How Kaylan Wiggins became most elusive QB in FIU history. And maybe its next great player
As a kid, Kaylan Wiggins would play tackle football in the street, without pads.
“We didn’t play two-hand touch,” said Wiggins, who is from Sanford, located 20 miles northeast of Orlando. “You had to be tough.
“If you saw you were going to get hit, you did your best to get to the grass, near the sidewalk.
“Playing on the street is where I learned to make people miss because the consequences of getting hit were felt a lot more than in regular football.”
Those lessons from Sanford have helped shape Wiggins into, potentially, FIU’s next standout quarterback.
FIU’s two previous starters at the position were Alex McGough, a 2018 seven-round pick who is a backup/practice-squad player for the Houston Texans; and James Morgan, who was drafted in the fourth round by the New York Jets last month.
For perspective, the Hurricanes haven’t had a quarterback drafted since Brad Kaaya (sixth round, 2017). FIU, meanwhile, has had two straight starting QBs drafted, and Wiggins hopes he’s next.
Wiggins showed what he could do when he earned what is — so far — his only collegiate start, a 30-17 win over New Hampshire on Sept. 14.
Using the make-you-miss skills he learned on the streets of Sanford, Wiggins ran for 187 yards — a school record for a quarterback — and two touchdowns. He also completed 12-of-18 passes for 127 yards, giving FIU its first win of the 2019 season.
Whenever college football returns from the coronavirus, Wiggins — the first quarterback signed by coach Butch Davis at FIU — will have the most experience of the group of QBs competing for the job, making him the presumed frontrunner.
“It’s not going to be given to me,” said Wiggins, a 6-2, 215-pound redshirt junior. “But this is my chance to win the starting job, lead the team to the conference title and a bowl game — all the goals we have set for ourselves as a team.”
Wiggins’ competition for the starting job will include:
▪ Redshirt freshman Stone Norton, who was named Mr. Tennessee Football in 2018 and was coached in high school by ex-NFL quarterback Jonathan Quinn;
▪ Redshirt sophomore Caleb Lynum, who played at East Ridge, located in the Orlando area;
▪ And incoming freshman Haden Carlson, the son of an ex-NFL quarterback who last year fired 33 TD passes and just five interceptions for Steinbrenner, located in the Tampa area.
Davis could possibly bring in a graduate transfer as he did with Morgan.
But the top option for now is presumed to be Wiggins, who is fast (4.5 in the 40), strong (he has put on 15 pounds of muscle since arriving on campus) and has a big arm (he can throw a football between 60 and 75 yards).
SANFORD LEGACY
Wiggins, who has a 3.7 grade-point average and is set to graduate in December with a degree in sports management, comes from an impressive family.
He is the third of four children, born after Kerrena and Kerry Jr. and before Kyra.
Kerry Jr. was a sophomore defensive lineman when Sanford Seminole won its only state title, beating Miami Northwestern in 2008.
The family’s patriarch, Kerry Sr., recently finished his first year as a District 2 city commissioner in Sanford. He is also a minister at Mount Sinai Baptist Church and a teacher and weightlifting coach at Sanford Seminole High.
Kerry Sr. had been the running backs coach for 23 years at Sanford Seminole, but he stepped away from that role so he could be able to watch Kaylan’s 2020 season at FIU.
“Kaylan has two more years of collegiate football, and I believe it would be a disservice not to be there as much as possible,” said Kerry Sr., whose wife, Adrienne, works as a bus dispatcher.
Kerry Sr. said he and about 15 family members and friends went to several FIU games last season, and that traveling party may double this year.
The Wiggins family was there at FIU’s stadium last year against New Hampshire, sitting in a constant downpour that included a lightning delay – all to root on Kaylan.
“It was a surreal feeling,” Kerry Sr. said. “Any parent that truly loves his child would do the same thing. We were all soaked and happy. We won, and it didn’t matter how wet we were. I told my wife, ‘Baby, we surely have to love him.’”
Kerry Sr. said his son has his priorities in order, and that will not change no matter how the QB competition goes this year.
“Kaylan, when he wasn’t starting, could’ve tanked it or blamed others. But he didn’t,” Kerry Sr. said.
“Starting is not what’s going to make him a powerful man. What going to make him a powerful man is his integrity. He will get his degree in December, and then he will go for his Master’s.”
PROVING TIME
Kaylan Wiggins grew up idolizing Peyton Manning but has since tracked other QBs such as Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson.
Wiggins realizes his name carries a lot of weight in Sanford. That notoriety has been an overall positive, but Wiggins also said he dealt with jealousy from those in the neighborhood who believed things were handed to him due to his father’s status in the community.
“I used to get picked on because of that, but it built toughness,” Wiggins said. “I had adults telling me, ‘You’re not any good.’
“But I just brushed it off. I learned that’s just how some people are. I know what I can do. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I don’t let it affect me.”
Wiggins said he will lean on his performance against New Hampshire, which boosted his confidence after two years of relative inactivity.
“That game was about trust and accountability with my teammates,” he said. “You can do whatever in practice, but if you don’t do it in a game, it doesn’t hold any weight.”