Charlotte, NC-Nadat he was poured in 19 points in 19 points for Coastal Carolina in a loss of the first round for Southern Miss in the Sun Belt conference tournament on March 4, Colin Granger went back to the team hotel in Pensacola, Fla, to dine with his parents and to discuss his future.
In football.
Granger had told Chanticleers coach Justin Gray that if Coastal would make an unexpected run in the conference tournament, it would be his sign that he would continue his basketball career abroad, where he had several offers from professional teams.
If not, Granger would be the first customer of George Fant, the 10-year-old NFL veteran who started a company in which he identifies university basketball players and trains that he thinks can make the leap to the NFL-a transition fantry made in 2016 after leaving Western Tucky.
So when the chants were bounced in the opening round in Pensacola, Granger spoke to his parents before he called Fante and told him he was on board. A month later, Granger worked for five NFL teams on a private-pro day at his high school in Atlanta. And three days after that training, Granger signed with the Carolina Panthers as a tight end in one of the more non-traditional transactions in their history.
Because Granger did not play at the university and at least four NFL seasons have passed since he completed high school in 2020, he was eligible for last year’s design. That meant that the Panthers or a team could sign him as a free agent this year.
Shortly after completing his contract with the Panthers on Monday, Granger lunched in the cafeteria in the Bank of America Stadium with three Rand Rushers during their pre-Draft-Shemar Stewart from Texas A&M, Boston College’s Donovan Ezeiraku and LSU’s Bradyn Swinson. Granger told the group that he had just become a member of an NFL team, even though he had not had playing football since the eighth grade.
“I tried to tell them the story and they literally laughed in my face,” said Granger. “They were from:” Guy, come on. Like whatever, Bro, just tell us what you actually do? “”
What Granger tries to do is to follow a path that is burned by Fant and other former basketball players in the university-including various controversial ends that successful NFL career. Fante believes that Granger can leave his stamp in a Panthers tight end space that currently has Tommy Tremble, Ja’Tavion Sanders and Jordan Matthews at the top of the depth card.
“Don’t be surprised when we see Colin playing early and often,” said Fant.
Tony Gonzalez (CAL), Antonio Gates (Kent State), Jimmy Graham (Miami) and Mo Alie-Cox (VCU) all received tight ends after playing hoops at the university, with Gonzalez and Gates that both become Hall of Famers. Gates and Alie-Cox-as Granger-Speelts are not university football.
The 6-foot-8, 240-pound Granger played football and Lacrosse through the eighth grade, when it was first suitable for his Basketball Team of High School. Within eight months, Granger had his first basketball exhibition offer from Mount St. Mary’s.
“My first year of high school, I had just stopped playing football. The main football coach called me out of the class every day and he wanted me to play football,” said Granger during a telephone interview Monday.
But apart from the incidental remark of a power coach about how he could look in pads and a helmet, Granger virtually forgotten football while he made his way through five basketball seasons at three schools – Ohio University, Western Carolina and Coastal Carolina (he on average 7.2 points, 4.4 Rebouns).
And then he got a DM from Fant, who explained his background and said he wanted to work with college basketball players who projected as NFL -Prasts.
“I saw that it was a real account, that it was a real NFL player,” Granger recalled. “But I had something like that, what? Change of sport? I try to beat a freaking NC State tomorrow. I am not worried about that.”
George Fant, second from the right, and his team worked together with Colin Granger, Middle, before he signed with the Carolina Panthers. (Thanks to George Fant)
Fant, who played sparingly in his only football season in West -Kennucky, started his Niche Headhunter -Business with his trainer and agent. Fans started to go through an online database of every basketball player from Division I, where they scan their heights, weights and statistics and pay special attention to offensive rebounds. When he liked guys he liked, he would be looking for YouTube videos and see if their athletics could play in the NFL.
“I just saw Colin coming from the screen to me a bit. (Initially I thought he could be a man who could play an attacking line like a Lane Johnson species guy,” said Fant, an offensive tackle in free agent with nine years of experience. “Once I brought him to Kentucky, and I got to see him running around, I immediately knew he was a tight end.”
After the loss in the Sun Belt tournament, Granger returned to the Coastal campus to pack his things, spent a few days in his parents’ house in Florida and then went to Fant in Bowling Green, Ky., Around midnight on 10 March.
“He walked outside in his driveway and met me,” said Granger, “and I moved to his guest room.”
The two spent 2 1/2 weeks with sports in the home gymnastics of Fant, while Fant and his agent, Jeffery Whitney, organized a Pro day before April 4. Between sets on the couch or during breaks in speed training, Fante would give other tips to a player who had not been on a football field in almost 10 years.
“He bought immediately and was the kind of man that you didn’t have to tell something twice,” said Fant. “Once you could show him, he took it and learned it immediately and got better.”
Justin Gray, the coach of Granger at both West -Carolina and Coastal, predicted that Granger’s work ethics would be well received in Kentucky.
“I guarantee you as soon as he arrived and they saw how hard he works and how dedicated he is and how disciplined he is, it’s like:” Man, this boy has a chance, “said Gray, who just closed his first season at Coastal.
“He plays as hard as he can. He is a great attacking rebounder, defending rebounder. The ball is in the air, he goes after it. He is tough as nails. He eats nails for breakfast. He is not soft, nothing about him is soft. And then he is competitive.”
A competitive attitude is great, but Granger still had to show scouts his physical qualities. The Panthers-represented by professional explorer Adam Maxie and four other teams last Friday came to Lambert High in Suwanee, Ga., Where Granger ran the 40-Yard Dash in 4.8 seconds and placed a 40-inch vertical jump, according to him and Fant.
Granger, who fits the training of the former Quarterback by Georgia State Zach Gibson, caught, was delighted by his vertical jump, but thought he had run a faster 40.
“My 10-meter split, my 20-year split during training, I ran 4.7 songs,” he said. “I only trained for three weeks. My trainer told me:” Did, if I have you for three weeks, you are a 4.6 man. ” I’m quickly.
Granger did only seven repetitions on the Pro bank (225 pounds), but brought it to the difference in weight training in the two sports. “I have muscle and I can put it there,” he said. “But such an Olympic lift, we are not so entitled to that kind of bench-press.”
Fanted was satisfied with how it went. “I think the craziest part of this whole thing is that we only had 2 1/2 weeks to train him,” he said. “My trainer, Jacob Davis, was able to get hold of him and to do the impossible and prepare him for a pro day in two weeks.”
Granger would attend the local day of the Atlanta Falcons this week. Instead, he is a contract with their division diverse, partly thanks to Fant’s ties with Carolina -As -all director Dan Morgan, coach Dave Canales and tight coach Pat McPherson from their time together in Seattle, where fantastic was drawn as an unsigned free agent in 2016 and started 10 competitions as a rookie.
Fanted said he appreciates the Panthers Granger giving a chance, and expects him to make the best of it. “He is a big guy and he is able to show the ball a high point,” said Fant. “He can catch the ball very, very natural.”
Gray, a resident of Charlotte who played in Wake Forest from 2002 to 2006, believes that the basketball skills of Granger switch to the Gridiron.
“Don’t get me wrong, I coach basketball. So I would assume that ball in the air, he will jump and get it at the highest point. He did that for us. He was really good at offensive rebound, able to immerse it back. Playing with people around him was not something,” said Gray. “But it is a different sport, man, and it will take an adjustment period. But I know with his discipline and its consistency, it will be fine.”
Granger, who met Chuba Hubbard on Monday while he was mounted for equipment, said that the biggest adjustments will learn an NFL playbook and get used to physicality.
“I am excited to be hit. I love beating people in football. It is the competition of an adult man. I know it is going to hurt a little more now. But guess, I am now big and I am only getting bigger,” he said. “I just want to go outside and someone popping or popping, being put on my ass and just feeling it. Be immersed in the game. Remove the first hit and I think it is going well.”
(Top photo: Scott Kinser / Cal Sport Media via AP images)