First South Carolina and Clemson players selected in inaugural USFL draft
Five former football players with ties to South Carolina, Clemson and the Columbia area are headed to a new professional football league.
Former USC offensive lineman Blake Camper, former Keenan High School edge rusher Chauncy Haney and former Clemson offensive lineman Isaiah Battle were each selected in the first United States Football League Draft on Tuesday. The USFL is a planned spring football league scheduled to begin play this April.
Camper was selected by the Philadelphia Stars with the seventh pick in the fifth round, which was dedicated solely to offensive tackles. The Philadelphia Stars are coached by Bart Andrus, who coached previously in the NFL Europe League and the CFL.
He played at South Carolina from 2015-18 and played in 40 games as a Gamecock, including 10 starts at right tackle.
Camper, who was listed at 6-foot-8 and 308 pounds during his time with South Carolina, was signed by the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2019. He was later signed by the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts in 2021.
Battle was selected by the Pittsburgh Maulers with the eighth pick in the sixth round, dedicated to offensive tackles. The Maulers are coached by Kirby Wilson, a longtime NFL running backs coach who won Super Bowls with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Battle played at Clemson from 2011-15, leaving the program to be picked by the Los Angeles Rams in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Supplemental Draft. He signed multiple reserve/future NFL contracts with the Kansas City Chiefs, Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers from 2017-2019.
He was drafted by the Seattle Dragons in the first round of the 2020 XFL Draft but missed the first two games of the XFL season with an ankle injury and never played, as the league suspended operations in April 2020.
Haney was selected by the Birmingham Stallions with the sixth pick in the third round. Rounds 2-4 were dedicated for defensive ends and edge rushers. The Birmingham Stallions are coached by former Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz, the son of former Gamecocks head coach Lou Holtz.
An Irmo native, Haney played college football at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina from 2016-19. He blocked three kicks with North Greenville in 2018 and was a 2019 Division II Second-Team All-America selection.
Two other former Clemson Tigers were picked up during the draft’s second day. Wide receiver Diondre Overton was selected by the Philadelphia Stars with the first pick of Round 16, the third round dedicated to his position group. Center Sean Pollard was selected by the Michigan Panthers with the second pick in Round 20, the only round dedicated to his position.
Overton played at Clemson from 2016-19 and had 52 career receptions for 777 yards and was part of two national championship teams. He signed with the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2021 and will join former USC rival Camper on the Stars’ roster in the USFL.
Pollard was with the Tigers from 2016-19 as well, rotating at tackle, guard and center. He played in 55 games and logged 38 starts at Clemson before signing with the Baltimore Ravens in 2020 as an undrafted free agent. He was hired as an assistant football coach for a high school in North Carolina in 2021.
The inaugural USFL Draft was not broadcasted or streamed, with all picks announced through the league’s social media channels.
The draft was held across two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, and featured 35 rounds. Each round was focused on a specific position group. Rounds 1-12 were on Tuesday, with quarterbacks drafted in Round 1, edge rushers and defensive ends in Rounds 2-4, offensive tackles in Rounds 5-7, cornerbacks in Rounds 8-12 and another round of quarterbacks in Round 12.
The remaining position groups were drafted Wednesday.
The player pool for the USFL was not released ahead of the draft. A total 280 players were set to be selected during the draft, filling 35 of each team’s 38 roster spots. Teams will be allowed to add 10 players after the draft — three to finish the roster, and seven on the league’s practice squad.
The USFL is an eight-team league set to start its regular season April 16. Regular-season play will run through mid-June and be followed by playoffs. All eight teams will play their games in Birmingham across two sites, at Protective Stadium and Legion Field. Playoff games and the league’s championship will be held at Tom Benson Stadium in Canton, Ohio.
The first game of the USFL season will be held April 16 at 7:30 p.m. between the New Jersey Generals and Birmingham Stallions. The game is set to be televised on both FOX and NBC.
South Carolina, Clemson, Columbia connections to the 2022 USFL Draft
- Round 3, Pick 6: DE/Edge Chauncy Haney, Birmingham Stallions (Keenan High School)
- Round 5, Pick 7: OT Blake Camper, Philadelphia Stars (South Carolina)
- Round 6, Pick 8: OT Isaiah Battle, Pittsburgh Maulers (Clemson)
- Round 16, Pick 1: WR Diondre Overton, Philadelphia Stars (Clemson)
- Round 20, Pick 2: C Sean Pollard, Michigan Panthers (Clemson)
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 9:42 PM.
