One of the most memorable moments of St. Viator’s run to the 2017 state baseball championship was a home run — off star pitcher Cole Kmet.
“It’s still going,” Cole’s father Frank said with a laugh. “I don’t think it came down yet.”
It’s what happened after the home run, though, that allows everyone to reference the gopher ball with levity. It’s what helped shape the Chicago area’s top draft prospect heading into this week’s NFL Scouting Combine.
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Let’s set the scene — it’s the sectional semifinal. The opponent, Carmel, had 10-run ruled St. Viator in both games of a doubleheader a week prior, but Kmet didn’t pitch. Varsity coach Mike Manno wanted to save him.
Admittedly a bit arrogant, Manno went against his original game plan of pitching Carmel’s star hitter Eddie Pietschmann backward. He felt good that Kmet could get a fastball past him.
He was wrong. The Daily Herald pegged it as a 460-foot home run.
“He came off the field after that first inning and he had a smile on his face,” Manno said. “We were huddling as a team and he looked at everybody and he says, ‘Did you guys see how far that thing went?’ And he goes, ‘By the way, they’re not going to score again the rest of the game.’”
Cole Kmet starred for St. Viator on the mound and at the plate. (Courtesy St. Viator baseball community)
Kmet struck out the next seven batters. With a 3-2 lead later in the game, Kmet launched a 3-run home run of his own, one that Manno estimated flew 440 feet. St. Viator won 8-3.
The win ended a long losing streak vs. Carmel, Kmet’s mother Kandace’s alma mater. St. Viator went on to avenge other conference losses against Benet and then Marian Catholic to finish it off. And Cole got to do it with his younger brother Casey as a teammate.
The bloodlines, the size, the athleticism has always been there. But it’s what Cole Kmet did in that state title run — in a sport he’s not even going pro in — that helps separate him from other elite athletes, the ones he’ll be going up against this week and in his NFL career.
Cole Kmet inherited more than enough athleticism.
Frank played defensive end for Purdue from 1988-91. A broken leg cost him a chance to be a first- or second-round pick. Instead, the Bills took him in the fourth round of the 1992 draft, but he never played in an NFL game. Frank bounced around on practice squads, including the Bears from 1993-95.
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Then there’s Kandace, who played basketball at Carmel and could have played Division III, but chose to go to a bigger college.
By the time Cole was 5 years old, his hand-eye coordination was “off the charts,” Frank said. During a 9U all-star baseball game, Frank noticed that his son had something special.
“He came in to finish the game off and he was throwing pretty hard for his age,” Frank recalled. “A lot of people saw that as ‘wow,’ but it was not the speed that people really took a notice to. It was his concentration and focus on the matter at hand. You could definitely tell that when he walked up, he was so focused on what needed to be done. Every pitch was thrown where he wanted it to be thrown. I had a number of people walk up to me say, ‘Man, I’ve never seen a kid this intense and focused at this age.’”
That laser-focus — a term many used when discussing Kmet — comes from another family member: his uncle, Jeff Zgonina.
“They’re both quiet workhorses,” said Kandace, Jeff’s sister. “They put their nose to the ground and just go at it and don’t let other things around them affect them. Just hard workers. Determined.”
Zgonina spent 17 years in the NFL. The Carmel and Purdue alum played for seven different teams and won the 2000 Super Bowl with the Rams. After fighting to stay on rosters for the beginning of his career, Zgonina missed only five games from 1999-2009. He was recently hired as Washington’s assistant D-line coach.
“His uncle played 18 years in the NFL. He’s a different cat,” Frank Kmet said. “He was never great when it comes to the NFL — he was good. But what he was, he was a worker. He was able to focus in when his time was ready because his time in the beginning was very sparing. He had a certain type of focus that Cole has equally. The ability to focus in on something, know what the objective is and not really let any distractions or doubt or the moment get to you. You have a job to get done. I think he gets that from his uncle, to be honest with you.”
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With all the physical tools, the work ethic and focus, Cole was a two-sport star, but he almost gave up football in eighth grade.
The talk of “specialization” crept in his mind because of what people outside his family were telling him. Everyone could tell he was destined for stardom on the diamond, while football might not have been so obvious.
Cole’s eighth-grade coach ultimately convinced him that football would be a good thing. It’d give him a break from baseball.
“He went out and got everything he wanted out of it,” Frank said. “Camaraderie, goal setting, getting away from baseball helped. He realized that this specialization thing that you hear so much about wasn’t for him at that point. He wanted to do everything, so why not keep doing it? That was an eye-opener for him of not following the norm.”
Everyone’s first impression of Cole Kmet is his size. When he was a junior at St. Viator and college coaches would visit, they wanted to make sure the height and weight were for real.
“As soon as they shook his hand and he walked away, every coach said to me, ‘Yep, he’s as big as he says he is,’” said Brandon New, St. Viator’s varsity coach for Kmet’s sophomore and junior seasons.
“The thing about Cole was he was always much larger than anybody else his age. And that’s continued to progress as he’s gotten older, obviously. He came from a great family. He’s a great kid. Cole came up to varsity as a sophomore and we had one of our best teams ever. We used him primarily as a tight end with his hand in the dirt. He was young at the time but was a physical specimen. He was a freak.”
Cole Kmet is listed at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds. He’s pictured here with younger siblings Cooper, Cole and Frankie. (Courtesy Kmet family)
Kmet’s first season on varsity ended in heartbreak, but it’s a play that still resonates with New.
St. Viator played Sycamore in the second round. They trailed and were driving down the field. After a timeout, the call was “verts” from a five-wide formation, including Kmet.
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“Cole was open, and if our quarterback puts a little more touch on it, we win the football game,” New said.
The pass went off Kmet’s fingertips, but that in itself was a miracle.
“I tell you what, he took that so hard, but anybody else out there wouldn’t even have a close chance of coming down with that ball,” New said. “At least he had an attempt. It was a play that never happened. It was so close, but I think it probably motivated him to work even harder those next two years.”
St. Viator struggled during Kmet’s junior season, going 1-8. He had committed to Notre Dame. St. Viator got a new football coach, David Archibald, who said coaching Kmet was one of the big draws. By that time, though, it was easier said than done to get Kmet the ball. Everyone in the area knew who he was.
He missed the first three games of the season with mono, but then had 48 catches for 754 yards in eight games.
Bryce Hellgeth became the starting quarterback a few games into that season.
“It’s just incredible,” he said. “We game-planned around (Kmet) — feeding him the ball, basing our run game off of his blocks. He just gave our offensive line such a boost physically and also with confidence. Those guys would block off him, pull, get around him, feed off his blocks. As far as having a receiving target, he’s my first read. He was just an animal out there.”
In the first round of the playoffs, St. Viator (5-4) played a one-loss Boylan Catholic team.
Hellgeth felt comfortable “just launching it up there and watching him beat two to three guys routinely to get the ball.” In Kmet’s final high school game, a playoff loss to Lake Forest, he caught 12 of Hellgeth’s 18 completed passes for 152 yards and a score.
Even though he was all set for Notre Dame, even though the team was so bad the year before, even though he had mono to start the season and even with a new coach, Kmet took it upon himself to lead the team.
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“Anything he does, he’s gonna finish,” Kandace said. “He sees things through and loved his teammates. Has friends for life from there.”
Manno said the comparisons to Notre Dame two-sport legend Jeff Samardzija weren’t far off for Kmet.
“We really felt the same away about him,” he said. “If things progressed the way they could have, I thought he would have a chance to go to the draft for the MLB as well … He did things you’re in awe of.”
Take 2016, St. Viator’s first trip downstate since 1965. They played 29-3 Wauconda in the sectional semifinals. Facing future Dodgers draft pick Kevin Malisheski, Kmet pitched five-plus scoreless innings in a 4-0 win.
“He found another level when the lights came on in big moments,” Manno said. “He always had the talent, but his talent rose to the very top when it was the biggest game of the year throughout his career, and I don’t think all great athletes do that.”
The next season, things got frustrating. After a fall of battling triple-teams on the football field, Kmet spent spring facing pitchers who tried to pitch around him. No fastballs, only junk.
“You want to swing at anything so you can show everybody what you can do,” Frank said. “Nobody wants to walk. So he struggled during the year at a few points where he questioned if he could even do this stuff.
“I think he went through a good two-three-week stretch where it was just striking out, popping up; pitching was awful, just not hitting his spots, all that kind of stuff. Then we sat down, we talked and all the pressures that come along with this and he just dropped it all and just let loose.”
The result? Kmet hit .443 and reached base more than 50 percent of the time while slugging .918. He had 12 home runs and 46 RBIs. He had an 8-3 record as a pitcher with a 2.02 ERA.
Prior to the state championship game, Manno planned to talk to the team, but instead sent Kmet.
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“He took the boys to the outfield and gave a great motivational speech before the state championship game,” Manno said. “Our guys really looked up to Cole and respected not just him as a person, but his work ethic. He was another coach on the field.”
St. Viator won 10-8, the first state title in the history of the program.
Living in Lake Barrington, Kmet would make the 35-40 minute drive every morning to get to the weight room by 6 a.m. By the end of his career at St. Viator, that work ethic translated to extra hardware — he was named the Tribune/WGN-9 Preps Plus Athlete of the Year.
“There aren’t many kids that are willing to sacrifice that kind of time in order to be that successful,” Manno said, “and Cole did it on a daily basis.”
Playing two sports at Notre Dame while double majoring in economics and political science, Cole Kmet actually put up better stats in baseball as a freshman than in football. He played in all 13 games as a true freshman, but caught only two passes for 14 yards as he played behind tight ends Alize Mack, Durham Smythe and Nic Weishar. That spring, Kmet led Notre Dame with eight saves, striking out 39 in 46 1/3 innings.
In 11 games for the 12-1 Irish in 2018, Kmet had 15 catches for 162 yards. As a junior this past season and the No. 1 tight end, he caught 43 passes for 515 yards and six touchdowns.
Kmet declared for the NFL Draft in January. He’s considered to be one of the top tight ends at this week’s combine in Indianapolis.
Writes The Athletic’s Dane Brugler: “Kmet is an easy player to like on and off the field, with outstanding ball skills and body control to dominate the catch point. While he must continue learning the details of route-running and blocking, he has never played only one sport, so year-round dedication to football will certainly accelerate his development. Overall, Kmet is a dependable and physically impressive pass-catcher who doesn’t have a deal-breaking weakness to his game, projecting as an NFL-ready ‘Y’ target similar to Jason Witten when he was coming out of Tennessee.”
In his last season at Notre Dame, Cole Kmet caught 43 passes for 515 yards and six touchdowns. (Matt Cashore / USA Today)
After watching the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson, “specialization” concerns should hopefully be dwindling. Baseball adds to Kmet’s athleticism, as well as his potential.
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Kmet comes to Indianapolis with ideal size for the position. No one will question his intangibles or work ethic. All the reviews from his former coaches will be positive. He can only boost his stock if he puts up eye-popping numbers, but at tight end, that’s not as necessary.
#NFLCombine key measurements thread…
8. #NotreDame TE Cole Kmet
Height: 6-5 6/8
Weight: 262
Hand: 10 4/8
Arm: 33
Wingspan: 79
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) February 24, 2020
Anyone who was around Kmet at St. Viator isn’t surprised that he’s in this position.
“He’s perhaps the most gifted athlete that I’ve coached,” New said. “We all thought Cole would possibly play on Sundays because of all the tools he has. His frame, his broad, his vert, all those things add up to him being a potential first-round pick. And I hope this works out. How exciting to say you coached a former first-round pick.”
Those scores will add to the evaluation, but Kmet’s interviews can allow a team to fall for him, and maybe get him into the first round. That’s the part of the process that Kmet should ace. Manno tells a story that illustrates the type of person an NFL team will get.
At 10 a.m. on Jan. 2, before he publicly announced his draft intentions, Kmet sent Manno a text: “Hey coach. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. I just want to let you know that I’m going to declare for the NFL Draft today.”
“To me, that was touching,” Manno said. “I was his baseball coach, not his football coach, and he’s already three years removed from Viator. To me, it shows you the kind of kid he is to take the time to send his baseball coach something like that. I’m humbled by the fact that he would even think of me in that situation. When he gets in those interviews, he’ll knock it out of the park with NFL teams.”
Frank and Kandace Kmet have the hopes of any draft prospect’s parents. They’d love to see Cole get drafted as high as possible. They also want the best possible fit on a team that provides the proper new home, on and off the field.
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But the Kmets also happen to be Bears fans, and they know there’s a too-good-to-be-true scenario brewing. They hear about it from family and friends.
The Bears need a tight end. They have two picks in the second round. While some have mentioned Kmet as a sensible fit for the Patriots in Round 1, the run on tight ends could slip to the second, where his hometown team would be waiting.
“We look at it and go, ‘Man, that would be a dream come true,’” Frank said. “Obviously anyone that takes your kid or wants your kid at the higher pick, you’re not gonna complain about. But obviously if it was the Bears, it’s a hometown situation where, man, we’re pretty close, could drive down to the game.”
Frank Kmet went to Hersey High School and had fond memories from his brief time on the Bears, crossing paths with Richard Dent and William “Refrigerator” Perry. It’s not just playing for the Bears, it’s being down the street from the family.
“We’ll be happy wherever he goes, but of course, how cool would that be?” Kandace said. “Chicago guy, Notre Dame guy, the Bears, you can’t even write that.”
(Top photo: David Rosenblum / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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