De’Voun Kendrick just gave Florida fans a glimpse of why he is so intriguing

Florida is hosting its annual Friday Night Lights event, followed by the "Grille in the Ville," this weekend. It’s a chance for prospects to showcase their abilities as well as a chance for all of Florida’s 2027 commits to bond and come together.

The notable names of Florida’s 2027 class are in Gainesville, including Maxwell Hiller and Davin Davidson. But one of the other under-the-radar names in Florida’s class of 2027 is defensive lineman De’Voun Kendrick, and he showcased on Friday night why Jon Sumrall took a chance on him for this class.

Florida commit De’Voun Kendrick showcases his fluidity

Kendrick is listed at 6’4” and 300 pounds, but one would never know it from what he put on display on Friday. In a video posted by Zach Blostein of 247, Kendrick was seen going through a drill with the fluidity of someone who is 200 pounds.

It’s extremely impressive, especially for someone who we have felt is accurately rated by the recruiting services. He is a consensus three-star with a Rivals Industry Ranking of 596th. When we reviewed Kendrick back in April, we said:

“In half the clips, it seems like he is getting double-teamed half the time and he still has the raw power to come out of them and make an impact on the play. And when teams miss their blocking assignments and give Kendrick a free runway to the QB, he will hit with some force.

He does still need to refine his disengagement moves, and the three-star rating is completely fair, but as the saying goes, he does have size that doesn’t grow on trees, and it’s not unreasonable to think he could be a 350-pound stopgap in the middle of Florida’s line in the future.”

In a lot of ways, Sumrall is banking on the size of being able to refine those passing rushing moves and is going off the belief that Kendrick has the size and mobility that very few prospects around the country have.

It will be interesting to see if Kendrick's star ranking rises as he floats around this summer. As we say all the time, we here at Hail Florida Hail tend to place more value on a player’s film than a camp. But if he can showcase this kind of movement once the pads come back on, there is a pathway he winds up a four-star by the time he makes it to campus for real in January.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow