Now in his fourth season at Illinois in 2019, Kirkland was promoted to Director of Player Personnel in the spring of 2017 after spending the 2016 season as a Recruiting Analyst on Lovie Smith’s initial Fighting Illini staff.

Kirkland was previously an NFL scout with the Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears, and Tennessee Titans after getting his start as a Volunteer Scouting Intern with the Atlanta Falcons during the 2003 season and part of 2004 as a Graduate Assistant/Recruiting Intern at Duke University. 

Over eight seasons with the Browns, he held the positions of Scout, Northwest Area Scout, Assistant Director of Pro Personnel, and Senior Player Personnel Associate while working as a Pro Assistant, Pro Scout, and Mid-Atlantic Area Scout during three seasons with the Bears and as a Pro Scout for the Titans.  Throughout his 12 seasons as an NFL scout, he has a total of seven seasons working primarily in pro scouting while spending five seasons on the road as a college area scout.

 Kirkland earned a bachelor’s of arts degree in philosophy from Duke University in 1995 while also being a four-year letterman at defensive end for the Blue Devils’ football squad.  He later went on to earn a master’s of business administration degree with a concentration in accounting and marketing from Georgia Tech in 2003 before embarking on a career in scouting. 

Kirkland currently resides in Urbana, Illinois, and has a 12-year old daughter, Janay.