‘Heart-to-heart’ conversation makes a difference
CULLMAN, ALA. — If Kaleb Kim wins Auburn football’s center battle later this year, he’ll probably be able to point back at a moment with offensive line coach J.B. Grimes as a turning point.
Following Auburn’s first scrimmage of spring practice in mid-March, Grimes had a deep conversation with the junior from Buford, Ga.
Grimes wanted to see more out of the most veteran competitor in the Tigers’ center battle.
“Kaleb didn’t play as well as I wanted him to,” Grimes said recently before his appearance with the Cullman County Auburn Club. “I sat down and had a real heartto-heart with him about, ‘Hey, you’ve got to strain yourself. You’ve got to play more physical than what I see you on the field in this first scrimmage.’”
According to Grimes, the talk worked.
“And I saw him, hey, he listened to me,” Grimes said. “He listened to the words. He said, ‘You know what? I’m going to strain hard.’
“I saw him going up and, boom, he goes down.”
Kim suffered an ankle injury late in spring practice that caused him to miss the annual A-Day spring game in April. Kim and redshirt freshman Nick Brahms — the two favorites for the center job — both sat out with injury.
The setback won’t keep Kim out too long, though. Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said last week that Kim would be ready to go for summer workouts.
“Kaleb’s was a little less serious,” Malzahn said. “We think he’ll be back here really quick to start working with the weights, conditioning and all that.”
Kim is looking to become the latest multiyear reserve to take the next step and develop into a solid starter for Auburn’s offensive line. He redshirted his 2015 season before seeing action in 10 games as a reserve in 2016 and 2017.
In Grimes’ eyes, Kim has what it takes to be a quality center at the SEC level. He just had a harder time translating his physical gifts into on-field production.
“I would like for (Kim) to play strong,” Grimes said. “That’s one thing I want to see him do. And I saw that after I had that little heartto-heart with him. ‘Look, you’ve got to play stronger. You are weight-room strong. I look at you, I look at your numbers in the weight room. You’ve got good numbers in the weight room. But I don’t see that transfer to the field.’”
Kim received most of the first-team reps at center in spring practice. He is expected to do the same when fall camp opens and the Tigers get closer to solidifying their starting offensive line.
And a lot of that is because of the conversation he had with his veteran offensive line coach.
“What I saw happen before he (was injured) is, I saw that manifest in himself,” Grimes said. “So it’s just a matter of him flipping the switch and doing that.”