Isaiah Land: Ready to Strike, Fulfill NFL Dream

The FAMU pass rusher is a relentless predator on the edge, but many scouts question if his skills will translate to the NFL due to his size. With the help of a nonstop motor, the HBCU star is out to show he’s built for the moment.

RATTLER READY TO STRIKE IN THE NFL DRAFT

The football field was not the first instance Isaiah Land realized he was smaller than the people around him. Land, the youngest of eight brothers and one sister, spent countless days climbing on top of at least five of his siblings in a tiny house in the rougher section of Buffalo, N.Y., while his mom, Katrina Lumpkin, endured an eight-hour workday coupled with a bevy of courses three nights per week in pursuit of a college degree. “He was tossed around by his brothers, but they made him tougher,” Lumpkin says. It didn’t bother land that he was undersized or that he didn’t have a buffalo’s strength in the Bison City. At age 3, it never stopped Land from constantly reminding Lumpkin that he wanted to play football “even before he knew what the NFL was,” he says.

While his siblings were fixated on cartoons and television shows, football stimulated Land. From the helmet to his first football jersey—an old-school Bills’ Marshawn Lynch uniform—Land was hooked. But his favorite team was more than six hours south in Baltimore. Land was a toddler when the Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV in 2001. But as his desire to play football grew, he never missed Ray Lewis performing his iconic “Squirrel Dance” or the Hall of Famer leading the charge of a vicious Ravens’ defense. “He [Ray Lewis] was like a gladiator at war leading his troops,” Land says. “Their team culture and the way they went to war together, that’s how I view football.”

As Lumpkin noticed Land’s football desire, it became second nature for him to watch sports highlights and athletes share their journeys on how they became professionals on ESPN’s SportsCenter. One day, while Lumpkin and Land were watching the network’s flagship show, she told her son that he would make it to the NFL and tell his story. Land had doubts. “I told him [Isaiah] every dream starts in your head before it becomes a reality,” she says. “You got to dream big and see it in your head.”

As Day 3 of the 2023 NFL draft approaches, Lumpkin’s belief in her son’s dream is only hours away from becoming a reality. Land, a standout Florida A&M defensive lineman, is seeking to become the Rattlers first NFL draft pick since ’13 when the Lions selected Brandon Hepburn in the seventh round. He is also seeking to join a small brotherhood of HBCU athletes drafted into the NFL, a league that consist of 34 HBCU Pro Football Hall of Famers. In the ’22 NFL draft, four HBCU players—Fayetteville State cornerback Joshua Williams (Chiefs), South Carolina State’s Decobie Durant (Rams), Jackson State’s James Houston IV (Lions) and Southern’s Ja’Tyre Carter (Bears)—were selected while many others signed undrafted free agent deals that include Land’s former teammates, Markquese Bell (Cowboys) and Keenan Forbes (Seahawks). Last year’s draft indicated progression for HBCUs in the league, stemming from more exposure through the HBCU Legacy Bowl, HBCU Combine as well as former Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders—now the football coach at Colorado—advocating and demanding more for HBCU athletes. In ’21 NFL draft, no HBCU players were selected. “It would be a dream come true because I know it’s rare for HBCU players to get drafted,” Land says.

Land put together an impressive resume at FAMU. The Rattlers defensive end led all FBS and FCS defenders with 19 sacks in ’21, falling one shy of tying the program’s single-season record (20). He also earned first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference honors, named SWAC Defensive Player of the Year, FCS first-team All American and the illustrious Buck Buchanan Award (given to the most outstanding defensive player in FCS) following the ’21 season. However, in ’22, Land’s production declined as he saw double teams from multiple opponents that limited him to eight sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. His impact was great enough to be named as one of two HBCU players—along with JSU’s Aubrey Miller—to be selected to participate in this year’s Reese’s Senior Bowl and one of two from the HBCU ranks— UAPB’s Mark Evans II—to earn an invitation to the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.

PREPARING FOR THE SENIOR BOWL & COMBINE

Despite Land’s success the last two seasons, many NFL scouts considered him undersized for defensive end and needed to add 20 pounds to his frame that would suit him for being an outside linebacker in the league while having the capacity to serve in different pass rush schemes in 4-3 defenses. Since November, after playing in his final game at FAMU, Land started training in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with hopes of seeing his name on the NFL’s draft ticker. Land, at 6’3”, went from 215 to 226 leading up to the Senior Bowl and now sits at 235. His biggest challenge is ensuring that he maintains his athleticism and speedy motor at the next level. “I’ve never had to play at this weight… so being able to move with it [the weight] the same way when I was smaller has been my focus,” he adds.

While many consider Land too small for his position, Lumpkin says those people should be on high alert. “In Isaiah’s mind, he is as strong as the biggest and most dominant football player,” Lumpkin says. “If you say he is undersized, you’re going to get what you’re looking for.” But above all, Lumpkin’s sacrifices and Land’s determination to never quit paved the way for his NFL moment.

Nearly 80% of players who attend the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama get drafted. But beyond embracing a new role as an off-ball linebacker during the postseason bowl game, the week served as a childhood reunion of his genesis to football. Land competed in drills against Oklahoma offensive tackle Wanya Morris, who was drafted by the reigning Super Bowl champion Chiefs at No. 92 in the third round of the NFL draft on Friday. But before Morris and Land were competing for their NFL dreams, the two played for the Gwinnett Chargers little-league team in Gwinnett County, Georgia. However, the two of them—along with Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe—would not have known each other if not for Lumpkin.

YOUNG ISAIAH

Shortly before Christmas in ’06, Lumpkin secured a better paying sales job in Georgia. She told Land and his brother, Joshua, who is 6’4” and 11 months older, that they were moving to Georgia. But more importantly, Lumpkin wanted a better environment for her sons. “I didn’t want them stuck in that black hole in Buffalo,” she adds. In January ‘07, Lumpkin packed up her minivan with kitchen utensils and her television and drove 16 hours with Isaiah and Joshua from Buffalo to Decatur, Georgia. But even in Lumpkin starting a new chapter for a better life, she was battling stage 2 tonsil cancer. She never wavered on her promise to let Isaiah and Josh play football. “I always remember her being on top of things and being the lead person in the room,” Land says. “She’s why I strive to be the best player wherever I go.”

Shortly after the move, Lumpkin found a church, Ray of Hope, that also had a little league football team. While she could not initially pay for her sons to be on the team, the coach worked with her to allow them to play. Her sons where thrilled. Even while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation that year, Lumpkin was present as she often helped the team with concessions. In doing so, she witnessed one of the first real moments of Isaiah’s love for football when he went the length of the field for a touchdown. “He got down to the 20-yard line and was tired… but I told him that he couldn’t quit. When he made it to the endzone, he just collapsed,” Lumpkins laughs. That was only the beginning for Land. Lumpkin and the boys moved from Decatur to Stone Mountain to Smyrna to Lawrenceville—where she currently resides—in Gwinnett County by the time Land was 10.

In playing for the Chargers, Land made lifelong friends with players like Morris and Pappoe while playing for Kenyatta Watson, who spent more than a decade developing youth and high school football talent in the metro Atlanta area before coaching at Grayson High School and now serving as Georgia Tech’s director of scouting and pro liaison. Despite having success with football, Land took a break from the sport and started playing basketball. But, luckily for Land, when he returned to football in his junior year of high school, he was in a hotbed for top talent by attending Grayson High School in Loganville, Georgia.

However, the transition back to football was not as easy for Land. Grayson, one of the elite high school football programs in the state, was filled with talent under then head coach Jeff Herron. But it was Land’s defensive line coach Mike Inman—who played on Alabama’s ’78 national championship team under the legendary Paul William “Bear” Bryant before transferring to Jacksonville State his senior season—that noticed a “tall, slender, 160-pound kid” who was flustered during spring practice. “I could tell he was agitated… he was pacing back and forth,” Inman says. Inman was different from most coaches. He liked coaching great players, but he was thrilled to spot those who flew under the radar and mold them into elite playmakers. Instead of letting Land slip through the cracks, Inman allowed the “Wolfpack”—the nickname for Grayson defensive linemen—to finish a drill before he walked down the middle of the practice field and approached Land with some advice that changed his life.

Isaiah Land with high school defensive line coach Mike Inman; Credit: The Lands

ISAIAH'S HIGH SCHOOL DAYS, COACH INMAN

Land feared he would not get any playing time in the program. That’s when Inman helped Land embrace the Wolfpack mentality and showing him some basic defensive linemen fundamentals that served as the foundation for success at the position. “He was undersized, but he was a natural predator, could get off the block, resourceful, could sprint to the ball and his motor was different from the other kids,” Inman says. “He absolutely hustled and outworked everybody.”

Inman became like a father and mentor to Land. What Land did not know in football knowledge; he asked Inman. But if Land missed a homework assignment, missed his curfew to be home or did something bad, he hated Inman’s punishment. “He [Inman] was like my support coach when I felt like I wasn’t getting to Isaiah,” Lumpkin says. “He gave Isaiah a good balance of discipline and love and Isaiah never wanted to disappoint him.”

As Land grasped his position and became a starter his senior season at Grayson, Inman gave Land his first notion that he could become an NFL player one day if he did well in college, stayed out of trouble and continued to perfect his craft. Land followed Inman’s blueprint at FAMU under coach Willie Simmons, the first and only coach to offer him a scholarship. Milton Patterson, the Rattlers defensive line and defensive run game coordinator, helped Land elevate and burst on the scene as an elite edge rusher. In his redshirt freshman season in ’19, Land recorded two sacks, 23 tackles and five tackles for loss. But after COVID-19 cancelled the ’20 football season, Land spent that time improving his skills ahead of his explosive ’21 campaign, focusing on good film and details. “That’s when it all clicked for me that I could play in the NFL,” he adds. Lumpkin concurs: “He turned into a beast. He told me ‘mom they are going to know my name when I get back on that field.’”

That’s also when NFL scouts started coming to watch him in practice, offering pointers on his skillset to play at the next level, which was no surprise to Inman.

“He never dreamed of being a defensive lineman,” Inman says. “He looks like a wide receiver, but he transformed himself into a lineman who has never felt like he was less than, intimidated or rattled because of his size. He’s a warrior.”

Mar 2, 2023; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Florida A&M defensive lineman Isaiah Land (DL37) participates in drills during the NFL combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

READY FOR THE CALL

Land’s draft party—that includes his parents, close friends, family members and the coaches—has been celebrating and preparing for his moment since Thursday. Throughout the pre-draft process, Land spoke with scouts from each NFL team. Even more, more than 20 scouts attended the university’s Pro Day to watch his last pre-draft workout.

However, as Land awaits his NFL home, he knows the work is only beginning. While several years removed from Grayson, the wolfpack culture is still alive. And, Land does not have to search far for a reminder. He has wolfpack emojis in his social media handles, a wolf on the ball of his right shoulder and relentless predator on his right arm courtesy of Inman’s suggestion of the two-best words to describe a wolf. “They [tattoos] fit his personality.”

But even more, Land is on the verge of becoming another pillar that NFL dreams can come true coming from HBCUs, despite him being undersized. When the opportunity presents itself, in true Rattler fashion, Land will strike. “I’m ready to compete for what I deserve,” he adds. “I got to prove myself to stay. I want to be considered one of the greats in football. So, it’s really up to me to maximize my potential and the blessing God gave me for myself and those coming behind me.”