FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Kevin Dodd came and went as he pleased during his senior season at Riverside High School.
If he didn’t feel like going to practice on Monday, he didn’t go. It his feeling hadn’t changed by Tuesday, same deal. Dodd would pick and choose when he participated in football-related activities. It eventually got him kicked off the team, all the while he was committed to sign with Clemson that February.
“It was me just not being fully devoted to the game and not really liking it like I do now,” Dodd said. “Now, I love the game. I’d almost do anything to stay around it.”
The proof is in the pudding. This season, his fourth at Clemson, Dodd has set career highs in tackles (73), tackles for loss (15.5), sacks (8.5) and quarterback pressures (11).
A starter in all 13 games in 2015, Dodd will be opposite of fellow defensive end Shaq Lawson when Clemson lines up against Oklahoma’s offense in the Orange Bowl on Thursday.
“I did not expect any of this. As a child, I didn’t dream to be playing football at a high level,” Dodd said. “It’s just something that came out of nowhere.”
Football is no longer on the back burner on simmer. It’s front and center, cranked all the way up to high.
“I just love the game now,” Dodd said.
He fell in love after his freshman year, when he played 87 snaps over eight games. Dodd now wonders what took him so long.
“I understand that you tend to be afraid of the unknown,” he said. “You’re scared to branch out, because of the unknown and what you don’t know. I guess I was scared as a young man.
“I was scared to fail and come and play at this high level with these grown men, to be scared to perform like I’m supposed to, like everybody at my high school expected me to be.”
The rear-view mirror has been ripped off the windshield, because Dodd hasn’t looked back.
When Clemson’s 2015 run comes to an end, whether that’s on Thursday night or in mid-January, Dodd will once again be faced with the unknown.
The NFL is waiting on his answer.
“You always want to be in a position to better yourself,” Dodd said. “Right now, I am. I’ve just got to keep playing hard.”
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