Which Cal Poly cager would make the best football player?

UC Irvine basketball alumnus Darren Fells seems to have secured a spot on the Arizona Cardinals roster as a tight end. Fells’ story is pretty cool, especially considering he is 29 and last played at UCI seven years ago.

A year ago, it looked like it might happen, but the story has gotten traction once again this year and it looks like it’s for real.

After college, Fells played professional basketball before turning to the gridiron. His brother is also an NFL tight end.

All the talk about Fells got me thinking. Which current and former Cal Poly basketball players would make the best football players?

The first answer, which I failed to discuss in the first version of this post, is Max Betkowski. Max played on the basketball team for a few years before becoming widely known for his weight room acumen. Prior to last season, he left the basketball team in favor of working in the weight room with players from all teams.

He’s gained some muscle and pounds since his days on the basketball team and, this season, Betkowski is making a run at a roster spot at tight end for the football team. It’s the current version of the question I was asking, and I left it out of my initial post. Figures.

OK, so I guess this post should have a “beyond Betkowski” theme to it. Here’s my list of the other guys.

Former players

Honorable mention:

Will Taylor tried out at an Australian rules football camp after graduating. He could have gained like 50 pounds and played somewhere on the offensive line. His buddy Amaurys Fermin probably had the vision and attitude to be a pass-happy quarterback, too.

Will Donahue almost certainly could have gained some weight and been a big, nasty offensive lineman as well. Donahue actually played some line at his junior college in Arizona. He was always a physical basketball player and I bet he would have been a tackle that defensive linemen hated to play against.

What about Shawn Lewis? Can you imagine him at 6′ 4″ with like 15-20 more pounds at wide receiver or cornerback? I could picture Jamal Johnson at safety or running back, running sweeps to the left and throwing a lefty halfback option pass.

The other Lewis, Jordan, was a pretty strong and well-balanced athlete who probably could have held his own in a transition to tight end or wide receiver. Come to think of it, I’d probably put him in second place here behind our alumni winner.

When Maliik Love came on the scene as a man-child freshman, I always thought he’d make a good safety. It makes sense: his brother was a defensive back.

The winner

Of all the players I’ve watched over the past five years, I think I would go with Drake U’u as my top choice. U’u — who is athletic enough to have played two seasons in Australia’s professional basketball league — always ran with the balance of a running back or strong safety. At 6′ 5″, I guess he would have been more like a tight end or wide receiver. I guess he could have put on an oversized helmet and played defensive end or something too.

The thing about all the former players that I wonder is whether they could have taken the physical pounding that football requires. It’s just a different kind of grind during the football season, and Saturday is always right around the corner.

Current Players

OK, so who from the current team could step right out onto a football field and not embarrass himself?

It’s not an easy question. They are in France right now playing basketball, so I couldn’t ask any of them (but rest assured, I will.)

I don’t know enough about any of the freshmen to make any kind of statement there, so here goes.

Honorable mention

Ridge Shipley – Quarterback

Yeah, it’s the classic “point guard as quarterback” analogy. Charlie Ward did it at like 6′ 4″. Shipley is probably a little undersized, but he’s probably more “shifty” than straight-ahead fast and he would work hard to figure out defenses. We know he’s a Johnny Football fan. For a traditional offense, it might work.

Josh Martin – Tight End

Martin is known for being an athletic 6′ 8″ guy. He’s also known for his physicality down low, though we haven’t had a chance to see it all in-person. He is probably the closest the Mustangs have on their current roster to Darren Fells, though I have to actually see him play more in order to make him the winner.

The winner is…

When your head gets close to the rim, you might be able to go up and get a football in the back corner of the end zone. By Owen Main

David Nwaba – Wide Receiver

Nwaba is a strong, physical player who is built to play whatever sport you want him to. Not only can he run fast in a straight line, he can also cut on a dime and would absolutely be a jump-ball threat in the end zone at 6′ 4″. I would have the same durability questions in football with him as with any former basketball player trying to make the crossover, but he could probably gain 10 or 15 pounds and stay agile enough to play wide receiver.

Not sure about how good of a blocker he’d be in Cal Poly’s triple option though… .

It’s sometimes fun to think about players crossing over in any sport. What if Chris Brown tried to pitch a baseball? What if Hannah Gilbert played volleyball? What kind of a basketball player would Raeann Greisen or Taylor Gruenewald be?

We know Stephanie Brown Trafton played basketball and is an Olympic gold medalist in the discuss. Recently, Burton De Koning was profiled on this site as a guy trying to play both football and baseball. What current Cal Poly athlete comes to mind for you as someone who would be a good crossover candidate?