Hargrave, Hemingway head up SCSU's Pro Day prospects

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina -- History has already been made. But more is in the making just around the corner.

When South Carolina State football players Javon Hargrave and Temarrick Hemingway attended the NFL Combine in Indianapolis a month ago, they were the first Bulldogs teammates to be invited to the event with other top draft-eligible college players in the same year.

Both had strong performances there and are in town training for Wednesday’s SCSU Pro Day workouts inside Oliver C. Dawson Stadium in Orangeburg. If they have solid showings in the pro day workouts, both could hear their names called higher than previously projected during the 2016 NFL Draft, which starts on April 28 in Chicago.

Couple that with fact that the interest they’ve received from NFL team scouts could mean a large turnout of scouts on SCSU’s campus to see them and some of their former teammates (including Jalen “Scoot” Simmons, Antonio Hamilton and Dondre Lewis-Freeman) work out, and it’s obvious that this could be the most pro football consideration one group of SCSU players has ever garnered.

“Both guys (Hargrave and Hemingway) had a plan when they got here; a plan to get better at football and a plan to graduate early, so they wouldn’t have to worry about this time of year and trying to get prepared for the pro guys along with classes,” South Carolina State head football coach Buddy Pough said. “That plan was as impressive as anything they’ve done here. “Antonio Hamilton did the same deal; so I can say this is a good, smart group of guys representing our program and our university.”



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