Georgia Tech defensive tackle Francis Kallon will be a most valuable team member during the team’s trip to Dublin to play Boston College in the season opener. Kallon has the benefit of actually having been to Ireland previously.
Further, he grew up in England, which hardly qualifies him as an expert, but his European upbringing stands apart from his teammates, most of whom have never left the U.S.
“I’ll be there to help them in aspects of the culture and the way things work over there,” Kallon said.
For the Yellow Jackets, the more pressing matter is how much assistance Kallon can provide once the game actually starts. Once an intriguing four-star prospect out of a Central Gwinnett High, Kallon has made little impact in his first three seasons but has been working with the first-team defense in preseason camp. Coaches are hopeful that, in their parlance, the light has come on.
“Francis hadn’t started much here, but he’s a senior, so you’re really looking for him to step up and have a year that we’ve all expected,” defensive line coach Mike Pelton said. “And I think he’s headed in the right direction. We’re counting on him, and the good thing about it is he knows we’re counting on him.”
Kallon’s potential has never been in question. Kallon wowed coaches from his first time putting on pads, as a high-school junior at Central Gwinnett. After moving from London as a high schooler, he tried the game out as a high-school junior in spring practice and, despite his complete lack of experience, drew scholarship offers because of his combination of size, strength and agility.
However, after redshirting, he played minimally in his first two seasons, stuck on the bench behind the likes of Euclid Cummings, Shawn Green and Adam Gotsis. Listed now at 6-foot-5 and 294 pounds, Kallon has strength, size, speed, agility and a long frame. He plays with an aggressive style. He was held back by his difficulty mastering the techniques that Pelton was trying to teach him.
“Just learning football my senior year of high school and being able to do whatever I wanted to do on the line in high school and then coming to college, where it’s more detailed and I have to focus on things that I probably overlooked – going through that was definitely a challenge for me,” he said.
Green said that Kallon repeatedly worked the techniques over and over to make them second nature.
“Sometimes it comes off like he’s a robot because he tries to almost do it to perfection,” said Green, now a realtor in Gwinnett County.
He took a step forward last season. Gotsis’ season ended in the ninth game of the season with an ACL tear. Defensive tackle Jabari Hunt-Days was suspended for two games and then quit the team late in the season. Kallon had no choice but to play. Kallon finished the season with 15 tackles in eight games, including three against North Carolina and four against Virginia.
“That size and quickness, the only one you can compare him to is Adam (Gotsis),” Green said.
Green made clear that Kallon and Gotsis are on different planes, but the comparison is apt at least in the sense that Kallon and Gotsis both came to Tech with minimal grounding in the game. Gotsis, who arrived from Australia and developed into a second-round pick, took a mentoring role to Kallon and the two continue to communicate when they can.
“He’s been very instrumental in my development, helping me and teaching me things that he’s been able to learn and grasp, passing that down to me,” Kallon said.
Tech will need Kallon to produce. The tackle rotation likely will include returning starter Patrick Gamble, Kallon and Kyle Cerge-Henderson, who played as a first-year freshman last season. After that, the options are redshirt or first-year freshmen.
For Tech, Kallon needs to be a productive, dependable member of a defense that tied for 91st in yards per rush last season (4.69) and was tied for 120th in sacks per game (1.2).
“There’s a lot of guys trying to get in the depth chart and make an impression, and so there’s depth there, but not a lot of experience,” Pelton said. “So we’re just trying to get guys ready and let the chips fall where they may.”
Kallon estimated he’ll have around 20 family members coming from London who will see him play for the first time. (Ireland is accessible by a short flight or a ferry ride from England.) He’s understandably eager for the trip and the season ahead.
“Every day is just a constant development, a constant growth,” he said. “I would never say I’m there, (or) I’ve got everything together. But, definitely, miles from where I started.”
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