Q&A with West Florence coach Jody Jenerette on Kelvin Hunter

Florence (S.C.) West Florence four-star safety Kelvin Hunter was one of three priority South Carolina football targets to commit to the Gamecocks this past Wednesday.

The 5-foot-11.5, 179-pounder was considered a long-time South Carolina lean before he officially chose to join the Gamecocks’ Top 5 2024 recruiting class over Appalachian State, Auburn, Michigan, and Virginia Tech.

West Florence head football coach Jody Jenerette joined the Gamecock Central Takeover on 107.5 The Game Friday to discuss what South Carolina is getting in his star player.

Q&A with Jody Jenerette on Kelvin Hunter

What has Hunter brought to your team over the last few years?

Obviously, the thing with Kelvin is everybody loves his speed, he can flat-out fly, and you’ve got to have that in the SEC, you’ve gotta be able to run. And he’s physical, he loves playing in the box, which is a lot different than most high school kids are nowadays, they want to shy away from contact. He’s a in-your-face type player. And when you combine, 4.4 whatever he is (40-yard-dash), with the physicality that he has, it’s attractive and there’s a lot of tools that were attracted to him.

But he can also backpedal. Obviously at our level, we don’t want him backpedaling as much because high school football is about being able to run the ball. And I think when he gets to college, and gets with T Gray and those guys, he can definitely learn how to backpedal. He can be a secondary type guy, but he’s so physical, I think you gotta roll him down, you got to know when to bring him down, when to let him play back and that kind of stuff.

And what a better fit than Coach Gray and those guys at South Carolina to understand how to use him. I think he’s raw still. He’s 190 pounds but he ran 22.9 miles an hour yesterday with our Catapult system. So there’s a lot of positives to Kelvin Hunter and he is not even close to where he can be.

What does it mean to have a legit SEC guy making all these plays on special teams for you?

I’m one of those guys, I don’t truly love special things, but I know the difference that makes in a game. And we tell our guys, you have an opportunity to make a play right now. And we were a little different team last year, when we needed that juice, we needed to get the ball back in certain situations. And he’s got a knack for it man.

And it don’t matter, you can coach blocked punts an hour a day, if your guys don’t have a knack to get in there and do it, it don’t matter. And he knows how to dip the shoulder, he knows how to run the leg. He knows how to run the hump. And he knows how to get long at the punter’s foot. I think Coach Lembo and obviously what they do on special teams, they’re gonna love him, because he’s one of those guys that can do it.

He had six blocked kicks last year and that’s one of the things I’ve never heard of as a football coach. I didn’t know that you could do that. And the sky’s the limit for what he can do on special teams. But there’s nothing like the double thud of a blocked punt. If you get that off that punter’s foot, the game is gonna change automatically. And thank goodness, he’s on our team making that happen.

How do you see him being used at the next level in terms of position?

You hear all the pretty terms now with nickel and dime and all that stuff. But the nickel guy has taken over the game of college football and leading into the pros as well.

But he’s a hybrid-type guy, I think he can do a ton of stuff. I don’t think he’s a true corner and that aspect of things. But I do think you got to have that guy kind of roaming around, being able to run that true 4.4 downhill using angles, using separation, and things that he can do from just a God-given standpoint.

I think he’s gonna be a walk-down type guy, they’re gonna use him as a nickel guy, he’ll cover good enough if you have to, but you know that guy needs to be near the ball, and they’ll find a way to get him where he needs to be.

But there’s a ton of potential there with him and what he can do, maybe not next year or the year after that, but by two or three years from now when he’s really gotten in the weight room and learned how to eat and that kind of stuff. He’s gonna be one that I think South Carolina fans are gonna love.

What did you see from South Carolina with the job they did recruiting him?

Well, we took Kelvin down after his ninth-grade year for camp and we showed up with zero expectations. He only had truly JV film, we only bought him up for like the last three games of his freshman year. So he didn’t really have great film to offer and he went and just ran a great time.

And we were at camp that day, and we got there at like 9, and Skylar Wise was helping work the camp, and she’s like, ‘You guys will be gone by 1:00,’ and I’m sitting there thinking it’s about 4:00 and he’s still back there with Coach Beamer. So Coach Beamer calls me in as well, and they went and offered him that day based off his JV film. When you can run and people know you can run, you got a chance.

Obviously, what South Carolina has done so far with the recruiting rankings that they have right now. They’ve got a family-type atmosphere, and that term gets thrown around all the time, but there’s something to be said for the way Coach Beamer and those guys are doing it.

Coach (Sterling) Lucas is our recruiting area guy, he’s fantastic. And obviously Coach Gray and the way he communicates with Kelvin, you can already tell they’ve got a relationship.

And they’re just a little different than everybody else right now, to be honest with you, man. Like we have schools coming to our place right and left. And there’s just something about them cats, when they walk in or you go there, there’s a different vibe there than anywhere else that has recruited Kelvin or recruited us.

And obviously, I can tell you all day about the things they do, but there’s the vibe that every single recruit they get knows that they care about them, and they’re gonna be part of something special.

You’ve been following ball in SC for a long time, what can you tell us about the overall job they’ve done?

They’ve caught up with the actual facility-type things. Let’s say School A’s got a $60 million facility, well School B better have a $61 million facility. And that’s what they’ve done, they’ve shown that they’re going to invest in what matters. And you can say the bells and whistles don’t matter, well it does. All that stuff matters when you’re in the recruiting aspect of things. And when you’re all par, there’s no reason why you can’t go and win.

And it’s a great location number one, it’s obviously in the heart of South Carolina. And there’s a ton of talent in South Carolina. And it’s that untapped talent that is finally getting tapped into if you look in our area, with the Sellers kid, the Adams kid at Lake City, our guys we have, that’s just three or four guys off the bat, all legit Division 1, SEC guys.

And to be able to have that central location to have that many guys that can play in that in that small of bubble or area. You know, imagine what you can do if you take that bubble to another part of the state or another part of state and it’s just, high school football is growing like crazy because there’s so many really good high school football coaches and programs are believing in strength training and believing in work and believing in doing everything it takes to get their kids to the next level.

And Coach Beamer has just attached on to that. And he’s a South Carolina dude through and through. You talk to him and you know absolutely beyond the shadow of a doubt, that’s his dream job. And whenever you have your dream job, you can make special things happen. And I think that’s what’s happening right now.

Since you opened the door to bringing up Sellers… what can you tell us about what you saw of him from the other sideline?

Man, you know, if he didn’t get hurt as a junior, they would have probably won the state championship his junior year too. And I said that at a little thing we had here in Florence. You know, he’s just that kind of guy. He’s a once in a generational type talent.

The thing that LaNorris Sellers is, he’s one of the smartest human beings I’ve ever talked with at that age group. And he’s also, if he was an older guy. I told him, I think the guy could fly a spaceship if you asked him to. He’s that smart. He’s just such a fantastic kid. And that’s another term that gets thrown around a bunch. But when you’re talking to him, man, you know this guy’s special and a leader.

And the fact that he didn’t have 100 Division 1 offers, I will never understand that as long as I coach. That kid was a no-brainer from day one. And obviously what he’s done in South Carolina so far, people are seeing what we saw. I mean, there was no hope on Friday night. I mean, if it was third and 2 — first down — or if it was fourth and 1 — first down. If it was third and eight — first down. And Coach (Drew) Marlowe and those guys did a fantastic job with him. They put him in an offense where he could thrive. And that’s what he did. And guess what, he’s gonna do the exact same thing at South Carolina. And he is he’s one of those guys, man that you just know was going to be special. And I think if he can stay healthy, the sky’s the limit.

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