From chasing his school bus to chasing opponents, how Kenneth Grant became Michigan’s resident freak

Kenneth Grant was about to miss the elementary school bus. He called his mom, Ewana, in a panic, but she was already miles away from their home in Northern Indiana on her way to work in Chicago. She wasn’t about to let him stay home alone all day, so she made it very clear that he had to book it.

“I said, ‘Hang this phone up. You better catch that bus before it goes out of this subdivision, and you better be on the bus,’ ” Ewana told The Michigan Daily.

With no other options, Kenneth took off. He ran as fast as his legs could take him, and at the last minute, just as the bus was turning out of his subdivision, he caught it. He made it to school without incurring his mom’s wrath, and he probably thought little else of his early-morning sprint at the time. Ten years later, the now-junior defensive lineman remembers that run clearly.

That was the day the freak realized his speed.

***

The transition from second to third grade was a big one for Kenneth. It wasn’t just because he learned cursive or his times tables. It was the year he realized he was big.

Suddenly, he was taller than all of his classmates. He noticed it, and so did everyone else. When he started playing football around age 8 or 9, he was certainly under the 250-pound weight limit, but others took note of his physical stature and weren’t so sure.

“Every game, the parents were like, ‘That’s a grown man. Did we weigh him in? Where’s his birth certificate?’ ” Ewana said. “So he’s been getting that since like 8 or 9 when he first started.”

Kenneth used his size to his advantage on the football field, but he didn’t let it pigeon hole him into one discipline. He was a year-round athlete, competing in basketball in the winter and track and field in the spring, in addition to fall football. 

In high school, Kenneth made a name for himself in shot put. To this day, he’s a top-10 shot put thrower in Merrillville High School history. His personal record of 60 feet ranks second at Merrillville in the 12-pound shot put.

“To throw shot put, that’s a strength and power thing,” Michigan strength and conditioning coach Justin Tress told The Michigan Daily. “You’re throwing the shot put, and the power and explosiveness you have to display through your lower body and then in the upper body with rotational movement. So it’s just pure strength and power, which relates right to exactly what he does on the football field as a defensive tackle.”

Kenneth’s strength was just as plain to see watching him throw the shot put as it was on the high school football field. Doing a bit of everything in his senior season, he played on both the offensive and defensive lines as well as special teams. On defense, he racked up 38 tackles, 6.5 sacks and 12 quarterback hurries.

His numbers, his size and his strength all caught the attention of Michigan coaches during Kenneth’s recruitment. But looking at his hulking frame, they had some concerns as well.

“A guy at his frame and size, body composition is initially the issue, so lean mass versus fat mass” Tress said. “For obvious reasons, the less fat mass, the better. So added body weight makes everything just slightly more challenging, whether it’s running, whether it’s your conditioning, whether it’s your stamina, all those things. So the expectations are for someone of his size to struggle.”

Former Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart led recruitment for Kenneth’s area, and when he visited Merrillville after Kenneth had committed to the Wolverines, he was hesitant. Hart noted Kenneth’s size and told him he better be training to pass Michigan’s conditioning test. Iin Hart’s view, Kenneth was nowhere near ready.

“It seemed like he was dead serious,” Kenneth told The Michigan Daily. “It kind of rubbed me the wrong way, so I was like, I’m gonna make sure I prove him wrong. It’s just all the competitive nature in me trying to prove people wrong.”

Tress’s first impression of Kenneth was the same as pretty much everyone else’s: He was really big. Weighing over 350 pounds when he first arrived at Michigan, Kenneth really was a specimen. But in his baseline evaluation, he proved that he could move, too.

Still, no one necessarily expected Kenneth to pass his conditioning test right away. Senior defensive linemen who had been building up endurance at Michigan for years routinely struggled with it. But Kenneth wanted to silence the doubters. 

“(I want to be) able to do everything that smaller people are able to do,” Kenneth said. “The smaller guys are more athletic I guess you could say, but just challenging myself to fit in that category as well. It’s always about competition in my eyes. I always try to challenge myself to do what people say is impossible.”

A mere month after he arrived on campus, Kenneth passed his conditioning test — introducing Michigan to the freak.

***

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In Beaver Stadium on Nov. 11, all eyes were on Penn State running back Kaytron Allen as he broke through a hole. Allen had yards of open field stretching out ahead of him all the way to the end zone. The Wolverines scrambled to pursue him, and one in particular found an angle and raced ahead of the pack. Finally, the Wolverine in question caught up to Allen, tackling him at the 40-yard and saving a likely touchdown in the process.

It was 340-pound Kenneth Grant.

His chasedown went viral, drawing national attention and shooting him up NFL Draft boards. The same discourse that had surrounded Kenneth his entire life — ‘How can such a big guy move so well?’ — became a national conversation. Those familiar with his abilities, though, saw it coming.

“It was awesome to see, but it wasn’t surprising to us because he displays that in a training environment,” Tress said. “What I was proud of is, out of all things ability-wise, that’s purely his effort and his mindset to have to go redirect, retrace and chase down that running back. That’s more so than his ability. His ability allowed him to do it. His effort is what made him do it.”

Just like Kenneth chased down his school bus some 10 years earlier, in Happy Valley he chased down a player who weighed 120 pounds less than him. He put the same unselfish effort into both endeavors because catching the bus and making it to school was important to his mom, and tackling Allen was important to his team.

Kenneth has never relied on his physical gifts by themselves. On his highlight play alone, he used his size and strength to shed his block, his football IQ to determine the right angle and his endurance to stick with the play. Spectators saw a big man tearing down the field, but the play garnered so much attention because people saw Kenneth’s effort accentuating his physical gifts.

“Given his size, his strength, his speed, his quickness, his ability to change direction, the effort that he displays, I’d say (he’s) a freak,” Tress said. “It’s freaky to be able to do that and to do that consistently.”

At Penn State last fall, the whole country finally got to see the freak.

***

Seeing Kenneth hurtle down the field at full speed can be a scary sight. As he chased Allen, for example, Kenneth was focused, pumping his arms and locking in on his target. But once he made the tackle, he simply stood up, calmly disentangled himself from Allen and walked away. At one moment, he was the picture of aggression, and the next, he was back to his normal, mild-mannered self.

“He’s a gentle giant,” Ewana said. “I’ve always said that you would think his personality would be a little more aggressive, but he’s such a teddy bear. That’s what I love about him.”

Kenneth is big, strong and fast. He fittingly came in at No. 3 on Bruce Feldman’s CFB Freaks list ahead of the 2024 season. He’s been lauded as part of the best interior defensive line duo in the country paired with fellow junior Mason Graham.

He also smiles as he speaks and shuffles his feet when he walks. He’s never the loudest in the room. He leads by example and takes younger members of his team under his wing. He’s proven he’s more than his size.

From a young age, Kenneth realized he was already big, so he worked to become fast and strong. He was driven to disprove preconceived notions about his abilities, and didn’t let his size tell the whole story.

Now, the effort he put in to develop his natural gifts has turned him into the freak who battles for Michigan each and every Saturday.

Courtesy of Ewana Chatman.

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