6-foot, 7-inch eighth grader Kiyanta Goodwin already has nine football scholarship offers, including the latest from national power Alabama. He weighs 370 pounds and is still growing. A doctor thinks he could easily top seven feet.
What really thrills coaches about the prospective lineman, though, is how fluidly he moves.
Goodwin, 14, from Louisville, Kentucky, posted on Twitter that he has been offered the coveted Alabama scholarship, even though he has not played a single down of high school football yet, Larry Brown Sports reported on Sunday. He included a photo of him and Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban.
Florida State, Louisiana State, Syracuse, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Georgia have all offered Goodwin scholarships. He posted about the Florida State scholarship, too.
Goodwin also went on social media to talk about his visits to Michigan and Ohio State.
The Bleacher Report said in May that colleges with a robotics program may have an upper hand in landing the future college lineman, who is already as big or bigger than many of players he would face on a collegiate football field today.
"Robotics brings creating and today's technology together, and I love all of it," Goodwin said. "I love it so much that I know I want to do it with my life. Finding a robotics program is more important to me than finding a football team.”
"… Football is something I love doing, but it's also something I want to use to get more out of life. I could be one of the first people in my family to graduate. I want to go to college and get a degree."
Middle school appears to be the new breeding ground for college football recruits. Alabama offered then middle schooler Jaheim Oatis a scholarship last year. Oatis, a 6-foot-4, 286 pounder from Columbia, Mississippi, was also offered full-rides from the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State.
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