When talking about small-school prospects in the 2022 NFL draft, you can’t have a conversation without mentioning Chattanooga offensive lineman Cole Strange.
A versatile lineman with an intriguing blend of athleticism, strength, technical refinement and nastiness, Strange has solidified himself as not just one of the top small-schoolers in the draft, but one of the top interior offensive linemen in this class.
Draft Wire had the chance to speak with Strange about his collegiate career, his unconventional equipment appearance, and versatility, and much more.
JI: Looking back on your college career, with 5 years of starting experience, what would you say is your favorite memory from your time at Chattanooga?
CS: I’ll be honest, I would say, for the most part, it’s been kind of aggravating because we didn’t win any championships or go into the playoffs. But my senior year, beating ETSU, Wofford and Furman was really nice, because I hated all of them.
JI: You’ve played guard, center and tackle over the last few years. Can you speak to that versatility, and how you’ve prepared when asked to play a different position?
CS: Yes, sir. I guess for center and tackle, at the time, whenever I started playing, [I] just went in there at UTC, whenever I moved over to center, it was because we had several injuries, and the same thing happened was tackle. When the Senior Bowl happened, they kind of just put me at center, so with anything specific, I guess they just wanted to see me at center. As far as preparation goes, it’s really not so much different, because the way I’ve learned throughout college is, anytime that you’re learning your position, you’re also learning what the guys next you were doing.
As a guard, it wasn’t like I needed to know everything that the tackle knew going in, or every single call the tackle would make and maybe we sent between him and the tight end. But for the most part, whenever I was learning guard, I was learning tackle and center at the same time, too. I guess preparation at center would be a little bit different, because you get to make the calls, you got to be the one that IDs the MIKE, you got to know the strength of the offense and basically make your calls, that way everyone can make their call based off of you. I say there’s probably more responsibility, but nothing I haven’t done before.
JI: You had one of the best performances for an offensive lineman at the NFL Scouting Combine this year. How were you preparing for testing over the last few months?
CS: Yeah, so I feel good about my performance. The preparation part, I was working out at a place down in Pensacola called Exos, and that was a place that I had spoken with my agent about. Basically, we worked on just the Combine workouts; we would work on 40s, work on shuttles, L-drills, all the stuff that we did in the weight room was for explosion, being able to drive out. All the upper-body lifting that we did was solely focused around endurance and being able to benchpress 225 [pounds] as many times as you can: not necessarily getting stronger as far as an hypertrophy way, it was more so focused on reps. So all the training that we did was based exactly on the Combine.
JI: A lot of top prospects go down to Exos. What was it like to be able to train alongside some of the best in the class?
CS: Yeah, no, it was super cool. Whenever I got down there, within the first day or so, i met with a nutritionist and they had a specific diet just for me trying to gain weight. There [were] also some people trying to lose weight, so everyone had their own specific meal plan…if they needed to lose weight and that have certain amount of vegetables and protein, carbs. If you did gain weight, you’d have more carbs, more protein. It was really cool. The facilities are nice, and it was cool being able to work out with those guys. The workout group that we had was, I think we had 10 or 11 linemen. It was just us working out together. It was really cool.
JI: Do they have set meals for you, or is it more based on personal choices?
CS: Yeah, so basically, whenever you meet with a nutritionist, they take your body fat, and then you tell them where it is you want to get weight-wise. For me, I was trying to gain weight. It’s a little bit more than what I know, specifically, but like macros, carbs, protein, fats, all that stuff, she counted up whatever proportion is best for gaining weight, and then wrote it down in a list in. Every time that I would go [for] breakfast, lunch and dinner, every time I’d go up to the cafeteria, and I’d be getting food, there’d be categories, like, “here’s the carbs, here’s the proteins, here’s the vegetables”. I would get a certain amount of each, if to be exact, I get four carbs, three proteins, and then two vegetables. And guys who would be losing weight, they would get less carbs. They get like two carbs, one or two proteins, and then like three vegetables. It wasn’t like anything I’d done before. We didn’t have anything like that.
JI: You had the chance to go down to the Senior Bowl a few months ago. How was that experience for you?
CS: It was awesome. It was really cool. You know, it’s kind of funny. I’ll probably make myself look a little bit ridiculous here, but at the beginning of my senior season, I didn’t know what the Senior Bowl was. I’d heard of college all-star games. A buddy of mine had played in the NFLPA game a few years before, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I didn’t know it was as big a deal as everyone made it out to be, and I certainly didn’t know the Senior Bowl was as big a deal. As the weeks went on, and my first invite was to the Hula Bowl. I heard a thing or two about, “Okay, here’s all the college bowls, and this is the big one: the Senior Bowl, the Reese’s Senior Bowl.” I was like, “Okay, well, that’s pretty damn cool.”
But no, the experience was awesome, and playing against like bigger-school opponents. I didn’t really look specifically at them like, “Oh, man, these guys went to SEC schools or Big Ten schools”. It was good for me, I think as far as exposure, because I think it was helpful for a lot of NFL teams to see me competing against guys who were at that level. I know that anyone who comes from FCS, the first thing of our question is competition. So in that regard, it was good for me, but I just looked at it like it was just ball.
JI: What was it like meeting with NFL teams?
CS: It was awesome. At the Senior Bowl, we met with every single team, and we would have 15-minute meetings with each team, and then go through half the league one night, half the league next night. For the most part, it’s not so much different from kind of how we’re doing right now: we just talked about stuff, about growing up, where I grew up, different sports I played, just kind of trying to get to know me and get a history on me and what I did in high school football, where I was recruited to what agent I chose, why’d I choose [them] and stuff like that. So honestly, I didn’t really think it was such a stressful thing, this whole ordeal. From January up until now, it’s been very busy. But for the most part, I kind of just looked at it as, I get to hang out with NFL scouts and staff and just talk about ball. It was awesome.
JI: Let’s talk about your old-school, crossbar facemask, with no gloves and nothing on your arms. That’s a throwback look. What about that look was intriguing, or has been helpful for you?
CS: I guess it’s kind of funny. I never really planned any kind of any part of my game-day get up to look a certain way. As far as the face masks, that’s just something that me and some of the boys came together and thought it would be cool. But as far as not wearing gloves, I kind of prefer not wearing gloves. I just liked the feel of it better. I’ll tape my wrist; I normally tape my fingers, which I guess you can’t really see too well on the camera or on film. But I’ll tape my wrist if they’re bothering me or if it’s been tweaked, and I need to tape it for a few days.
But to tell you the truth, this kind of goes back a little bit. In college, offensive lineman, you have to wear those knee braces, those Donjoy knee braces, and I absolutely hated wearing them. They’re helpful, they’re there to protect your knees, [but] they’re uncomfortable. A lot of the times, they would get dragged from one practice to the other. So you’d be getting ready for practice, and you’d be putting on knee braces, and they’re like sweaty and wet, moist. I just hated it more than anything. I looked at the guys who were putting on tons of tape and gloves, and then wrist braces, and then taping again. And I just thought, “Oh my God.” I would just come out here in my cleats, pants, shoulder pads and helmet. It was almost like me trying to stick it to having to wear knee braces.
JI: I have a younger brother playing offensive line in college next year, so I’ll have to see if I can persuade him to follow that trend.
CS: Yeah, I did it for a year or so, and I just got so tired of it. So I’ve been there, and I had plenty of buddies who did it. I just, man…if I can avoid it. I will.
JI: Which offensive linemen have you grown up idolizing?
CS: For the most part, growing up in football and other sports and pretty much any part of my life, I wouldn’t say [I’ve] like idolized anybody. I enjoyed watching football when I was younger, but as bizarre as it might sound, the only people I’ve ever really looked up to was the people I knew directly. I’ll be honest with you, whenever I was younger, kids in high school, our upper class wasn’t like the best group of guys. If I was going to look up to anyone, it would have been one of them. I admired guys who played in the NFL and guys who made it to college football, but I guess it’s one of those things that there was that removal of, I didn’t know who they were, I’d never spoken to them, but when I got to college, a bunch of the older guys were really good ballplayers. There was buzz about them going into the NFL getting drafted, they were playing in these all-star games, and I knew them. In that sense, I did look up to them, a bunch of older guys from my freshman class to Chattanooga.
But I like watching guys in the NFL. Quenton Nelson, and Jason Kelce. I like watching Jason Kelce a lot, just because I’ve been hearing more and more about me playing center, so I’ve been watching him more specifically. I think he’s really interesting. It’s interesting that he isn’t massive, he’s not like 6-4, 330 [pounds]. He’s what people would say [is] a smaller guy, [but] he’s still a bigger guy. I don’t know how tall he is…6-2 or so, like 280, 290, something like that. He’s blocking 330-pound guys on the d-line, and he’s one of the best centers in the game right now, so I found that really interesting and enjoyable to watch.
JI: How do you like to spend your free time outside of football?
CS: Outside of football? You know, it’s kind of funny: I don’t think I’ve done too much of that lately. I’d say, for the most part, I feel like whenever I get a free minute or so, I kind of just take it easy. But in the offseason, I do like to go hiking. I’d like to go a little bit more. Chattanooga is a very outdoorsy town, and looking back through growing up, I was going into college from a freshman and sophomore. I was so focused on football. I didn’t really have free time. When I was free, I was tired, so I was like, “Man, I don’t want to do that.” There’s a lot of good hiking trails there. I’ve gone a couple of times, but I’d like to go back some more. Seeing some of these towns, the NFL towns out west…I went to Denver, and I went to Seattle, and the mountains out there are just the coolest-looking thing.
JI: And Chattanooga’s right by the Appalachians, right?
CS: It is, yeah, in Chattanooga. Knoxville, that’s where I’m from. That’s where I am right now, it’s like in this little valley, so there’s mountains all around us. It’s weird, though: they’re called the Smoky Mountains just because whenever you’re driving down the road, in Knoxville, Chattanooga, and you look off in the distance, the mountains are kind of blue. And I mean, I grew up with that. I love that look. It’s just so unique, because in the mountains out west, you can see him so clearly, and they’re all snowcapped. It’s just the most unique thing in the world. I’ve seen it a time or two before, and I just can’t get enough of those things.
JI: Let’s say I’m an NFL general manager. What would I be getting if I drafted you to my team?
CS: This is always a good question. I don’t know what to say, because I hate talking about myself, being like, “I’m gonna be the greatest player.” But there’s no doubt about it, I’ve always had and always will play with an edge, trying to always play aggressive through the whistle, no matter what it is. Whether it’s playing at center, playing at guard or put me at tackle – I’ve already been telling you that – but if they want me to play anywhere, learn any system, learn any plays, make any calls with any me to make. The truth is, I get along with just about anybody, so there’s not a single locker room where I wouldn’t be able to join and fit in immediately make friends. I know that the NFL is a little bit different than in high school and college; you can’t just go in there and immediately be the guy. You have to earn your respect, but within the given time, [I can] become a leader, too.
