Kenneth Grant caused a stir when he first arrived in Michigan.

Grant, a three-star recruit from Indiana, wasn’t a big name in the 2022 recruiting class. And when he showed up in Ann Arbor as a 17-year-old – weighing well over 350 pounds on a 6-foot-3 frame – Wolverines coaches were pretty sure he wasn’t ready for the team’s conditioning program.

“He came in here at 365 pounds,” said Justin Tress, Michigan’s conditioning coach. “Most guys that size almost certainly fail the conditioning test.”

“You don’t know what you’re working with, but then we watched him do the three-cone workout and we all looked at each other and thought, ‘Wow!’ Then we watched him do the plyo stair workout and we were like, ‘Holy crap!'”

(Courtesy of University of Michigan Athletics)

Grant managed just 3.2 seconds on his first attempts on the reactive plyo stairs, a series of seven 26-inch-high steps that players jump up as fast as possible. After a few weeks, his time had dropped to 2.77 seconds – faster even than former Michigan “Freak” Mazi Smith, who was more than 20 pounds lighter.

“Everyone almost fell over when they saw that,” said Ben Herbert, Michigan’s former strength coach.

And then, about a month after he stepped on campus, Grant passed the team’s conditioning test.

“I’ve never seen a guy that big just pass a conditioning test,” said Mike Hart, former UM running backs coach who recruited Grant to Michigan. “I was shocked, but that’s the way he is. We had experienced defensive linemen on the team who didn’t pass the test, and then you’re just there, four weeks in, and you aces that test. That says everything you need to know about him. He’s a special kid. He’s super flexible. His work ethic is phenomenal.”

Grant, ranked No. 3 on this year’s Freaks List, ran the 40 meters in 4.9 seconds later that summer after getting down to 360 pounds.

Herbert predicted at the time that Grant would “probably become the No. 1 (freak)” if he continued to work hard.

The massive defensive lineman appears to have done just that. Last season, he proved to be a disruptive force on the national championship team, anchoring the middle of the Wolverines’ defense. He recorded 29 tackles, five TFLs and 3.5 sacks, along with six quarterback hurries, five pass breakups and one interception.

Grant also made one of the most athletic plays ever seen from a full-time defensive lineman, outrunning Penn State running back Kaytron Allen for 30 yards. That play – more than the remarkable feats he performs in the weight room – is why so many people in football consider him a rare talent.

“That play went viral, but he does that every day,” said former Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. “It was cool to see him get recognized for it, but no one in the program was surprised because we saw that every day.”

Former Michigan defensive tackle Kris Jenkins said, “If you watch practice film, you can see him tearing everybody down – in camp, in spring ball, in practice. That’s just what he does.”

Mike Elston, who like Minter followed former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh into the NFL, raves about Grant’s potential.

“For 350 pounds, he has the best conditioning of any big man I’ve ever known,” said Elston, who began his coaching career at Michigan in the late 1990s. “He’s just scratching the surface. I love the way he studies the game. He’s going to be absolutely phenomenal.”

This fall, Grant will be one of the cornerstones of a revamped Michigan team that will have to replace 17 starters. Led by Grant and fellow defensive lineman Mason Graham, the Wolverines are still considered very dangerous on defense.

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“The things I’ve seen Kenneth and Mason do are insane,” Michigan senior tight end Max Bredeson said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You look at them and think, ‘How did you do that at over 300 pounds?’ There’s just such a great confidence and connection between the two of them.

“With Kenneth, you get used to it now because you see him every day. But he’s so huge and you watch him in the conditioning tests and he doesn’t miss a beat. The way he strides, the way he runs, everything looks so fluid and natural and fast. He can fly. It’s crazy. When you watch him doing plyometrics stair training, you think, ‘How did you do that?'”

This offseason, Grant lifted a 115-pound dumbbell 34 times with his right arm and 27 times with his left arm. He jumped 29 inches and did a Turkish get-up with a 150-pound dumbbell. His maximum speed was measured at 18.75 miles per hour. Tress believes Grant could run the 40 miles in 4.8 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“Watching KG’s movements is like a work of art,” Tress said. “He plays and trains violently and explosively.”

Grant went unnoticed for most of the recruiting process because much of his high school career took place during the pandemic and his hometown of Merrillville in northwest Indiana is not a recruiting hotspot. He also only attended two college camps — at Wisconsin and Ohio State. Both of those schools offered him offers, but he was still ranked only the No. 59 defensive tackle in his class in the 247Sports Composite.

“In this COVID class, there weren’t as many recruits in some areas,” Grant said. “I wasn’t able to go to many camps. But it really doesn’t matter because I’m here … now.”

“I just stayed humble and kept working on it, and now you can see it coming through.”

(Photo: Melanie Maxwell / Detroit Free Press / USA Today Network)