Saturday night in Knoxville will bring a familiar face back to town.
When No. 14 Tennessee hosts Kennesaw State at 7:45 p.m.
EDT at Neyland Stadium, the game will not only be the first meeting between the programs. It will also put former Bearden High School kicker Daniel Kinney back in the city where he starred before heading to college.
Kinney is now a redshirt freshman for the Owls, and his path runs straight through Knoxville. He played at Bearden from 2020-24, earning All-Region 2-6A honors while working under head coaches Morgan Shinlever and Josh Jones.
Shinlever, now in his second stint as Bearden’s athletics director, spoke about Kinney ahead of the Tennessee-Kennesaw State matchup.
"Daniel was good," Shinlever said. "He is a great kid, and he has a great family, and he was a real weapon for us on field goals and on kickoffs.
He was our kicker. Daniel was probably the strongest-legged kicker that we had during my time as head coach at Bearden.
"Daniel was such a good athlete that we tried to use him as a wide receiver and defensive back, but I think he realized that he had something unique and special as a kicker and he wanted to specialize."
Kinney’s time at Bearden also included a soccer resume. He played for the Bulldogs from 2021-22, when the program reached the Class AAA state championship game in back-to-back seasons. His soccer career ended because of an ACL injury.
"He probably could've been an all-state soccer player had he not had an ACL injury," Shinlever said.
At Kennesaw State, Kinney played in four games as a freshman in 2024. He went 6-of-7 on field goals and 5-of-6 on extra points, while also recording three touchbacks on five kickoffs.
This season, Kinney has made 5-of-6 extra-point attempts and drilled a 29-yard field goal against Georgia State on Sept. 12.
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