Brother's plight, bold recruiting decision helped Kenneth Gainwell become a Memphis football star

When he did what no other Memphis running back before him had done, when he became the first NCAA college football player since 1997 to eclipse 200 yards receiving and 100 yards rushing in a single game, when he crossed the goal line for a third time Saturday night, Kenneth Gainwell didn’t celebrate because he just made history. 

He celebrated like he does after every touchdown he scores.

“I think back to when my brother was in the hospital. He had a stroke,” Gainwell said. “Those moments, it just all comes out of me. That emotion, it just all comes out of me at one time.”

Gainwell let this slip after the Tigers’ win over Tulane on Saturday, once he cemented his status as Memphis football’s newest star running back. 

Which is, before we go any further, the overarching story surrounding this one. 

The Tigers had the nation’s second-leading rusher (Darrell Henderson), another NFL bound tailback (Tony Pollard) and a potential NFL draft pick (Patrick Taylor) all in one backfield last year, while a player who this year is second in the country in all-purpose yards even though he doesn’t return kicks and punts (Gainwell) took a redshirt year. It’s preposterous to consider now, and proof of what coach Mike Norvell’s offense has become at Memphis.      

But this comment, during a postgame press conference, was the first real glimpse Gainwell had allowed into how and why this is happening for him this season. 

'They always think about their brother'

So why is a 5-foot-11, 191-pound redshirt freshman from Yazoo City, Mississippi, who picked Memphis over Ole Miss, putting together a season for the record books? 

The answer begins with Curtis Gainwell Jr. because he wanted to play college football, too. 

When he enrolled at Southern Miss on an academic scholarship for the 2013-14 school year, he tried to walk on to the football team. But those plans ended while lifting weights on Sept. 3, 2013. 

The doctor said “he had a bleed to the brain,” Curtis Gainwell Sr. said.

It was a major stroke that eventually required four brain surgeries. It took away mobility in Gainwell Jr.’s right hand. It took away his ability to play sports anymore.  

Kenneth Gainwell was in the eighth grade when it all happened, when he realized football dreams can be taken away for inexplicable reasons, just like that.

He and his younger brother, Kory, who’s a senior at Yazoo County High School this year, “kind of put that on their shoulders,” Curtis Gainwell Sr. said, “like when they play ball, they always think about their brother.”

“Every time he steps out on the field or at practice, that’s why he says he practices and plays so hard,” Yazoo County football coach Robert Dobbs said. “He realizes everybody don’t always get that opportunity.” 

'Memphis is the place I need to be'

So how did Gainwell end up here? The answer helps explain why he's so easy to root for, and why his brother and the backs before him are part of this, too. 

“I saw an opportunity,” Gainwell explained matter-of-factly when asked this question earlier this month.

Peel back the layers of this, though, and it offers a peek inside Norvell’s operation. Because Memphis was the first FBS school to offer Gainwell a scholarship and consistently pursue him through some academic issues heading into his senior year, Dobbs and Gainwell Sr. said.

Gainwell was a dual-threat quarterback in high school who led Yazoo County to the best season in school history – a 14-1 record and a berth in the Mississippi 3A state championship game. He was then named co-MVP of the 2017 Mississippi/Alabama High School All-Star Classic.

Around this time, Ole Miss stepped up its recruiting efforts. On Dec. 20, 2017, Gainwell nonetheless signed with Memphis during the early signing period.

But then former Memphis inside linebackers coach Dan Lanning, Gainwell’s primary recruiter, announced he was leaving for a job at Georgia in February. Gainwell found out on Twitter.

Here’s the most remarkable part: “It ain’t bother me at all,” Gainwell said. “I knew I had a home.”  

Even though his father told him more scholarship offers would come, perhaps from bigger schools, if he were to re-open his recruitment. Even though Dobbs reminded him Memphis already had a bunch of good running backs on campus. Even though Gainwell had a bond with Lanning, a bond so strong that the two still talk often today. 

Choosing Memphis over a Power 5 school went beyond simply relationships. It was about Norvell’s offensive scheme. It was, more than anything, about the football, and what Memphis football is right now.

"Coach, this is a no brainer,” Gainwell finally told Dobbs at one point. “Memphis is the place I need to be.”

'They missed out on a good one'

Memphis is where he was Saturday night, running roughshod over another defense through the air and on the ground like no Tigers football player before him. 

After five straight games (and counting) in which he rushed for more than 100 yards, the question is no longer how Gainwell fits into the offensive plan when Taylor returns. It’s how Taylor will fit in when he returns. That’s how good Gainwell has been. 

“I know that Ole Miss and Mississippi State hate that they didn’t pick him up,” Curtis Gainwell Sr. said with a laugh. “I want them to know that. They missed out on a good one.”

The Gainwells, meanwhile, haven’t missed a home game at the Liberty Bowl, and so they were there for the show against Tulane. 

Including Curtis Jr. 

He graduated from a junior college last year and hopes to become a sports journalist. Right now, though, he supports his brothers while they do what he can’t anymore. 

So once Kenneth Gainwell got back to the sideline in the fourth quarter, once the Liberty Bowl public address announcer acknowledged that he had just become the first Memphis player to have more than 100 rushing yards and 100 receiving yards in the same game, the emotions he felt in the end zone were a lot like the emotions in the stands.

"When I heard them call his name and said that he had made a new record, and then to see the people stand up and to give him some praise for what he had done,” Curtis Gainwell Sr. said, “I was like, ‘Golly, God, I thank you.’”

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto