Kendall Coleman’s parents spend their Sundays rewatching the Syracuse game from the day before. Coleman’s mother, Nikki, noticed her son is quicker off the line this year. With his body lower to the ground, he bends smoother toward the quarterback. He’s surgical with his strikes.

After 1.5 sacks in his first 20 games at Syracuse, Coleman focused on his pass rush this offseason. He increased his flexibility by rehabbing an injured shoulder, studied offensive tackles and focused on the minute details of rushing the quarterback. But he didn’t know how those things connected. Everything came together 643 miles from the SU campus during a family bonding session, where Nikki introduced her 6-foot-3, 266-pound pass rusher to kickboxing.

“Kendall is a guy that studies a lot,” Nikki said. “And I think going to that class with him, showing him some movements and how to move his body and his hands, I think that sticks with him.”

Six games in, Coleman sits tied for seventh in the nation with six sacks for Syracuse (4-2, 1-2 Atlantic Coast). The junior defensive end said after two years of primarily stopping the run, he spent the last offseason fine-tuning his pass rush. The uptick in production is tough for Coleman to explain because one thing didn’t change. Everything did. He never focused on pass rushing before. And in an offseason full of weight lifting, deeper opponent analysis and the shifting away from the run-first mindset, a workout with mom remains the quirkiest nuance.

“This is the first year that I’ve really started to grasp and figure out my body type,” Coleman said, “and how I move versus these guys and what they’re doing.”

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In Syracuse’s loss at Florida State last season — a team Coleman tallied two sacks against in 2018 — Coleman registered one quarterback hurry. Early in the fourth quarter, Coleman’s pass rush failed. When an offensive lineman punched out at Coleman, he tried to rip around him, but he wasn’t low enough. When he was stonewalled running downfield, he scrambled back inside but spun out of the play.

Coleman admitted he hasn’t always studied tackle movements. He said in past years he didn’t bring his lower half with him. Tackles didn’t have to adjust to his movements. Coleman failed to turn the corner on a tackle headed for the quarterback, he said.

When Coleman came home for a brief period in July, his sister, Kourtney, and Nikki wanted family-oriented activities. Nikki suggested the trio attend classes at iLoveKickboxing in Carmel, Indiana. Coleman initially declined. “He’s practical,” Nikki explained. He didn’t want Nikki paying $30 for a membership he’d use once. But Nikki and Kourtney convinced Coleman to attend an orientation class where the former three-star recruit stood out immediately.

“And I was like, ‘Oh God, this guy could eat me for breakfast,’” said iLoveKickboxing Assistant Manager Tarrin Cooper.

Cooper worked Coleman through his opening day routine, which is significantly lighter than a normal day of training.

At 5:45 a.m. two days later, Coleman and about five other clients in the class began with what iLoveKickboxing calls SHIIT (Super high intensity interval training) for 15 minutes. After the circuit of burpees, pushups, mountain climbers, situps and various other core exercises, the group stretched for seven or eight minutes.

Then came the principles that directly correlate for Coleman. The class practiced punch and kick combos on a heavy punching bag for three minutes at a time. Initially, Coleman smacked the bags too hard to combo, Cooper said. Cooper instructed him to unleash less power with each punch to throw more rapidly. With each combo, Coleman’s lower body corresponded with the movements of his upper half. If he threw a left hook punch, he stepped with his left foot.

In pass rushing, the concept is called “bringing your hips through,” Coleman said. In the third quarter of Syracuse’s 30-7 win over Florida State, Coleman’s quick fake to the inside led to a rip move outside. As his left arm cut through, his left leg swung simultaneously past the Seminoles’ left tackle. He stepped with his left foot, which squared Coleman’s hips to FSU quarterback Deondre Francois and ended with a sack.

“I tried to have him string together his combos,” Cooper said. “From this combo into the next combo. It helps with form overall.”

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After the heavy bags, Coleman worked on his hands. In one drill, a partner holds their hands shoulder-width apart, with their gloves serving as targets for the other boxer. While Coleman punched, the class emphasized locking in on a target. After each punch, boxers are taught to reset their hands and feet. The back and forth movements reminiscent of ballet dancing are also common in pass rushing.

On the first drive of the second half against Clemson, Coleman stepped four times before making contact with offensive tackle Mitch Hyatt. Left. Right. Left. Right. Coleman’s lanky frame appeared nearly elastic. At the fourth step, with his feet evened up, he punched Hyatt’s shoulders with both arms and ripped through his outside shoulder en route to his first sack of the afternoon.

“A defensive end is going to use his hands to get off the block or get off the line fast,” iLoveBoxing instructor Kyle Miller said. “Teaching him how to not just punch hard but bring his hands back, just as fast for those quick trigger muscles … that helped him a lot as well.”

After less than a week of boxing training, Coleman returned to Syracuse. He said the kickboxing made him think more about how his body moves. He’s since kickboxed in the SU weight room several times, despite not finding teammates willing to join in.

“For other guys, the stuff that they needed to work on was more oriented toward the bags on the field,” Coleman said. “And the stuff that that I needed to work on had me on the heavy bag.”

Published on October 10, 2018 at 10:45 pm

Contact Josh: jlschafe@syr.edu | @Schafer_44