Sitting in a doctor’s office in Hattiesburg, Kevon Cloyd couldn’t believe his ears. Just three days before, he had been a rising sophomore linebacker trying to crack the varsity lineup for the Columbia Wildcats. But here he sat, with his mother, Elsie Cowart, trying to comprehend what his doctor just told him: He may have to his arm amputated.
“Amputated?” he thought. “There’s no way.”
His mom couldn’t believe it either when they were told the nerves connecting his neck to his shoulder were severed, and Cloyd said she went ballistic and insisted on a second opinion. The next doctor they saw in Hattiesburg said not only would he never play again, but he wouldn’t be able to use his arm either. Then they went to Jackson for a third opinion, and the prognosis remained. Each doctor wanted to do surgery, but Cloyd’s mom wouldn’t let them. She told her son, “People can’t tell you what God has in store for you.”
So Cloyd prayed. He prayed some more. As he says, he prayed “a lot,” and his prayers were answered. Without surgery, he rehabilitated his shoulder on his own with the help of former Columbia assistant coach Brandon Thompson and trainer Nicole Keys. Cloyd said Thompson was hard on him and never once treated him like he was crippled. When his shoulder healed and he was cleared to play the following year as a junior, Thompson told Cloyd that he always believed he would get back to the field. While Keys never said it, though, Cloyd said he could see it in her teared-up eyes that she thought he wouldn’t play again, but she never stopped trying to help him.
“I couldn’t have done this by myself. They never gave up on me, and I feel like I owe them,” he said. “I do this for the people who are like me that were told they were too small or wouldn’t be able to do it. It’s proof. You can do it if you just put God first and just try your best. The sky is the limit.”
Cloyd, who now stars at linebacker for Jones College, said he gives all the glory and praise to God for healing his shoulder and allowing him to pursue his dream. Now he views his injury as the best thing to ever happen to him, and he said he was given a second chance and refuses to waste it.
“Before the injury, I would work, but when I got injured I reached a new level of how to work. It humbled me as far as my play on the field and how I treat other people because you know one minute you can be the best and the next minute you could never play again,” he said.
To this day, Cloyd doesn’t remember how he got hurt. The Wildcats were doing an Oklahoma drill, where the defender has to shed a block and tackle the runner in a very confined space, in practice, which is the last thing he can recall. His next memory was that he couldn’t feel or move his arm at all. At the time, he was told and believed it was just a stinger, and he even drove himself home after practice. After a few days with no improvement, he finally saw a doctor.
He does think it set him back physically because he believes he would be a lot stronger now if it hadn’t happened, but he said that doesn’t compare to what the injury did for him as a person.
Now the 6-foot-2 linebacker is coming off a stellar freshman season at Jones and drawing the attention of college coaches around the country. Cloyd’s life goal is simple: He wants to take care of his mom. So while many college students venture out their first year on campus, the young man best known as “KJ” dedicated himself in the classroom and on the field, and it’s paid off.
Upon arrival in Ellisville, Cloyd expected to be a backup linebacker because of Daylen Gill, a highly-sought-after recruit who signed with Ole Miss. Cloyd said he was scared at first because the coaches told him he was being recruited to play under Gill, and the plan was for him to take Gill’s place as a sophomore. But once he got onto the practice field, the coaching staff was enamored with the way Cloyd worked and was forced to find a starting role for him.
“Our staff does a great job evaluating talent so we knew KJ was a player,” Jones College head coach Steve Buckley said. “But then fast forward when we got to camp, his athleticism, his speed and the way he picked up the defense so quickly put him in a starting role for us. He was very productive as a freshman this past year.”
“I was blessed to do what I’ve always done,” Cloyd said. “I played and started every game.”
The outside linebacker rewarded the Bobcats with 46 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a blocked kick. Immediately following the season, coaches from Division I programs began flooding the campus to recruit players, and Cloyd was one of their main targets. The scholarship offers began to pile up in bunches over the coming months, beginning with Troy and including Southern Miss, South Alabama, Louisiana-Monroe, East Carolina, Arkansas State and Austin Peay. But his biggest offer came April 12 from the Arizona Wildcats, a Pac 12 program led by Kevin Sumlin.
“I didn’t think I was being looked at by Pac 12 (schools). Me, personally, I didn’t think I was that good,” Cloyd said. “I talked to the coach, and he was like, ‘Do you know what you’ve done?’ I said, ‘No, coach, I just did what I always do.’ He said, ‘You’re the No. 1 linebacker in Mississippi, and the No. 8 player in the nation.’ I thought, ‘Who told you that?’ From little ole Columbia, I couldn’t believe it. For me to get an offer like that, it just goes to show that God is still in my favor.”
That rankings information shared to the linebacker by Arizona came from 247Sports, perhaps the leading recruiting service in America. It lists Cloyd as, in fact, the No. 8 JUCO prospect in the entire country and tops among linebackers.
“It just goes to show that with God, anything is possible. For me, I just want to take care of my momma, and it looks like I’m well on my way. I didn’t think I was going to get an offer that big until after my second year.”
Arizona doesn’t just want Cloyd following his sophomore season; the Wildcats want him now. While it’s under consideration, Cloyd said he wants to be patient during the recruiting process, advice he received from Buckley. The head coach told him that his best football is in front of him, and that if he’s getting this much interest off of his first year playing linebacker that there will surely be more to come. Buckley told him, “If you just give me one more semester, I’m sure I can get you an SEC offer.”
The talented defender has a reserved personality at first glance, but once he gets to know people he opens up. That was true at Jones, according to Buckley, who called Cloyd one of Jones’ vocal leaders and a leader by example.
“I wish I had 55 KJs to be honest,” he said. “He’s on a mission as far as academics are concerned. He stays ahead in the classroom two to three weeks at a time. He just does everything that we ask of him.”
Cloyd said his role this past year he believes shocked everyone. He said you don’t bring a freshman in to be a leader; you bring a freshman in to be a freshman. But even as the youngest player on the defense, when he spoke they listened.
“There would come times when we’re in the game and coach would call a play, and they would look at me. We would be running this play, but they would want to know what I say,” he explained in a tone of surprise. “The first few practices we were all the same. After the first game, it was like it was my defense. That’s a lot to take in as a freshman, especially me.”
He left a lasting impression on his sophomore teammates, many of whom are now trying to recruit Cloyd to play with them again. He said for them to feel that way about him and to go out of their way to recruit him, it makes him feel like he’s doing something right.
The biggest problem Cloyd had during his freshman year was gaining weight. Even though he was eating everything the coaches were telling him to eat and the weight program was working for many of his teammates, his weight stayed the same. But during the season, when many of his teammates were losing the weight they had packed on, Cloyd actually began to see his weight increase, and he’s now up to 218 pounds.
One of Cloyd’s biggest strengths is his versatility. During his time at Columbia, he was primarily an edge rusher, but there were certain games where he would split out as a cornerback against bigger receivers. At Jones, he played inside linebacker in the base defense but outside linebacker/strong safety in the nickel defense. In the speed package, which was a dime defense with only one linebacker, Cloyd was the middle linebacker.
That versatility has college coaches drooling, and Cloyd said each school has a different vision for him. East Carolina wants him to play strong safety, Arizona wants him in the box as a “Star” linebacker — a linebacker/safety hybrid in a 4-2-5 scheme — others want him to be an edge rusher or a traditional outside linebacker.
Buckley raves about Cloyd’s versatility to cover running backs out of the backfield and receivers up the seam while being a thumper in the box. He added Cloyd’s combination of speed and physicality is what every coach is looking for.
“I think if KJ continues to develop, there is no ceiling. He has God-gifted traits with length and speed. Can he continue to improve his speed? Yes, but KJ can run. God gifted him with length—he’s 6-foot-2 and up to 218, and he’ll be up to 230 to 235 in another year,” he explained. “I think he’ll have a choice on wherever he wants to go to school eight months from now.”
Regardless of where he gets deployed on defense, Cloyd is going to work as hard as he can to be the best at that spot.
“If you put me at water boy, I’m going to be the best water boy in the country. If you put me on the line — I’m small — I’m going to strive to be the best. All I can say is that I’m going to work,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many tackles I’m going to make or how fast I am, but I can tell you I’m going to work. And whoever is facing me is going to have to work for four quarters.”
Since school was suspended nationwide, Cloyd has since returned to Columbia and has been staying in shape for when a return to normalcy surfaces. He wakes up in the morning to go running, then eats breakfast, which his coaches at Jones have told him is the No. 1 thing he needs to do to pack on good weight. He then works out with his brother, Omarie Johnson, a rising junior running back for Columbia who is sure to begin drawing the attention of college scouts aplenty after amassing 2,521 rushing yards and 27 touchdowns as a freshman and sophomore despite sharing the backfield with Ole Miss signee Kentrel Bullock.
Oftentimes they’re joined by Bullock and Syracuse running back Jarveon Howard, who starred at East Marion, at Walter Payton Field at Gardner Stadium.
Just last week they were all curious what their 40-yard dash times were so they measured off the distance, set up cones and pulled out their cell phones, using the stopwatch function to time each other. Cloyd ran a legitimate and verified 4.45 — a C-P reporter watched the video five times and timed it. While hand-timed 40-yard dashes are usually a tick faster than a laser-timed run, the general rule of thumb is to add about three-one-hundredths of a second to come up with the most accurate time. Even rounded down to a 4.48, Cloyd’s blazing run would’ve been third best for linebackers at this year’s NFL combine. His 4.45 time would’ve been second best.
“I shocked myself,” Cloyd said, cracking a wide smile and topping it off with a chuckle. “I had to run it a couple of times because I really didn’t believe it.”
And, at times, he can’t believe he still gets to play the game he loves when it was nearly ripped away from him. But if one thing is for certain, he’s not going to stop working until he reaches his dream nor will he stop praising God.
