Kassidy Hill

CHARLOTTE The Carolina Panthers' newest tight end, Colin Granger, joined NFL Live on ESPN this week.

The basketball convert was a guest on Thursday, speaking with Dan Graziano and Marcus Spears about his unlikely path from D1 basketball player to a player with an NFL contract in the span of a month.

Granger spent five years playing college basketball. As he finished his career at Coastal Carolina, he connected with NFL offensive lineman George Fant. The latter made the transition from college basketball to the NFL in 2016. Fant is now ready to pass that knowledge along, helping mold basketball players with certain skill sets into prospects for an NFL club. His first project was Granger.

AsGranger told Panthers.comjust an hour after signing his contract, "(George) has given me all the resources, all the confidence. George Fant changed my life."

While on NFL Live, Granger reiterated the praise after asked by Graziano how this process came about so quickly.

"It'd have to be George Fant," Granger replied. "He kind of just DM'd me...told me who he was, told me what he thought I could be and really thought I could make the transition."

The two were joined by Marcus Spears, a first-round draft pick by the Dallas Cowboys in 2005 who was also the Louisiana Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year while in high school.

"I give you a lot of credit for going and trying to make this happen," Spears told Granger. "The one piece of advice I'll have for you is this; stay low and keep your feet moving. This is a leverage game, that's what this is about. You'll know space, you'll understand how to get in and out of places because you rebounded very well. I watched some of your clips at Coastal Carolina. All those things will resonate with you. Your route running will resonate, sticking your foot in the ground and finding the open area. Stay low, and get as good as you can get with your hands and where you place them and you'll have a shot in this game."

Graziano pointed out Granger isjoining a team that has a legacy of basketball players moving to football (and vice versa), such as Hall of FamerJulius Peppers. He played in both a Final Four and a Super Bowl.

Granger admitted he hasn't met Peppers yet but, "I would love to."

"I've been thinking about other people that have made this transition. I would love to just ask him his thought process at this period for him, when he was in my shoes at this time of the year. What was he thinking, how was he going about learning the game, and what was he doing to start learning football? That's probably what I would ask him, just have him put me in his shoes."

Granger could sign with a team right away since he had already spent four seasons in school and did not play football in college, essentially making him a free agent.

That also means he'll be able to participate in rookie minicamp but will get a jump start when the offseason program begins April 21.