Kalib Fortner of Central
Kalib Fortner didn’t need to look far to find his competitive fire.
He was born into it.
The junior outside linebacker at Central was pushed by his older brother, Hunter, along with his twin brother Liam, a wide receiver/outside linebacker for the Bobcats.
Hunter is a wrestler at Tennessee-Chattanooga.
“My older brother likes to talk a lot of trash, and then my other brother, he’s always been right there beside me competing,” Kalib said. “I really just get it from being around my brothers all my life.”
Kalib’s high motor is only one reason for his success on the football field.
As a freshman at Central in 2017, Fortner earned playing time and a couple of starts on defense. He started all 15 games in 2018 and was selected the Class 5A BlueCross Bowl MVP and 2018 5Star Preps Defensive Underclassman of the Year, as Central (13-2) won the first state football title in program history.
This past fall, Fortner had 120 tackles (88 solo) and 10 sacks as Central (13-2) clinched its second consecutive state championship. He’s the 5Star Preps 2019 Defensive Player of the Year.
“His football I.Q. is amazing,” former Central coach Bryson Rosser said. “He can watch film, he can listen to a game plan, he can find tendencies, and then he just has a motor that is relentless, and when you combine all those things you have a really good football player.
“I’ve watched him ever since he’s come in just really be such a student of the game. He’s one of the hardest workers in the weight room, and when you combine all of those abilities, you’ve got one heck of a football player, as you continue to see.”
Which brings up a question: Why does Fortner seem to be flying under the recruiting radar?
His only offer is from Birmingham Southern, an NCAA Division III program.
Fortner isn’t surprised he’s being overlooked. At least so far.
“Most of the good ball players at Central that were good athletes, they always flew under the radar as well,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me. I just feel like I need to get more exposure, and I don’t know how to go about getting that because I’m on a 7-on-7 team that goes everywhere, I make the plays when I put the pads on, I’m a great student, in my opinion, with great grades, so I don’t know what else I need to do.”
Rosser expects Fortner to get more college looks in 2020.
“I think everybody is intrigued by him, and I’m honestly a little shocked by the recruitment of him so far,” Rosser said. “Obviously it will pick up now as people start to focus on the 2021 recruiting class, but we’ve had everybody from Tennessee to Furman, just before we went on Christmas break, those guys inquired about him. There’s a lot of different people and a lot of conferences that are intrigued by Kalib and are just trying to see where he fits and what he actually is in certain schemes.”
For now, Fortner is rehabbing a thumb injury sustained in the first half of the 2019 BlueCross Bowl, a 30-7 victory over Summit on Dec. 6.
Fortner (6-foot-1, 190 pounds) tore two ligaments in his thumb and had surgery Dec. 24 in which a pin was placed in his thumb. He will have surgery Jan. 27 to have the pin pulled and have his thumb re-casted for another three to four weeks.
When he got hurt against Summit, Fortner didn’t realize it until halftime. He played the second half with the injury.
“Actually, I really couldn’t feel it during the first half, but once my adrenaline kind of cooled down in the locker room at halftime I felt my thumb,” he said. “I was trying to put my glove back on to go outside, and just the pressure of my glove being on my thumb, I was like, ‘What the heck?’ It hurt so bad.”
Fortner felt some pressure going into the 2019 season due to the graduation of 18 seniors from the 2018 team.
Not only did the Bobcats lose three senior linemen from the 2018 defense, they had to replace seniors Daunte Holliday, Xavier Washington and Demetrien Johnson in the secondary.
“Our 2018 state championship team was scary,” Fortner said. “I knew I didn’t have those guys around me and I didn’t know if I could do as well. I just came in and worked really hard in the offseason, and I feel like I had a pretty solid junior year.”
Central loses 17 seniors from the 2019 team, and the Fortner twins will be among 16 returning seniors in 2020.
Kalib has his goals and tasks for the upcoming season.
“I’d say not as much on the field,” he said. “I’d say more of just being able to really lead this team and become a leader, someone they can look to when adversity hits. I know I can play ball on the field. I just want to be able to be a leader for my guys this year.”
Rosser saw the potential in Fortner as a freshman and expects him to only get better.
“Honestly, I’m still not sure if he has a ceiling,” Rosser said. “He’s still growing. He loves to work out in the weight room. He’s a 3.6 GPA student. There’s no reason in my eyes why he can’t be one of the top recruits in the state going into next year.”
Kalib Fortner (29) and the Central Bobcats defeated the Summit Spartans in the TSSAA Class 5A state championship at Tucker Stadium in Cookeville, Tennessee, on Friday, Dec. 6, 2019. (Photo by Danny Parker)