Cole Strange could join Terrell Owens in elite NFL draft company for Mocs

March 23, 2022 at 5:15 p.m. | Updated March 23, 2022 at 5:17 p.m.

by David Paschall

AP photo by Charlie Neibergall / Former UTC offensive lineman Cole Strange runs the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine on March 4 in Indianapolis. ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper said Wednesday he expects Strange to be selected in the third or fourth round of the NFL draft next month. UTC has never had a player selected in the first or second round, and just one in the third round, receiver Terrell Owens in 1996.
AP photo by Charlie Neibergall / Former UTC offensive lineman Cole Strange runs the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine on March 4 in Indianapolis. ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper said Wednesday he expects Strange to be selected in the third or fourth round of the NFL draft next month. UTC has never had a player selected in the first or second round, and just one in the third round, receiver Terrell Owens in 1996.

Cole Strange could be weeks away from making University of Tennessee at Chattanooga history when it comes to the NFL draft.

The Mocs have yet to produce a first- or second-round selection in the late April extravaganza that first transpired in 1936. The lone third-round pick in UTC annals - receiver Terrell Owens in 1996 - wound up compiling an NFL career that led to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Strange, much like Owens a generation ago, thrived for the Mocs amid limited fanfare, with the 6-foot-6, 301-pound offensive lineman having arrived in 2016 as the nation's No. 3,804 prospect out of Knoxville Catholic.

"I think Strange has potential who will go in that third- or fourth-round mix," longtime ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper said Wednesday afternoon on a conference call. "I think that's where he goes."

The highest-drafted Mocs since Owens have been a pair of fifth-round selections - cornerback Buster Skrine in 2011 and defensive end/outside linebacker Davis Tull in 2015. Owens went 89th overall in 1996, making him the only top-100 draftee from UTC since the AFL-NFL merger before the 1970 season.

Tackle Ralph Hutchinson is the highest-drafted Mocs player numerically of all time, getting picked in the seventh round as the 46th overall selection in 1949.

Strange made nine starts at left guard and two starts at left tackle last season, but he worked primarily at center during Senior Bowl workouts in early February in Mobile, Alabama. At the NFL combine in Indianapolis earlier this month, he earned a spot on NFL.com's 10-member "All-Combine Offensive Team."

"I think Cole Strange winds up being a guard," Kiper said. "Some will try him at center, because he has that versatility, but he's a guy who is still very much a work in progress. Playing center and the snaps that we saw in the Senior Bowl - that's going to be a work in progress going up against elite guys on every play.

"That's something that is going to be a transition coming from UT-Chattanooga."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.

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