Yahoo Sports Duke phenom Zion Williamson was offered a football scholarship at LSU
Zion Williamson, the Duke phenom who has all of college basketball spellbound with his talent, could have chosen a much different path for himself. He could have been a football player.
Eric Mateos, the former tight ends coach at Louisiana State University (and now the offensive line coach at Texas State), spoke to ESPN recently and revealed that he was so impressed with Williamson’s athleticism in 2016 that he offered him a football scholarship with barely a second thought. Mateos had been watching Williamson’s viral dunk highlights on YouTube, and that’s all he needed to see before he found his number and picked up the phone.
“I thought, hell, why not, he’s probably the best damn tight end to ever live.”
It didn’t matter that Williamson’s high school didn’t have a football program. Mateos was confident that with Williamson’s skills and body type, he could play pretty much any sport he wanted.
“Any time you have an athlete that can generate that much explosive power in a controlled manner, that’s a level of elite that translates to a bunch of different football positions,” Mateos said.
So why not football, right?
Mateos took his shot, but never got a response from Williamson. And while Mateos would have loved for Williamson to play at LSU, he knew the offer probably wasn’t going to go anywhere. He told ESPN that his boss, then-interim head coach Ed Orgeron, likely never even knew he had reached out to Williamson or offered him a scholarship.
“Honestly, I just thought it would be really fun and would be good exposure for LSU if we offered him for football. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be too [interested],” Mateos said. “Coach O said go recruit the best athletes in the country, and that’s what I tried to do.”
But Mateos still thinks about what the 6-foot-7, 285 pound Williamson could have done on a football field, especially with his leaping ability. He called Williamson a “rare specimen” and a “Julius Peppers-type freak.”
LSU apparently wasn’t the only one. Texas director of recruiting Bryan Carrington said the Longhorns offered Williamson a scholarship to play either tight end or defensive end.
We offered him at TE/DE❗️😴 https://t.co/Hohs3ASgSV
— Bryan Carrington (@BCarringtonUT) November 15, 2018
Could Williamson’s skills have easily translated to football? Mateos is positive they would have, but sadly the world will never know for sure.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter at @lizroscher.
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