The routine he's established — waking up and downing the two bottles of water he keeps on his bedside table, opening his phone to the two bible verses his app has given for him to read that day, hopping in the shower, and eating breakfast — gets his mind right for the day.
"You start in the morning," Kinley said. "If you start off bad, your whole day is going to be bad."
That mindset has helped turn Richard Kinley into one of the younger leaders on the Blue Raider defense this fall. That mindset, and a book, his personal favorite, found after he dove into reading in-depth during the off season. "Think Like a Warrior: Five Inner Beliefs That Make You Unstoppable" by Darin Donnelly, has helped give Kinley a more focused outlook on how he pushes himself each day.
The book, structured around different lessons and anecdotes from coaches around the athletic world, gives its readers five intersecting beliefs, such as "control what you can control: your attitude and your effort" or "love what you do and attack it each day with enthusiasm" that, according to Donnelly, will give someone a "warrior mindset."
A bit cheesy at times? Maybe. But effective? With Kinley, there's no doubt.
"Every day, everybody has dreams and aspirations," Kinley said. "I just have to remember mine and my why. I wake up and just keep it on my head, so it drives me and fuels me each and every day."
His "why" is his family, both at home, where his dad is a football coach in Memphis and his brother plays at the Naval Academy, and in the Blue Raider locker room, where he keeps his self-described "brothers" in mind. His "why" leads him to set goals, to be relentless in pursuit of them, and to stay confident without letting fear turn the confidence to arrogance.
"Be the best version of myself," Kinley reminds himself. "Everybody has their doubts, but if you really believe in yourself, and actually show that you can work hard, it will show."
It has shown, head coach Rick Stockstill said. He relies on his seniors to be the first leaders on his teams, but they can't be the last leaders on the team. A program needs its juniors, sophomores, freshmen, and redshirts all to have leaders within their classes to not accept mediocrity and pursue excellence.
"When your leadership doesn't accept a bad practice, doesn't accept a messy locker room, or doesn't accept somebody not going to class, that's when you have a great culture, and that's what I feel we've got," Stockstill said. "We've got a lot of good leadership, from our older guys down to our younger guys.
"The biggest thing is that Richard is doing everything like a pro right now," Stockstill added. "And because he's doing everything like a pro, it's easy for people to look at him like a leader now, because they see how hard he's working. They see how hard he's studying. They see how hard he's taking care of his body. Doing the little things is what gets people to follow you as a leader."
The impact of that leadership is felt most acutely in Tommy West's defensive line room, where Kinley strikes the right balance of knowing when to keep things chill, and when to make sure he and his teammates are serious.
"He's a guy who's straight to it, straight to the point," his fellow defensive lineman, Ja'Kerrius Wyatt, said. "When it's time to get to business, we lock in, no more playing, we're hunting."
It wasn't always this way, his position coach Tommy West notes. Even when he was productive as a true freshman, West admits to thinking Kinley wasn't much of a leader early in his Blue Raider career. Kinley, for his part, remembers the time he talked back to West on a whim. "The worst decision of my life," he admits, but one that led him to view the longtime college coach as another father figure.
"Here in the last two semesters, he's kind of flipped the switch and done a really good job," West said. "In our room, our players kind of police it, too. They've bought into what we do and we're going to do the right things both on the field and off the field."
The production on the field has also improved alongside Kinley's focus. The redshirt freshman started one game in 2020 while playing eight, finishing the year with 21 tackles, including 4.0 TFLs and 2.0 sacks. Now, in 2021, he's one of the top guys rushing off the edge for defensive coordinator Scott Shafer's defense, and hungry to make his mark.
Donnelly's third belief centers on warriors setting goals for themselves, ignoring the naysayers, and then being committed to achieving their goals. Kinley keeps his own personal goals close to the vest. But for his team, his family, his "why"? That goal is obvious.
A conference championship.
And the enthusiasm, the relentlessness, the positive attitude, and maybe even two bottles of water and two bible verses every morning, will get them there.
"Growing up as kids, we were outside when it's one hundred degrees," Kinley said, thinking back on fall camp. "Football, it shouldn't faze you if it's hot or cold. Just remember your why, we've been doing this since we were kids. Keep that enthusiasm."
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