NORFOLK, Va. – Kadarius Calloway was the No. 2 recruit in the state of Mississippi, and rated a four-star recruit by most scouting services, when he was a senior in high school. Just about every SEC team in the deep South coveted him.
Born and raised in the small city of Philadelphia, Mississippi, he committed early on to Mississippi State. But then Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tie beckoned, he became part of a Crimson Tide recruiting class rated the nation's best.
He enrolled at Alabama in the summer of 2021 and began summer workouts with the most dominant college football program of modern times.
But then he did something shocking. He withdrew from Alabama and enrolled at East Mississippi Community College.
It had nothing to do with academics – he is a good student – and the Alabama staff wanted him to stay. It had everything to do with his incredible sense of self-awareness.
He realized at age 18 that he wasn't ready to play big-time college football.
"I knew that I had so much more to learn about football," he said.
A little more than a year later, that decision led to him enrolling at OId Dominion University, where his prodigious talent was on hand for all to see last Saturday. After previously rushing just five times for 25 yards, Calloway carried the ball 11 times for 236 yards in a 41-35 defeat at Marshall.
His performance included touchdown runs of 70, 69 and 75 yards. Muscular and powerful at 6-foot-2 and 217 pounds, he broke tackles and sent Marshall players diving into the turf with deft moves.
After disappearing from the national limelight for more than two years, suddenly Calloway was again being heralded as a star.
And it wasn't smoke and mirrors. That performance, said running backs coach Tony Lucas, is what Calloway is capable of game-in and game-out.
"He has tremendous ability," Lucas said.
Lucas said Calloway will start when the Monarchs play Saturday at Southern Miss (7 p.m. ET, ESPN+) in what is a homecoming game for him. Philadelphia is a two-hour and two-minute drive from Hattiesburg.
"I can't wait to go home and see my people," said Calloway, who hasn't been home since the early summer. "I can't wait to see my family.
He was raised by a single mother, Charity Peebles, a nurse whom Lucas said instilled a great sense of work ethic and humility into her son.
"She was my mother and father," Calloway said.
She was also the person he most leaned on for advice when deciding to leave Alabama.
"Alabama was my favorite team," he said. "I really wanted to play there.
"But I came from a 2-A school where our playbook wasn't that extensive. My high school coaches taught me all they could.
"After I got to Alabama, I realized I needed to learn more about football."
"It was a bold move on his part," Lucas added.
"And it's not one I would likely have made. But now that I know him, it doesn't surprise me that he did it.
"For the average person, it would have been a difficult decision. But for him, he's such a mature young man with such self-awareness. He realized that for him to be the player he can be, for him to reach his potential, he needed to step away."
Calloway said his departure from Alabama was amicable, and that Saban wished him well when he departed.
"I love Nick Saban," he said. "I have so much respect for that program."
Calloway switched from cornerback to running back while at East Mississippi.
Junior college is a place where players go to get noticed, and many times, playing time for everyone is emphasized over winning. Calloway rushed for 462 yards in 11 games as a sophomore, and even though he averaged nearly seven yards per carry, he had few offers last winter.
Northern Iowa offered him and UAB recruited him, but ODU was the only FBS program to offer him. Norfolk is a long way from Philadelphia, but he loved ODU's campus and what he calls "the family atmosphere" among football players.
Cole Daniels, a sophomore defensive tackle from Sumrall, Mississippi, spent a good deal of time wooing Calloway, as did cornerback LaMareon James, the junior from Norfolk.
"LaMareon called me and said, 'Come to ODU and join the brothers here.' I felt so welcome here."
He enrolled at ODU in January, but things went awry early during spring practice when he suffered a foot injury that required surgery.
"I planted my foot wrong and broke a bone," he said.
That left him on the sidelines during the critical months of the spring and summer, when transfers work themselves into shape and learn the system. Instead, he spent intensive months in the training room, working with Head Athletic Trainer Justin Walker and Assistant Athletic trainer Angela Moening.
"Angela and Justin got me in the training room and worked hard with me," he said.
"I didn't really want to be in the training room. Nobody does. But they helped me through hard times, which I really appreciate.
"I didn't want to be running around on a scooter all day at practice taking notes, either. But I had to and it was good for me. I learned the system."
When fall practice began, Lucas said Calloway was not yet in playing shape, mentally or physically. After he played briefly, and fumbled, in ODU's opener against Virginia Tech, Lucas made the conscious decision to pull back and allow Calloway to practice himself back into shape.
"For us to continue to put him out there wouldn't have been good for us or good for him," Lucas said. "It was frustrating, because he is so talented. He understands now that he wasn't ready.
"He's ready now. We still have a good portion of the season left.
"What would those first few games have been like had he been ready to play? We don't get to play those games, but you wonder."
Lucas said Calloway has carried himself well through the difficulties of being injured, and then being left on the bench for much of the first half of the season.
"He's such a humble young man," Lucas said. "This week he came to me and said, 'Hey coach. I have a sense for what's going to happen in terms of increased playing time. But I want to earn it.'
"Since he's been here, he's had to earn every opportunity he's gotten. Now that he's gotten himself together, his confidence is up. His belief in the system, in the coaching, is much better. And he's able to make plays the way we want him to."
And two years after leaving Alabama, he's finally ready to reclaim his share of the spotlight.
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
Minium: From Alabama to ODU Football, Kadarius Calloway has Displayed Maturity and Patience
