Ohio’s record-setting Mr. Football ready for chance to star at LSU
CINCINNATI (BVM) — Sometimes, athletes are just different. They make the competition they’re playing against look slower, weaker or even less talented. Roger Bacon senior Corey Kiner is one of those elite talents, and the running back proved so time and time again throughout his prep football career.
Kiner began impressing on the football field already at just 4 years old. Watching his older brother play on the gridiron is what got Kiner interested in football among many other sports growing up.
“My older brother played football and growing up I was always going to his games,” Kiner said. “When I was finally old enough to go play when I was 4, I started playing and it was really my older brother and my dad that got me into football.”
Although Kiner began his young football career as a primarily defensive player, by age 6, he found his home in the sport at running back. While his exceptional defensive play continued, and his versatility shined as a kick returner and even occasional quarterback, Kiner’s name became well-known across the state of Ohio throughout his youth career.
By eighth grade, it was time for Kiner to make a decision on which area high school he would attend. Although there may have been options available with more successful football programs, Kiner chose Roger Bacon High School in a decision that went beyond the sport.
“It came down to Roger Bacon because my grade school is down the street from it and a lot of the kids from my grade school came to Roger Bacon,” Kiner said. “I just wanted to be around my friends that I had gone to school with since kindergarten. I wasn’t really thinking about football when I picked my high school because I had enough faith in myself and my dad had enough faith in me to go anywhere and get recruited from any school.”
Prepared to put Roger Bacon fully on the map, Kiner did so immediately as a freshman. In his first year, the 5-foot-10 running back put up an impressive 1,126 yards and 15 touchdowns. Named a first-team all-district and all-state honorable mention player, an all-impressive prep career was just beginning.
Kiner would improve on his success as a sophomore, rushing for over 1,700 yards and 26 touchdowns — both single-season program records at the time.
“Coming from grade school, I was a pretty big and strong kid,” Kiner said. “When I got to high school, I was faster than a lot of people and it really wasn’t a big adjustment for me from grade school to high school.”
His seamless transition to high school football set the stage for a historic junior campaign. During the 2019 season, Kiner finally hit his 2,000-yard goal, rushing for an eye-popping 2,298 yards and 40 touchdowns. The football standout even had one game in which he ran for eight touchdowns.
“Junior year I got my goal and every week I was coming out trying to score and get as many yards as I could any time that I touched the ball,” Kiner said. “By doing that, I was helping my team.
“Leading up to the eight-touchdown game, the students from that school said I was overrated. It was all friendly but that kind of gave me the edge. I didn’t talk at school the whole day trying to prepare myself for the game. I got my team hyped and wanted to show them that I wasn’t overrated. Throughout the game, I didn’t know how many touchdowns I had. I was worried about scoring more and was ready to keep scoring. After the game, when they told me how many I scored, I was kind of amazed.”
Performances like that throughout the season helped Roger Bacon to a 10-2 record and its first playoff appearance since 2010. For Kiner, it helped him earn first-team all-conference, all-district and all-state honors. He also broke both the career rushing yards and rushing touchdown records at Roger Bacon in the process.
Ready to follow-up his impressive junior season with an encore as a senior, concern began growing for Kiner and his team as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact high school sports through the summer and into the fall.
“With Covid, we didn’t know if we were even going to get a season,” Kiner said. “We had to stop working out together and some guys had to stop working out because they didn’t have the resources. Our coaches told us throughout the offseason to be ready so we were and stayed prepared in case we did have a season. Once we got to the season, we started off on a roll because our guys were so ready.”
That roll would see Roger Bacon go undefeated over its first 10 games. Although the season would come to an end in game 11, the Spartans won their first-ever regional championship.
Meanwhile, Kiner would run for another 35 touchdowns, putting himself in third on the OHSAA’s all-time rushing touchdown list with 116 in his career. He would also rack up another 1,866 yards, placing him 10th on the OHSAA’s career rushing-yardage list with 7,130.
Kiner also sits in third on the state’s total touchdown and total points lists. Had he not sat out numerous quarters of blowout games — particularly as a senior — Kiner very well could have finished his career first in many of these categories.
While he followed up with similar accolades to his junior season, this time, Kiner went one further by earning Ohio’s Mr. Football award. Although the award was an impressive personal accomplishment, the humble running back notes that it was also a tremendous accomplishment for his school and team.
“I found out a day or two before I actually won the award,” Kiner mentioned. “When I found out, I was extremely happy because I was talking about winning the award before the season started and how much it would mean to me and my team to just show people that if you come to Roger Bacon, you can do anything. Me winning Mr. Football in Ohio put the icing on the cake and it means a lot to me.
“My class and a couple classes before us came in and changed the culture at Roger Bacon.”
While he has been a consensus top-10 running back in the nation and top-10 overall player in Ohio, Kiner doesn’t pay attention to the rankings, rather focusing on himself and the potential he has.
“It meant a lot to me to be ranked that high,” Kiner said. “When I first started getting ranked, I looked at it as a fan and tried to keep up. But I got over that. Yeah, they gave me a number, but that number doesn’t determine how much heart I have or how good I really am. Humbly saying this, I feel like I’m the best running back in the country and I’m putting in the work now to hopefully be seen as the best someday.”
Part of what makes Kiner so special is not only his talent, hard work and confidence, but also his ability to stay humble and grounded in the face of success. One prime example of that is the appreciation he has for the simple things many take for granted, such as the school janitors at Roger Bacon — one of which he gave a special shoutout to during his Mr. Football acceptance speech.
“I feel like the environment I come from and the family that I was raised in help me stay humble,” Kiner noted. “I’ve realized all your success can go away just like that so you have to treat people how you want to be treated. The janitors do so much at my school and clean up after our messes everyday. They don’t complain about it and just do it and I respect them for it. I try to clean up all of my messes and I talk with them every single day.”
Whoever Kiner chose to play for at the next level knew that they would be getting a special athlete and individual, and that school will be LSU.
OFFICIAL ✍️🐯 pic.twitter.com/Hml2jk0ixU
— TWO WON (@CoreyKiner) December 17, 2020
Kiner had an impressive list of colleges he considered when narrowing down to his top-10, including Big Ten schools like Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan and Purdue, as well as numerous other SEC schools in Florida, Georgia and Texas A&M. Louisville, as well as his hometown school, Cincinnati, were also in the mix.
However, after Kiner went on a virtual visit of LSU and continued growing his relationship with the coaching staff, his mind was made up.
“I talked to LSU a lot through my junior year and they offered me after the season,” Kiner said. “I took my virtual tour, and that just kind of sent me over the top. Everything that they were doing as far as academics was top notch and they had everything and more with football. I just fell in love with it and the best thing was that my parents did too. LSU was one of my favorite schools growing up and I just couldn’t pass up on that opportunity.”
Now, Kiner will get to work with multi-time Super Bowl-winning running backs coach Kevin Faulk, as well as play for one of the most respected coaches in college football, Ed Orgeron.
“It means a lot to me to learn from Coach Faulk,” Kiner said. “I’ve just really got to know him and he’s a very genuine person.”
Kiner has not set any goals for his college career yet, other than doing his best whether it’s in the classroom or on the field, and doing anything he can to help his team. However, he does hope to see the field right away in his freshman year, and make an immediate impact for the Tigers.
With a talent like Kiner, it is never too early to start thinking about a pro career either. While a special tenure at LSU first awaits, Kiner has long envisioned having his name called on Sundays, and is eager to pursue an NFL career.
“It’s been a dream of mine since I started playing football and since I knew what the NFL letters stood for,” Kiner concluded. “It’s going to take a lot and you have to do extra because if it was that easy, everyone would be in the NFL. I just have to have that mindset that I want to be great. It just takes hard work and dedication and it would mean a lot to be able to achieve my dream.”
