The Dude
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Love seeing Hurricanes making a name for themselves.
http://www.nfl.com/labs/rr/pathtothedraft/walford
"The Riser"
Published: Feb. 10, 2015 at 9:40 a.m.
Clive Walford remembers the exact moment he realized he could play in the NFL.
"I'll never forget it," the Miami tight end tells College Football 24/7. "We played at Kansas State. I caught a 5-yard route and took it for 56 yards. I knew I could do big things then."
A 2012 game against Kansas State turned into a seminal moment for Clive Walford. (Orlin Wagner / AP)
The play came in the first quarter of the second game of Walford's sophomore season in 2012. Walford took the short pass and turned it into a big gain, down to the K-State 10-yard line. While UM was held to a field goal in what turned out to be a 52-13 loss, it started to set the stage for Walford. Frankly, the stage still is being set.
The 2015 tight end draft class is not nearly as strong as the one from 2014, when there were three tight ends seen as potential first-round picks. Only one of them, Eric Ebron, ended up going in the first round, but Jace Amaro and Austin Seferian-Jenkins went in the second round, as did Troy Niklas.
Heading into the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine, Minnesota's Maxx Williams -- who left school after his sophomore season -- is seen as the top tight end. But that could change, and that could benefit Walford, who is rising quickly up draft boards, to the point where he could sneak into the discussion about being the first tight end selected.
NFL Media's Mike Mayock certainly has been impressed by Walford, calling him "the most explosive tight end in this year's draft" during Senior Bowl week. Another positive aspect to Walford's game, Mayock noted, was that UM coaches used him in a variety of ways -- in the slot, out wide and with his hand down as a "normal" tight end.
NFL Media analyst Mike Mayock said Walford is "what today's NFL is all about as a tight end."
Walford led Miami with 44 receptions in 2014, for 676 yards (15.4 yards per catch) and seven touchdowns. The thing is, he remains somewhat raw because he didn't start playing football until his senior season in high school at perennial power Belle Glade (Fla.) Glades Central, the alma mater, of among others, Kelvin Benjamin (who was a year behind Walford in high school), Fred Taylor, Ray McDonald, Louis Oliver, Santonio Holmes and Jessie Hester.
Indeed, Walford credits Hester, who was Glades Central's coach at the time, as being the first person to open his eyes to what football could do for him. "He told me football could get me to college," Walford says.
His college decision came down to Miami and South Carolina, and Walford said Miami's "tradition" -- both as a winning program and a producer of tight ends -- led to him becoming a Hurricane. Greg Olsen, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow, Jr., and Bubba Franks are UM tight ends who have gone in the first round since 2000. Jimmy Graham, who played only one season of football for the Hurricanes, became a third-round pick of the New Orleans Saints in 2010.
As with Graham, Walford's first love was basketball, which he played all four years in high school. He also was on the track team -- as a quarter-miler, high jumper and long jumper. Yep, a 6-foot-4, 225-pounder (Walford now is 6-5 and 254) who was a high jumper and long jumper. So, when's the last time you high jumped, Clive? "It's been a while," he says, laughing.
The basketball background definitely has carried over to the football field. Walford said one of his strengths is high-pointing the ball. "You go up and get the ball, like getting a rebound," he says.
Clive Walford's impressive Senior Bowl set in motion the potential for a rapid rise up draft boards this spring. (Johnny Vy / NFL)
Walford gave up basketball when he got to college, but his Senior Bowl experience was a flashback of sorts. "It reminded me of AAU basketball," he says, noting all the big-time players -- and the accompanying hoopla surrounding those players -- who were gathered in Mobile, Ala.
Asked for a scouting report on himself, Walford said he was "a dual-threat tight end. Can catch, can run-block. A high-motor guy. Competitive." He admits he needs to work on his second-level blocking (he says he anticipates too much), but "that's something I can fix."
One interesting aspect about the 2015 draft class is that five of the 19 tight ends (a bit more than 20 percent) invited to the combine are Florida natives, with three of them -- Walford, Florida State's Nick O'Leary and Louisville's Gerald Christian -- are from Palm Beach County. Walford says all three know each other, and that in addition to playing against both in college, he also played against both in his only year of high school football.
Christian and O'Leary were mega-recruits as prep players. O'Leary was a national top-30 player in the 2011 recruiting class, and Christian was a national top-60 player in 2010. Walford was barely a top-60 Florida guy.
Going into the NFL draft, however, Walford will be the hotter prospect. And maybe the hottest prospect of all at the position.
-- Mike Huguenin
http://www.nfl.com/labs/rr/pathtothedraft/walford
"The Riser"
Published: Feb. 10, 2015 at 9:40 a.m.
Clive Walford remembers the exact moment he realized he could play in the NFL.
"I'll never forget it," the Miami tight end tells College Football 24/7. "We played at Kansas State. I caught a 5-yard route and took it for 56 yards. I knew I could do big things then."
A 2012 game against Kansas State turned into a seminal moment for Clive Walford. (Orlin Wagner / AP)
The play came in the first quarter of the second game of Walford's sophomore season in 2012. Walford took the short pass and turned it into a big gain, down to the K-State 10-yard line. While UM was held to a field goal in what turned out to be a 52-13 loss, it started to set the stage for Walford. Frankly, the stage still is being set.
The 2015 tight end draft class is not nearly as strong as the one from 2014, when there were three tight ends seen as potential first-round picks. Only one of them, Eric Ebron, ended up going in the first round, but Jace Amaro and Austin Seferian-Jenkins went in the second round, as did Troy Niklas.
Heading into the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine, Minnesota's Maxx Williams -- who left school after his sophomore season -- is seen as the top tight end. But that could change, and that could benefit Walford, who is rising quickly up draft boards, to the point where he could sneak into the discussion about being the first tight end selected.
NFL Media's Mike Mayock certainly has been impressed by Walford, calling him "the most explosive tight end in this year's draft" during Senior Bowl week. Another positive aspect to Walford's game, Mayock noted, was that UM coaches used him in a variety of ways -- in the slot, out wide and with his hand down as a "normal" tight end.
NFL Media analyst Mike Mayock said Walford is "what today's NFL is all about as a tight end."
Walford led Miami with 44 receptions in 2014, for 676 yards (15.4 yards per catch) and seven touchdowns. The thing is, he remains somewhat raw because he didn't start playing football until his senior season in high school at perennial power Belle Glade (Fla.) Glades Central, the alma mater, of among others, Kelvin Benjamin (who was a year behind Walford in high school), Fred Taylor, Ray McDonald, Louis Oliver, Santonio Holmes and Jessie Hester.
Indeed, Walford credits Hester, who was Glades Central's coach at the time, as being the first person to open his eyes to what football could do for him. "He told me football could get me to college," Walford says.
His college decision came down to Miami and South Carolina, and Walford said Miami's "tradition" -- both as a winning program and a producer of tight ends -- led to him becoming a Hurricane. Greg Olsen, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow, Jr., and Bubba Franks are UM tight ends who have gone in the first round since 2000. Jimmy Graham, who played only one season of football for the Hurricanes, became a third-round pick of the New Orleans Saints in 2010.
As with Graham, Walford's first love was basketball, which he played all four years in high school. He also was on the track team -- as a quarter-miler, high jumper and long jumper. Yep, a 6-foot-4, 225-pounder (Walford now is 6-5 and 254) who was a high jumper and long jumper. So, when's the last time you high jumped, Clive? "It's been a while," he says, laughing.
The basketball background definitely has carried over to the football field. Walford said one of his strengths is high-pointing the ball. "You go up and get the ball, like getting a rebound," he says.
Clive Walford's impressive Senior Bowl set in motion the potential for a rapid rise up draft boards this spring. (Johnny Vy / NFL)
Walford gave up basketball when he got to college, but his Senior Bowl experience was a flashback of sorts. "It reminded me of AAU basketball," he says, noting all the big-time players -- and the accompanying hoopla surrounding those players -- who were gathered in Mobile, Ala.
Asked for a scouting report on himself, Walford said he was "a dual-threat tight end. Can catch, can run-block. A high-motor guy. Competitive." He admits he needs to work on his second-level blocking (he says he anticipates too much), but "that's something I can fix."
One interesting aspect about the 2015 draft class is that five of the 19 tight ends (a bit more than 20 percent) invited to the combine are Florida natives, with three of them -- Walford, Florida State's Nick O'Leary and Louisville's Gerald Christian -- are from Palm Beach County. Walford says all three know each other, and that in addition to playing against both in college, he also played against both in his only year of high school football.
Christian and O'Leary were mega-recruits as prep players. O'Leary was a national top-30 player in the 2011 recruiting class, and Christian was a national top-60 player in 2010. Walford was barely a top-60 Florida guy.
Going into the NFL draft, however, Walford will be the hotter prospect. And maybe the hottest prospect of all at the position.
-- Mike Huguenin
