Clemson basketball’s Naz Bohannon lands NFL tryout. It’s not his first opportunity
Naz Bohannon couldn’t let a second chance at the NFL pass him by.
After graduating from Youngstown State, the basketball forward was presented an opportunity to try out for the Minnesota Vikings. He wasn’t sure how that would affect his NCAA eligibility, so he declined.
A year later, after exhausting his eligibility with a final season at Clemson, the NFL came knocking again. This time, Bohannon couldn’t say no.
On May 12, he’ll report to Jacksonville, Florida after getting a mini-camp invite from the Jaguars.
“God puts things in your life for a reason, so I’m just like, if He brings you to it, He’ll bring you through it,” Bohannon told The State on Tuesday. “At that point, I’m like, hey, this doesn’t just keep happening for no reason at all. I need to maybe go entertain this and see where it’ll take (me).”
Growing up, Bohannon played both football and basketball, garnering college offers in both sports. Where his size in basketball made him a post, Bohannon’s 6-foot-6, 232-pound frame allowed him more versatility on the football field. He played outside linebacker, defensive end, wide receiver, tight end and even quarterback in his younger days. For now, the plan is for him to work out at tight end with the Jaguars.
One of Jacksonville’s questions for the now-former basketball player is whether he knew how much work it would take to switch sports — and if he was willing to do it. Bohannon, of course, said yes and is excited to take on the challenge.
Prior to the call from the Jaguars, he’d been training for football since about two weeks after Clemson’s basketball season ended in March, going back and forth between Clemson and his hometown of Lorain, Ohio. It’s taken the muscle memory some time to kick in after exclusively playing basketball for the past five years.
“The first couple of days, it was rough around the edges getting right back into it. But the more I did, it all came back to me,” he said. “It feels natural right now.”
The future tight end is keeping his 40-yard dash time under wraps (for now) but has been working at home on football drills, which include route running and speed work.
The hope would be to impress the Jaguars enough to make training camp and see where things progress from there. If all goes as planned, he’ll be another Clemson addition in Jacksonville with quarterback Trevor Lawrence and tailback Travis Etienne, who were the respective Nos. 1 and 25 picks in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Bohannon said he doesn’t have prior relationships with fellow former Tigers, but he’s excited about the potential future meeting.
“A small win for me would be getting invited to actual training camp, just to know that I still have another opportunity and they’re invested in me that way,” Bohannon said. “Obviously, the big goal though is to get them to sign me ... whatever the deal is, I’m comfortable coming in and being the waterboy if I have to.”
His final year at Clemson helped with that mindset. With teammates like fellow big men Hunter Tyson and P.J. Hall, the team’s top and fourth-leading scorer, respectively, Bohannon had to learn his role and accept it. He had two starts after Tyson went out with a broken clavicle and came off the bench for the other 31 games, much different from being a three-year starter at Youngstown State.
“You can’t always be the boss of the company, so I just think a full year, for what I could have gotten out of a place and transferring, I got what I wanted to as far as for my person,” Bohannon said. “If I wasn’t at Clemson, I may not have got the call or even got this shot. … Obviously coming in, basketball, everybody has high expectations, but I got some good out of it.”
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 1:45 PM.
