When Jimmy Kennedy told reporters at Big Ten Media Day last July that he was working to be the No. 1 pick in the draft, it sounded like idle bluster.

Kennedy is a fun guy, easy with a smile and quick to chuckle. Even at his most serious, the happy glean never leaves his eyes.

Sure he looked focused that day in Chicago less than a year ago. Sure he was down to 310 pounds and telling everyone his quickness would make him unstoppable. Sure he had skipped the draft only months earlier to concentrate on improving his stock and returning Penn State to respectability.

But, see, Kennedy was also taking shots at Lee Corso and the ESPN GameDay crew. He was also sheepishly evading all talk about his fiancée, former Penn State women's basketball player Rashana Barnes, and how they supposedly met on Valentine's Day years ago. It was tough to tell what to take seriously.

It wouldn't take long before everyone -- Penn State fans, the Big Ten Conference, NFL scouts, draft gurus -- found out just how serious Kennedy was about becoming the top defensive tackle in the nation.

After what some perceived as a slow start (Kennedy whole-heartedly disagreed), the Yonkers native became one of the most dominant tackles in Penn State history.

The numbers are nice, but they certainly don't tell the whole story. Kennedy finished second on the team with 87 tackles, including 15 for loss, and 5.5 sacks. That earned him All-Big Ten and All-America honors, and soon enough his name was flowing freely from Mel Kiper's mouth.

But those in the know understand that Kennedy is valuable not because of his tackles and sacks, but for what he does for the people around him, specifically the defensive end next to him and the middle linebacker behind him.

In football speak, Kennedy is a two-gap tackle, meaning he's capable of taking on the hole between the tackle and guard in addition to the lane between the guard and center. This allows, first, for a defensive end, a la Michael Haynes, to concentrate on beating his man to the outside. Haynes did that last season, recording 15 sacks and 22 tackles for loss.

But no player benefited from Kennedy's play more than middle linebacker Gino Capone, who went from being a backup outside linebacker to All-Big Ten on the inside. He finished with 86 tackles, most of them because Kennedy cleared a lane and Capone was left with an easy play on the charging running back.

Kennedy's status has fluctuated lately, with some mock drafts placing him as a mid-first round pick.

That's crazy. Kennedy will go early, simply because he's 6-foot-5, weighs 330 pounds and runs a 5.1 40-yard dash. Teams put a lot of thought into whom they're going to pick, going as far as interviews and tests and background checks.

But potential is what matters in round one, especially early in round one, when the fans are watching and hoping that whoever their team gets will turn it all around.

Kennedy sure looks like one of those guys.

If you talk to him, he'll tell you right out that he will be one of those guys.

It's up to you if you want to believe him.