said. "He’s an amazing
specimen."
"You can say what you want about weight-room strength," Duda said.
"It’s greatly overrated. This kid has more strength and power than you can
imagine because of his leverage. Defensive linemen are straight up, he’s still bent
perfectly at the knees and they are going backward. Art said it best: when the play is
over, Bryant still has his feet apart and his hands together. That’s all the strength
that matters."
In fact, McKinnie didn’t fit into Lackawanna’s standard squat machine,
forcing the weights out the top of the rack.
"If you think about it, he has to move the weight two feet further than just about
everyone else," Duda said, adding that McKinnie actually stands much closer to 6-10.
"He’s at such a mechanical disadvantage. When he left us, he had gained about 30
pounds, all of it muscle. I got him when he was 17, he left at 19, and he’s still a
child at 22 in terms of the development of his body. That is plain scary."
Physically acclimated to junior college football and the offensive line by his
sophomore season, McKinnie was dominating defensive teammates, including future NCAA
Division I DEs Kevin Johnson (South Carolina) and Nate Russell (Maryland), a tandem that
had its share of fun with McKinnie in his early days on campus. In his first day as an
offensive lineman, Duda said Johnson and Russell embarrassed the big fella. Less than two
weeks later, when training camp had come to a close, "they couldn’t get a step
on him."
Even 22 perfect games on the line at Lackawanna, which won 80 percent of the games
McKinnie played, wasn’t enough to convince Penn State, McKinnie’s first choice,
he could help its offensive line. Coach Joe Paterno’s staff actually told McKinnie
they "weren’t interested in JUCOs."
They got to see their mistake first-hand when Penn State and Miami opened the season
Sept. 1 in Happy Valley. By the time the final whistle saved Penn State DE Michael Haynes,
he had been pancaked, earholed and lifted from the ground by the kid that had evolved into
Mount McKinnie.
Penn State might be the last team that passes on Bryant McKinnie.
"I’m not in the NFL, but I know with my heart and soul that this kid is
really, really gifted," Kehoe said. "He’s going to be doing this for a long
time."
The Houston Texans, who own the first pick in the 2002 NFL draft, posted this analysis
on taking McKinnie with the top pick in the draft:
"While it’s hard to see Houston using their first-ever pick on a lineman,
McKinnie may prove too good to pass up."
Kehoe needed only 15 minutes at Lackawanna and a face-to-midsection meeting with
McKinnie before he phoned then-coach Butch Davis and offered a scholarship to play for
Miami.
"He’s become such a colossal talent, more than I could have ever
imagined," Kehoe said. "The thing is, he’s going to get a lot better. He
came to college to learn how to play football. His upside, because of his size, girth and
skills is amazing. Maybe limitless."
Kehoe feels this is the best starting five he has coached at Miami. ORG Martin Bibla
and ORT Joaquin Gonzalez are top prospects as well. But the two polished veterans with 10
years of football experience don’t measure up to McKinnie.
"Bibla does do certain things better than Bryant at times. But I truly believe I
could coach another 50 years and never see somebody with the gifts (Bryant) has,"
said Kehoe, who is in his 17th season at Miami. "His feet, his hands and
his explosion are quite frankly overwhelming. Before he got here, we were allowing a lot
of sacks off the back side of the quarterback. We’ve gone 15 games without one since
he came."
The last offensive lineman taken first overall in the draft was OLT Orlando Pace, who
was known for his pancake blocks at Ohio State before the Rams made him a franchise
tackle. Kehoe believes the similarities between Pace and McKinnie don’t stop at size,
weight and athletic ability.
"Orlando might be a better run-blocker right now," Kehoe said. "But
that’s just experience. When Bryant figures out where he fits in with that kind of
scheme, he’ll be right there with him.
"In pass protection, he does two things as well as anybody, regardless of
size," Kehoe said. "He keeps his head out and his feet apart. Those two things
are easy to teach and we use them as a sounding board, but they are so hard to do. Bryant
does them over and over and does them naturally. When you are at that level, and you
consistently keep your head from getting involved and your feet apart, you are damn hard
to beat."
Former Atlanta Falcons’ OLT Mike Kenn is the closest talent parallel Duda could
draw. A 6-7 true athlete, Kenn was a high school basketball standout and all-around phenom
when it came to sports.
"He wasn’t as physically imposing, but he had the fantastic feet and long
arms," Duda said. "Another guy, Jackie Slater, was a right OT and he had great
body strength. Bryant is bigger than any of them and a combination of them all with the
feet of a little guy."
McKinnie isn’t without flaws, but nothing additional training won’t iron out.
McKinnie is an "above average" run-blocker according to Kehoe, who approved an
offensive play — Power T — that allows McKinnie to pull from his left tackle
position and go one-on-one with linebackers and defensive backs.
"I don’t think he has any idea how good he can be," Duda said. "A
couple of guys were down there last summer. I know (Baltimore Ravens OLT Leon Searcy) was
down there and told him he could be pretty damn good.
"Once he gets in that pro environment when he can be a player and get away from
the college atmosphere, his potential is outstanding. Who knows how great a player he can
become when it is football and nothing else."
He may even become the NFL’s prototypical left tackle.
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