Speaker 1: Drafted as a production of tree Fort Media, Clutched Sports Group,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. Welcome back to Drafted, where eight
Speaker 1: elite college football players take us on their personal journeys
Speaker 1: as they enter the NFL. Dad's outside gritting papers. He
Speaker 1: looks more anxious about the draft than he does the papers.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, he's really anxious. But you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just worried about where I'm going. And in the week
Speaker 1: leading up to the NFL Draft, they'll mike themselves up
Speaker 1: without producers, directors or cameras. Things gonna get hear it out,
Speaker 1: you know, a little man, Hey, something's gonna be here.
Speaker 1: It out all right, They're going here. It all offering
Speaker 1: an honest, authentic look at who these athletes are beneath
Speaker 1: the pads and what it takes to go from a
Speaker 1: childhood dream to hearing their name called undraft day. Talking
Speaker 1: about it, man, what is it? I feel like I
Speaker 1: have that in factor that nobody has. And you know,
Speaker 1: some people have it, some people don't. Some people got
Speaker 1: more it's than others, And you know, I feel like
Speaker 1: it determines how successful you'll be, how far you'll go,
Speaker 1: what you're willing to do. But you're willing to sacrifice,
Speaker 1: which you're willing to commit to it. And I feel
Speaker 1: like my if actor has has always been something that's
Speaker 1: set me apart. I mean, I'm not a first rounder,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not even the top three rounder. This
Speaker 1: episode focuses on two new athletes playing the same position
Speaker 1: in very different ways. We'll be hearing from the biggest
Speaker 1: men on the field, the three plus pound offensive linement.
Speaker 1: I'm a real dominant player. I'd like to see my
Speaker 1: man on the ground every play, and when you don't
Speaker 1: the ground, like to jump on top of them. This
Speaker 1: position requires a special kind of personality and comes with
Speaker 1: its own unique challenges. It's all a mind game. If
Speaker 1: you don't think you can beat that guy, and that
Speaker 1: guy knows that he's gonna bully you all day. Offensive
Speaker 1: lineman are the unknown, unsung heroes of football. With technique,
Speaker 1: they give their star quarterback the time and space to pass,
Speaker 1: but tecting him from a brutal hit or providing a
Speaker 1: few extra milliseconds to make a big play. With brute strength,
Speaker 1: they move other three hundred plus pound men to create
Speaker 1: an opening that running backs can burst through for a game.
Speaker 1: Size and strength are critical, but playing offensive line is
Speaker 1: also about the immeasurables. Willpower, effort, and mental strength are
Speaker 1: just as important as the physical. In this second episode
Speaker 1: of Drafted, we're about to hear from offensive tackles Mackay
Speaker 1: Beckton and Tremaine Anchrome, along with their fathers who helped
Speaker 1: push and shape them on the cusp of fulfilling their
Speaker 1: dream and finally being drafted into the National Football League.
Speaker 1: Right here anyway, because that's no no, I'm saying, when
Speaker 1: on whenever you picked, I'm wearing this kind of head.
Speaker 1: This is McKay Deckton, a highly touted offensive lineman, the
Speaker 1: kind NFL teams build their franchises around. He's the guy
Speaker 1: who protects the star quarterback. Now he and his family
Speaker 1: are preparing for his own star turn on draft day. Now.
Speaker 1: I played at the University of Louisville, and I played
Speaker 1: in office a tackle. When I hear the words drafting,
Speaker 1: I feel great and I just get happy, you know,
Speaker 1: I just because I know my dream will come true
Speaker 1: on that day. With the draft only a week away,
Speaker 1: McKay has been shooting up mock draft boards, gaining momentum
Speaker 1: as a potential top pick. He's hearing from everyone coaches, scouts,
Speaker 1: friends and family. Yeah, I'm doing good, looking, looking good too.
Speaker 1: I always look good. We're just ready now. Honestly, the
Speaker 1: only thing outweighing McKay is larger than life confidence is
Speaker 1: his mountainous, towering frame. It's almost impossible to talk about
Speaker 1: McKay without discussing how big he is. Always been bigger
Speaker 1: than the average kid. I was always standing over everybody
Speaker 1: in pitchers. Always was the biggest kid. So there's something
Speaker 1: I'm used to, not just bigger than the average kid
Speaker 1: or the biggest kid, much much bigger than the biggest kid.
Speaker 1: Just ask his dad. My name is Jerome Beck then,
Speaker 1: and McKay is back then father, and he's my son.
Speaker 1: We used to have to walk around with his birth
Speaker 1: certificate because at some games we go to, they couldn't
Speaker 1: believe he was the age and the sad that he was.
Speaker 1: As a thirteen year old high school freshman, McKay was
Speaker 1: six ft three, two hundred and fifteen pounds and rapidly growing.
Speaker 1: Sometimes when you have kids like that, you gotta let
Speaker 1: them still be a kid. When he was coming up,
Speaker 1: we always knew he was going to be special, but
Speaker 1: I didn't put that pressure on him far as you
Speaker 1: gotta be this kid, you gotta be that kid. Go
Speaker 1: out to have fun and work on your craft. That's
Speaker 1: what we mainly always told him. Just working. Cry, I
Speaker 1: get better every day. I said. When you get better
Speaker 1: every day, that's when you know you'll get to see
Speaker 1: you what you need to get to. So don't just
Speaker 1: go out there and just be medio to just try
Speaker 1: to get better every time you you touched that court
Speaker 1: or you touched that field. And you know that always
Speaker 1: stuck with him. On the first day of high school
Speaker 1: football practice, mackay told his coach he wanted to play
Speaker 1: wide receiver or tight end. The coach laughed and said,
Speaker 1: at the rape McKay was growing, he'd be too big
Speaker 1: to play those positions in a few weeks. That's when
Speaker 1: they moved him to the offensive line. He played football
Speaker 1: and basketball. He was actually leaning towards basketball for his
Speaker 1: first love when he was younger, but you know, he
Speaker 1: started getting bigger and bigger, so he always was the
Speaker 1: biggest kid on the football and basketball court. By the
Speaker 1: end of the ninth grade, he was six ft five
Speaker 1: and amazingly continuing to add weight to his lengthening frame.
Speaker 1: He remembers the moment in high school when he first
Speaker 1: realized his new fountain size had made a difference on
Speaker 1: the field after the first game of my junior year
Speaker 1: because we played against our arrivals and I've played really
Speaker 1: good and that was my first varsity game, and that's
Speaker 1: when I felt like, I can take this to the
Speaker 1: next level and take you more seriously. When wants to
Speaker 1: click with him, he put that high work in. It's
Speaker 1: just disguised with the limit he wants his off of
Speaker 1: start rolling in the high school, that's when he really
Speaker 1: took a serious and made it to his craft that
Speaker 1: he he was gonna try to make it as a professional.
Speaker 1: By the end of high school, mackay received offers from
Speaker 1: thirty one major college football programs thanks to some significant
Speaker 1: growth spurts and serious hands on coaching. I coached him
Speaker 1: all the way until he went in the high school.
Speaker 1: Once he got in the high school, I just let him.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't apply to the coach at the
Speaker 1: high school, but through the rings of recreation, I coached
Speaker 1: him since he was five. My dad. He definitely coached
Speaker 1: me harder than anybody else on the team. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie to you. The first year he coached me,
Speaker 1: I was expecting him to take it easier because on
Speaker 1: his son. But no, that wasn't that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1: I mean, I got coached the hardest out of everybody,
Speaker 1: but I feel like it helped me out and long more. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I mean him, me and my coach definitely gave me
Speaker 1: tougher skin as I got to these other coaches that
Speaker 1: just talk to you any kind of way. I definitely
Speaker 1: gave me the tougher skin. Tough love, coaching, commitment to
Speaker 1: the craft, and an ability to handle criticism are not
Speaker 1: all Jerome gave to his son. For anyone wondering where
Speaker 1: McKay's athletic ability, size, or good looks comes from, are
Speaker 1: you getting from the fathers? Yeah, you know, he definitely
Speaker 1: gets his an athletic ability from his pops. He definitely
Speaker 1: gets it from me. You know, I introduced it something
Speaker 1: because I did play football. I played that's my pro
Speaker 1: and I played a renal football, so you know, and
Speaker 1: the rest of his history. Me and my dad are
Speaker 1: the same person, I would say. I mean, we looked
Speaker 1: the same, act the same, We were the same person
Speaker 1: is splitting me, so me it's just like talking to myself, honestly,
Speaker 1: like him, like me. So I mean, as my guy.
Speaker 1: Mackay decided to go to the Atlantic Coast Conference the
Speaker 1: a c C to attend the University of Louisville. He
Speaker 1: became a starter his freshman year and somehow he kept
Speaker 1: getting bigger bigger, but the team struggled his sophomore year,
Speaker 1: only winning two games. Louisville fired their head coach and
Speaker 1: hired Scott Sadderfield, who brought in a new offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: and an offensive line coach, former NFL center Dwayne Ledford.
Speaker 1: It's just from day one, WM Dwayne Lefford came in
Speaker 1: and just told me the things that I was doing
Speaker 1: before was wasn't right. Me and him had a meeting
Speaker 1: the first day he got there. I mean, because I
Speaker 1: already knew about his resume and when he did at
Speaker 1: North Carolina State, he he had like one of the
Speaker 1: top a CC lines. So like the first day he
Speaker 1: got there, man just had a meeting and he was
Speaker 1: telling me how he watched my film and the things
Speaker 1: I needed to work on. At first I felt some
Speaker 1: type of way, but then I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: I gotta listen to him. Because he's been to the league.
Speaker 1: He's been there, his name is in there and people
Speaker 1: know him. So from that day on, I just listen
Speaker 1: to everything he told me. Went in I just played
Speaker 1: different This year. Years of learning to channel his dad's
Speaker 1: constructive criticism at home and the field prepared mackay to
Speaker 1: truly take the new coaching to heart, and because of that,
Speaker 1: he became even more dominant, being named first team All
Speaker 1: a c C and winning the award is the best
Speaker 1: blocker in the conference. But McKay seemingly never ending growth
Speaker 1: involved a lot more than just the Louisville coaching staff.
Speaker 1: And his father and then his mother have a great relationship.
Speaker 1: His mother is the one that is the cook of
Speaker 1: the family, so she makes sure we all eat well.
Speaker 1: He was always in the kitchen with her when she cooked.
Speaker 1: But his mother, she hates for somebody to be in
Speaker 1: her kitchen. He worked his way in there, so she
Speaker 1: cool with that part. Now. My mom is the same
Speaker 1: way as my dad, jeez, the same way. You know.
Speaker 1: They both are tough love. They're gonna tell you when
Speaker 1: you're right, tell you when you're wrong. They're gonna help
Speaker 1: you whenever you are wrong. I mean it's just they
Speaker 1: always They always made sure we had it even if
Speaker 1: they didn't have it. So they were definitely providers, I
Speaker 1: would say, great providers. That's especially true when it comes
Speaker 1: to his mom, who happens to be a professional caterer.
Speaker 1: Now McCay needs to eat around to six thousand calories
Speaker 1: every day just to maintain his playing weight. When I
Speaker 1: was at Louisville, it was hard to morrow my weight
Speaker 1: because once I started training, I started to figure out
Speaker 1: that I would burn like twelve hundred caloriesies gonna workout,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't restoring it in food. I need to
Speaker 1: eat more. As much as life has changed and will
Speaker 1: change for McKay, his mom and dad still provide and
Speaker 1: are still all about tough love, even with the newest generation.
Speaker 1: Get over here, I don't know what. He just stop
Speaker 1: touching stuff. That's when he was saying, yeah, no, just
Speaker 1: now we're about He said, no, wow, both of your
Speaker 1: this is just ridiculous. Although McKay clearly thinks the grandkids
Speaker 1: have it easier than he did, it was that tough
Speaker 1: love and pushed to continually improve got him to the
Speaker 1: point where he was ready to declare for the draft
Speaker 1: once he declared for the NFL. His mass that was
Speaker 1: on'm gonna kill a combat. The NFL Combine has been
Speaker 1: described as a meat market for scouts. Others call it
Speaker 1: a televised tryout or the world's Strangest job interview. For
Speaker 1: three days, players compete in a series of drills and
Speaker 1: interviews where scouts evaluate everything from weightlifting to agility to
Speaker 1: how many times someone blinks. A team really asked a
Speaker 1: player to participate in a staring contest. It's a level
Speaker 1: of pressure and scrutiny found nowhere else, and so NFL
Speaker 1: prospects prepare like their career depends on it, because sometimes
Speaker 1: it does. He left school, I think like three days
Speaker 1: later he was in Florida to training, and he had
Speaker 1: been training that here ever since. So his mass that
Speaker 1: was to kill a combat. Macaw always been a big guy,
Speaker 1: and you know, now everything prototypical. They want to be
Speaker 1: see a certain certain thing. Last year, every Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: offensive tackle except one played around fifteen pounds and most
Speaker 1: were around six ft five inches tall. Not Surprisingly, NFL
Speaker 1: general managers now idealized the six ft five pound offensive
Speaker 1: tackle prototype. They want all their prospects to fit that
Speaker 1: exact model. When McKay showed up for the combine. He
Speaker 1: was six ft seven and a half and three hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty four pounds. With Louisville really not being on TV,
Speaker 1: a lot of them haven't seen Macca. So when McCAT
Speaker 1: first walked into the combine, they was at all I
Speaker 1: had tall and how big he was, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? They and they even they heard about it.
Speaker 1: They figured that he probably was a big, sloppy kid
Speaker 1: or what have you. But then they seen him. He
Speaker 1: was putting put together real well. They was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this this man is huge. You know. That
Speaker 1: was the main buzz that he really gat it like.
Speaker 1: They was impressed of his size and how he was
Speaker 1: put together. But he moves like no other person you've
Speaker 1: ever seen in your life. You know, his basketball skills
Speaker 1: helped his football. Football helped his basketball skills, so you know,
Speaker 1: he's always been athletic. After a meeting with teams, mackay
Speaker 1: took his position to run the forty yard dash, arguably
Speaker 1: the most talked about and publicized drill in the combine.
Speaker 1: Teams use the forty to gauge not just speed, but
Speaker 1: also a prospects athleticism as Mackay crouched near the starting line.
Speaker 1: Analysts once again marveled at his size. Number five on
Speaker 1: the offensive lineman group, but also number five on your
Speaker 1: top fifty players available in this year's draft. Why do
Speaker 1: you have him so high up? You can't get through him?
Speaker 1: And he uses his length and pass pro you can't
Speaker 1: get around him. And in the run game, it's an avalanche.
Speaker 1: When he down blocks, he just takes everybody with him,
Speaker 1: and he's moving pretty good. Boom by words, somebody that
Speaker 1: large running a second? We just watched somebody who's three
Speaker 1: hundred sixty four pounds, the heaviest individual at the scouting combine.
Speaker 1: Did we just see him run five one one? The
Speaker 1: fastest forty yard dash ever is four point to two
Speaker 1: seconds by one hundred and ninety four pounds. Cincinnati Bengals
Speaker 1: wide receiver John Ross, Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt
Speaker 1: also ran a four point to to forty yard dash
Speaker 1: that's less than one second faster than Mackay. When he
Speaker 1: was training in Taxes, Tear and Armstead went down there
Speaker 1: to visit, and when he walked in the room and
Speaker 1: saw him, he said, what is that? Well, right now
Speaker 1: is the initial run of five one one was the
Speaker 1: fastest forty by a player three hundred fifty pounds or
Speaker 1: bigger by point one five seconds as a large number
Speaker 1: for a forty yard dash, breaking the over three hundred
Speaker 1: fifty pound record with an official time of five point
Speaker 1: one seconds. Now, McKay lines up for his second forty
Speaker 1: yar dash. All players run the forty yard dash twice
Speaker 1: to ensure there wasn't a mistake, but McKay's five point
Speaker 1: one seconds time at three hundred and sixty five pounds
Speaker 1: makes the scouts and the announcers series slee wonder was
Speaker 1: this first run and error? Could it have been a
Speaker 1: problem with the clock or a once in a lifetime
Speaker 1: performance for McKay. So mackay takes off a second time.
Speaker 1: You've got out oh by. Once I finished through the forty,
Speaker 1: I heard every coach that was sitting at the forty like,
Speaker 1: take a deep breath, life. So I knew I ran
Speaker 1: a good time when I heard that, a lot of
Speaker 1: people didn't expect me to do what I did. McKay's
Speaker 1: second forty yard dash is clocked at five point one three,
Speaker 1: almost identical to his first run. Stunned announcer Daniel Jeremiah
Speaker 1: makes the comparison to Raiders Pro Bowl tackle Trent Brown.
Speaker 1: Brown is a six ft eight, three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: pound bulldozer who became the highest paid offensive lineman in
Speaker 1: the NFL with a four year, sixty six million dollar
Speaker 1: contract in two thousand nineteen. We saw the money that
Speaker 1: Trent Brown got in free agency, and you're gonna see
Speaker 1: the equivalent of that of how Hi McKay Beckton goes
Speaker 1: in this draft, because guys like this are just rare.
Speaker 1: McKay's performance at the Combine and the reactions from teams
Speaker 1: and the TV analysts changed the entire conversation about him.
Speaker 1: Even his family back home can't stop talking about it.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, he just see my word, my word
Speaker 1: that it's always good. On the first one, mackay is
Speaker 1: no longer viewed is simply a prospect with impressive size.
Speaker 1: Teams now realize how fast and athletic he is. Mel
Speaker 1: kayper Jr. The famous ESPN NFL draft analyst, names McKay
Speaker 1: one of his favorite prospects in the entire draft. Suddenly
Speaker 1: he's being discussed as a possible top five pick and
Speaker 1: the first offensive lineman that will be selected. Rumors circulate
Speaker 1: that he could be picked as high as number two. Overall,
Speaker 1: my expectation was definitely higher. After ran that forty, well
Speaker 1: after I performed at the Combine, I felt pretty confident.
Speaker 1: It's a great feeling, you know, just to see him
Speaker 1: on television, and he's proven it every year of college
Speaker 1: and he works on every aspect of his game to
Speaker 1: get better. He went from people always tell him he's
Speaker 1: just doing it because he's a big kid. He took
Speaker 1: that as fuel and made it and said his fire
Speaker 1: sky's a limit for him and and he will show
Speaker 1: that once you get into the NFL, he's going to
Speaker 1: be great. As high as the praise and expectations of
Speaker 1: growing for Mackay, teams do have questions. Some raised doubts
Speaker 1: about his ability to keep his weight and check how
Speaker 1: there's wonder if his pass blocking needs more work. We
Speaker 1: kept hearing different things. People kept out on this different
Speaker 1: stuff that you know, they say his pass pros need
Speaker 1: a little help, which that's one thing I didn't understand
Speaker 1: because he only gave up one stat in three years,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But it still was the unknown.
Speaker 1: I was making us nervous of the situation. Because you
Speaker 1: really didn't know exactly what was going to happen the
Speaker 1: way he was going. Of course, raising questions about highly
Speaker 1: touted top draft prospects is an annual NFL tradition. From
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning to cam Utant to last year's Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year Kyler Murray, scouts and analysts find ways to
Speaker 1: poke holes in the armor of even the most sure
Speaker 1: fire prospects. This year, Ohio states Chase Young chose not
Speaker 1: to participate in any NFL combine drills. Now scouts and
Speaker 1: analysts whisper about what he's possibly hiding. Some wonder if
Speaker 1: skipping the drills will hurt his draft position. Because tens
Speaker 1: of millions of dollars are invested in each top pick,
Speaker 1: each player is under a microscope. Teams want a sure thing.
Speaker 1: So now as the draft inches closer and McKay's path
Speaker 1: to the top of the first round seems a little
Speaker 1: less certain, the only question becomes how serious are the
Speaker 1: questions about it? We'll be right back. This year's draft
Speaker 1: will be as unique as any in history. All the players, coaches,
Speaker 1: general managers, and even the commissioner will be remote calling
Speaker 1: in from cell phones and webcams. The biggest difference with
Speaker 1: this draft and others is if you know Bill Belichick
Speaker 1: and you know any read if they lose their WiFi,
Speaker 1: they may lose their draft pick. You know, somebody didn't
Speaker 1: pay their phone bill. That's Tremaine Anchrome, offensive tackle from Clemson.
Speaker 1: He's a shining example of one of the things that
Speaker 1: hasn't changed this year, the fact that NFL players come
Speaker 1: in all shapes and sizes. Mount McKay Beckton is as
Speaker 1: large as offensive lineman get a run blocking force of
Speaker 1: nature who overpowers his opponents with his three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty four pounds. At the other end of the spectrum
Speaker 1: is Tremaine six ft two and a little over three
Speaker 1: hundred pounds. Tremaine Anchorum is more of a pass blocker,
Speaker 1: someone who thrives off technique and agility less than brute force. Anchorme,
Speaker 1: just a week out from the day that may change
Speaker 1: his life, reflects on the moment, I guess guess just
Speaker 1: why you know? Yeah, I feel like, you know, I
Speaker 1: can give the whole spill about how my hard worker
Speaker 1: and you know, the better use of I guess this
Speaker 1: time is talking about it? Man? What is it? I
Speaker 1: feel like I have that it factor that nobody has.
Speaker 1: And you know, some people have it, some people don't.
Speaker 1: Some people got more of it than others. I don't
Speaker 1: feel like you're born with it. And you know, I
Speaker 1: feel like it determines how successful you'll be, how far
Speaker 1: you'll go, what you're willing to do, but you're willing
Speaker 1: to sacrifice, ah, what you're willing to commit to it.
Speaker 1: And I feel like my factors has always been something
Speaker 1: that's set me apart. I mean, I'm not a first rounder.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not even a top three rounder. This
Speaker 1: doubt is a new phenomenon for him, lingering ever since
Speaker 1: you feel it's just pro day in front of NFL scouts.
Speaker 1: Now he's returning home to Powder Springs, Georgia, a suburb
Speaker 1: of Atlanta, settling into a routine with his family in
Speaker 1: another new circumstance, the new normal of quarantine. It's eleven
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, and I'm making breakfast. Why because
Speaker 1: I'm a housemaid in the house. I'm just cooking breakfast
Speaker 1: for myself. And He's saying breakfast. I always cooked eggs, potatoes,
Speaker 1: and whatever meat is available. You know, today it's baking.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow could be fish. Ribs whatever breakfast is not champions
Speaker 1: with consistency. So here we are. How the potatoes may
Speaker 1: they're good. I'm notam playing. She's just cleaning a little bit.
Speaker 1: Dad's outside gritting papers. Uh. He looks more anxious about
Speaker 1: the draft than he does the papers. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's really anxious. But you know, I'm just worried about
Speaker 1: where I'm going and his stepmother, Mirabelle. My hopes for
Speaker 1: Tremaine and the NFL in life are that he continues
Speaker 1: to be the great person that he is and continue
Speaker 1: to grow, um and just have an amazing happy life.
Speaker 1: Those are my hopes for him. Um, if Tremaine wasn't
Speaker 1: a football player, I think he would definitely be somewhere
Speaker 1: on TV or on the radio because he's an amazing speaker.
Speaker 1: He's charismatic, he has a great personality, and I think
Speaker 1: that would be a perfect fit for him. Tremaine hopes
Speaker 1: to take that refined personality to the NFL, and not surprisingly,
Speaker 1: his approach has little to do with what team picks
Speaker 1: him and more to do with culture. Are more, I
Speaker 1: guess anxious about finding a system that you know I
Speaker 1: can grow in and people that you know work with
Speaker 1: great character. Guys. I want to go to work every
Speaker 1: day and some locker room, but you know from for
Speaker 1: an office and all the staff. I mean, I can't
Speaker 1: be the only asshole in there. Need to try somebody
Speaker 1: else in asshole too. So. A two year starter for
Speaker 1: the Clemson Tigers, Tremaine played an integral role in one
Speaker 1: of college football's most successful programs, winning a national title
Speaker 1: in two thousand eighteen and returning to the championship game
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nineteen. His team ranked third in
Speaker 1: total offense in college football during their championship run and
Speaker 1: fourth the next year. They were lethal, scoring twenty nine
Speaker 1: points against the renowned Ohio State defense with Chase Young
Speaker 1: and Jeff Okuda, and then scoring twenty five points in
Speaker 1: the championship game against l s U. Tremaine was one
Speaker 1: of the anchors for the offense, blocking for star quarterback
Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence and Clemson's all time leading rusher and two
Speaker 1: time a CC Player of the Year Travis Etienne. So
Speaker 1: going into his pro day at Clemson in March, he
Speaker 1: was optimistic, I have the ability to play different positions.
Speaker 1: Most teams sound There's nothing I can't do. It was
Speaker 1: five spot I can get on the field and help
Speaker 1: the team win. Tremaine's resume looks as complete as any
Speaker 1: lineman in the draft, a clear first or second round
Speaker 1: pick on paper, he succeeded on the biggest stage in college.
Speaker 1: So why then, does he feel he's fallen to the
Speaker 1: back half of the draft. What are the knocks against him?
Speaker 1: Not big enough, not long enough, not aggressive enough. A
Speaker 1: product of the system he played in, surrounded by top
Speaker 1: talent that covered his mistakes. These knocks from analysts and
Speaker 1: scouts can get to even the most confident of athletes,
Speaker 1: even a big, self assured lineman like Tremaine. Which is
Speaker 1: kind of weird, because I don't want to suffer the
Speaker 1: embarrassment of not being drafted. Possibly and I'm one of
Speaker 1: those sad stories on the TV somebody not getting drafted.
Speaker 1: I don't want that page. How Rather, there's no I'm
Speaker 1: going I can't let myself be cheated out of the process.
Speaker 1: That was no regular person. I've never been a regular person.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to do as comfortable. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: do what makes me the best. According to the Scouting Academy,
Speaker 1: the average NFL tackle is six ft five fifteen pounds,
Speaker 1: the size and shape of all Pro bowlers from last
Speaker 1: season except the aforementioned Trent Brown. These are huge people.
Speaker 1: In fact, Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcels the Big
Speaker 1: Tuna used to call playing on the offensive line the
Speaker 1: dance of the Elephants. Tremaine is a bit shorter than
Speaker 1: the Elephants playing tackle at this level, and he's a
Speaker 1: little light at just over three hundred pounds, so the
Speaker 1: NFL has projected him as a guard, not a tackle.
Speaker 1: Plagued alongside the center, guards are usually the more compact
Speaker 1: lineman who engaged the interior defensive tackles, likely a better
Speaker 1: fit for Tremaine. At the next level, when you're playing
Speaker 1: inside as an offensive guard, it's more of a wrestling match.
Speaker 1: It's more of a bull fight. You need a really
Speaker 1: good leverage. When you're playing off of the tackle, it's
Speaker 1: more of a dance out there. You're gonna be at
Speaker 1: a little bit more athletic, be able to play in space,
Speaker 1: have long arms, be able to use your feet and
Speaker 1: hands better than you would inside, and you're playing a
Speaker 1: much much better athlete than you are playing the inside.
Speaker 1: But he could play both positions at Clemson. His versatility
Speaker 1: and maturity outweighed any scize disadvantage while anchoring the prolific offense.
Speaker 1: In addition to that versatility, scouts are touting Tremaine's other
Speaker 1: intangible He's already a professional and how he approaches the game.
Speaker 1: Just listen to his mindset and how to handle the
Speaker 1: one man wrecking crew of Chase Young in the Fiesta Bowl.
Speaker 1: So going into the House Day game, I knew I
Speaker 1: had to play a player like Chase Young, and I
Speaker 1: had to understand that, hey, this is a big task.
Speaker 1: The biggest part of an offensive linement and defensive linement
Speaker 1: matchup is the mental game. It's not so much who
Speaker 1: wins one rep and it's over. No, it's a continual
Speaker 1: game of chess, not checkers. The only way we get
Speaker 1: to the national championship, the only way we achieve the
Speaker 1: goal of winning the game is that I do my job.
Speaker 1: We can create a great game plan, We can do
Speaker 1: everything with the receivers, the running backs, quarterback. We have
Speaker 1: all this talent. It doesn't work if I don't win
Speaker 1: my matchup. Clemson one scoring more than twice the average
Speaker 1: Ohio State allowed on defense every game that season, improving
Speaker 1: their winning streak to games in a row. The Mighty
Speaker 1: Chase Young didn't have a sack in the last game
Speaker 1: of his college career. Tremaine and Clemson contained the Predator.
Speaker 1: I've played a lot of great players, and every time
Speaker 1: you make it about them, you lose sight of what's
Speaker 1: really important, which is you. You gotta focus on internal,
Speaker 1: what you can put out, what you can do, not
Speaker 1: what they can do to you. And I knew I
Speaker 1: didn't have to do anything other than just be myself.
Speaker 1: And then once I kind of understood that, that's where
Speaker 1: my games took golf were regardless of the competition. Tremaine's
Speaker 1: business like approach and preparation drew the attention of Clutch
Speaker 1: Sports Group, the agency representing NBA stars like Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis, Saints star running back Alvin Kamara, and
Speaker 1: now Tremaine Ancram. It's these qualities that Clutch super agent
Speaker 1: Rich Paul describes as one of the separating factors for
Speaker 1: who makes it and who doesn't. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: athletes out There's a lot of talented people out there,
Speaker 1: but there's very few professional athletes out there. And because
Speaker 1: you play a professional sport, doesn't necessarily make you a
Speaker 1: professional athlete. This is the special approach Tremaine brings to
Speaker 1: the game every single day. It's one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why Paul's agency will be representing him as he takes
Speaker 1: the leap into the NFL. If I'm evaluating the athlete,
Speaker 1: just as important as the talent is the character. Now
Speaker 1: does that mean you've got a super talented player and
Speaker 1: his character isn't that high? Are you gonna not represent them? No,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that. But you have to value their
Speaker 1: character because, as we see every day, it's a big deal.
Speaker 1: It's a big deal. It can make a break your career.
Speaker 1: And so if you can build good habits and have
Speaker 1: great character, I think it puts you on the right
Speaker 1: side of success for a very long time. Now, if
Speaker 1: you can bat that with unbelievable talent, then you got
Speaker 1: a superstar on your heads. We'll be right back Tremaine's
Speaker 1: humility and workout there. We're learned at home here in
Speaker 1: Powder Springs. I felt like Powder Springs made me who
Speaker 1: I am values that people kind of have here. Powder
Speaker 1: Springs is I guess the best place to raise a family.
Speaker 1: I mean, you got parks, I got Rex Center, crackheads,
Speaker 1: I mean you got I mean, yeah, farms, you know,
Speaker 1: you got your own little hoods over there. But then
Speaker 1: you got like places. Yeah, good God. But then you
Speaker 1: have exactly you know what we we We we identify
Speaker 1: and we support everybody that who wants to identify is
Speaker 1: game bankers from Powder Springs, Georgia or whatever. Homes where
Speaker 1: your heart is. As cliche as that is, you can
Speaker 1: quote me on that. But then you also have like
Speaker 1: country walk with like gas stations for neighborhoods. I thought
Speaker 1: you walked on. I attribute off a house to my
Speaker 1: white game. That was my training table. Everything on the menu,
Speaker 1: you know, scatter covered, peppered, diced, all of that. It's
Speaker 1: loful house. If you're listening, throw me a bag please,
Speaker 1: or just a limited waffle house for rest of my life. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I love Powder Springs throughout his childhood and Powder Springs
Speaker 1: Tremaine Junior always lived in the shadow of another larger
Speaker 1: than life presence Tremaine Senior, High school business education teacher.
Speaker 1: Everything good, Everything is fantastic, good good good. Keep them
Speaker 1: busy out there. He's keeping busy and I'm on I'm
Speaker 1: on summer break right now. Tell you a little bit
Speaker 1: about my son. Tremaine is is a very introspective, thoughtful,
Speaker 1: hard working young man. He epitomizes what you would want
Speaker 1: out of a son. You want your kids to be
Speaker 1: better than you. So I need training to be a
Speaker 1: better for a husband to me, a better man and
Speaker 1: me and a businessman than me at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, and want your son to be better than you,
Speaker 1: and and you're seeing the pitfall that you've made, and
Speaker 1: you don't want him to make the same pitfall. I
Speaker 1: wanted to be a great college athlete. The bar to
Speaker 1: be better than Tremaine Senior is hot an All state
Speaker 1: basketball and football player in Colorado. Tremaine Senior eventually played
Speaker 1: college basketball at the University of Southern California. My goal
Speaker 1: was to get a college scholarship pay for my school.
Speaker 1: Was so Tremaine then think about Tremine is that the
Speaker 1: next evolution is we know you're gonna get a scholarship.
Speaker 1: Now how much further came His dream is different because
Speaker 1: of looking at the NFL L was. So it's just
Speaker 1: evolution of life and I think we've we've kind of
Speaker 1: maximized it. This has been a lifelong process for Tremaine Senior,
Speaker 1: like the situation with Mackay and his dad, Jerome Tremaine
Speaker 1: Senior coach Tremaine Junior in football and basketball throughout his youth,
Speaker 1: pushing him hard along the way. One thing I never
Speaker 1: wanted to do is I never wanted people to think
Speaker 1: that it was daddy ball with him and and and
Speaker 1: I was giving a special treatment. So I kind of
Speaker 1: wrote him a little bit harder. But I did that
Speaker 1: too because I wanted him to understand what hard work
Speaker 1: was about, what it was like and for no one
Speaker 1: to give you anything. Tremayne Senior knew what it took
Speaker 1: to excel at a very high level in sports and
Speaker 1: what it took to motivate his son, but all of
Speaker 1: that came with the price. Having your dad as a
Speaker 1: coach is no walk in the park at all, by
Speaker 1: any stretch of the imagination. It comes days where you
Speaker 1: know Dad and and coach just you danced that line
Speaker 1: to where you're not sure which one you had have
Speaker 1: You know, he's obviously hard on you, and he's obviously
Speaker 1: wants the best out of you. Sometimes he greens coach
Speaker 1: back home in place of Dad, and a lot of
Speaker 1: the conversations you have. It's it's a lot of coach conversations,
Speaker 1: and you know, as a kid, sometimes you want to
Speaker 1: have those dad conversations, but you're not sure if you
Speaker 1: can have them because the coach switched still on. You know,
Speaker 1: that was tough. There were it was some tough days
Speaker 1: where you know, I felt like I didn't have a
Speaker 1: dad I could talk to about certain problems. He was
Speaker 1: only coached to me. And then, uh, it kind of
Speaker 1: it weighed on me for sure. This road to draft
Speaker 1: day as father and son coaching player senior and junior
Speaker 1: wasn't easy for either of them. It wasn't always like
Speaker 1: this between us. It took us a minute. And then
Speaker 1: by time, you know, Tremaine Turn, I think it was
Speaker 1: sixteen years old, we took a cross country trip to
Speaker 1: to do some uh look at some schools, and we
Speaker 1: really got a chance to kind of get to know
Speaker 1: each other. And well, I got a chance to explain
Speaker 1: to him why I was so tough on him. And
Speaker 1: and once that happened, we became we can't really close.
Speaker 1: Tough love to raise a strong man and wanting a
Speaker 1: better life for your son, pushing him to succeed past
Speaker 1: the level you were able to We hear these stories
Speaker 1: over and over again in sports for good reason. And
Speaker 1: our relationship now is it's really good now at some
Speaker 1: point now to where you know, any big decisions that
Speaker 1: he makes in his life, for anything that he's gonna
Speaker 1: do and and things that he wants to do, you know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna bounce it off of me. Now. It's a great,
Speaker 1: great opportunity for me to look back and to see,
Speaker 1: you know, the fruits of our hard work that we
Speaker 1: put in before and and now you know what he's
Speaker 1: getting right now is everything that he works, he should
Speaker 1: be proud. I mean, I actually got a tattooed of
Speaker 1: his tone number in my form to kind of remind
Speaker 1: me of the man I want to be. Um kind
Speaker 1: of father. I want to be. One thing I've always
Speaker 1: loved about my father, He's lived it and he's a
Speaker 1: guy that cares. This father's son bond is grained in
Speaker 1: the culture of football. It's been in the dna of
Speaker 1: the sports since the very beginning, from all the countless
Speaker 1: fathers who coached their sons and youth leagues, growing up
Speaker 1: to more than two hundred sets of fathers and sons
Speaker 1: who played professional football. The famous NFL family dynasties like
Speaker 1: Archie Manning and his son's Peyton and Eli, and all
Speaker 1: the other dads who played arena football like Jerome Beckton,
Speaker 1: or even college basketball like Tremaine Sr. They all want
Speaker 1: their kids to go a step further, be more successful
Speaker 1: and share the sport they love. He's confident, He's confident
Speaker 1: in his ability, and he you know, he commands a room.
Speaker 1: He's a natural born leader. I definitely get that from
Speaker 1: my father. To go through what he went through and
Speaker 1: to strive for excellence and really dominated what he did. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's adible. That's something that made me think, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know that's in me. I think Tremaine is a protector.
Speaker 1: He protects quarterbacks, running backs, but he also creates holes.
Speaker 1: He he's aggressive, he's athletic. I think he's one of
Speaker 1: the most hardworking players I've ever been around in my lifetime,
Speaker 1: as a basketball player and as a basketball coach, and
Speaker 1: as a football player and as a football coach. As
Speaker 1: a man, Tremaine as a leader. He makes his own
Speaker 1: rules in his life, and he's willing to put the
Speaker 1: work in to make sure that he can follow those rules.
Speaker 1: My hopes for Tremaine are very exactly the same was
Speaker 1: my hopes and dreams work form growing up. I want
Speaker 1: them to continue to push the envelope. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a leader. I want them to be one that
Speaker 1: doesn't worry about following anyone else because he sets the
Speaker 1: rules so people will follow him. It's clearly not just
Speaker 1: Tremaine Jr. Who hopes to be drafted in a week.
Speaker 1: It's also his dad. It's Mackay and it's his dad,
Speaker 1: It's the whole family. A moment to celebrate the hard work,
Speaker 1: achievement and how far they've come, especially in their own relationship.
Speaker 1: I guess I can kind of compare it to when
Speaker 1: you know, the white coat family of doctors, Like you
Speaker 1: worked all this way and now you're, you know, officially professional, right,
Speaker 1: You've done all the work this that in third, now
Speaker 1: here's your white coat. Well stead of white coat, I
Speaker 1: get a number, uh draft or not? I'm just want
Speaker 1: a number on the team, right, And that's that's all
Speaker 1: you can ask for, just a chance. And that's what
Speaker 1: drafting needs me. It's a chance, and then I can succeed,
Speaker 1: you know, grow warm, rooted at coming up on the
Speaker 1: next episode of Drafted. Ever since September two thousand and nineteen,
Speaker 1: I've been doing this for my son, running back Keyshawn Vaughn.
Speaker 1: I call it grammy. I mean, I don't care who
Speaker 1: in front of me, who trying to stop me. I
Speaker 1: don't care what team we're playing. I can't nobody step
Speaker 1: of your away. I think he was just to more
Speaker 1: into my accent if I'm being honest most of the
Speaker 1: year and cornerback, I remember in my coat saying one
Speaker 1: day as I was a little skinny freshman and I
Speaker 1: didn't have much confidence in myself, and he he was saying,
Speaker 1: You're gonna be the next player that's gonna have multiple
Speaker 1: offers coming out of here. Just like Dang, I got
Speaker 1: an opportunity to do something special. Drafted as a production
Speaker 1: of tree Fort Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Kelly Garner, Lisa Amerman, Eric's a Lot,
Speaker 1: Sean to Tone l Key, and me Keegan Michael Key.
Speaker 1: The series is produced and written by Eric Weiner. Jared
Speaker 1: brom is our coordinating producer. Tom Monahan is our senior
Speaker 1: audio engineer. Mixed and edited by Steven Johnson. Additional production
Speaker 1: help from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and Hayley Mandelberg. For
Speaker 1: transcripts of the show and more information on Drafted, go
Speaker 1: to tree Fort dot fm. And for more podcasts for
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Three