Seven years ago, Charles Grant ’25 was a 220-pound high school wrestler who had gone his entire life without setting foot on the gridiron. Friday night, he became the highest-drafted William and Mary football player since 2009.
Many of the players selected during last weekend’s National Football League Draft live in front of a camera and have been bombarded with media attention from the moment they first showed up to campus. Former Tribe offensive lineman Grant, who was chosen by the Las Vegas Raiders with the No. 99 pick, is still adapting to the spotlight, which he said began to shine when he attended the NFL Scouting Combine Feb. 24.
“The whole process has been surreal,” Grant told The Flat Hat. “I’d say the main moment it [started to feel real] was definitely getting on the plane to go to the combine. That was definitely the moment. I remember I was in the airport, and somebody came up to me like, ‘Are you going to the combine?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah,’ so we were talking about that for a little bit.”
“There were a couple times where I had interactions with guys or people in the airport,” Grant said. “I just explained what I [was] doing. They had questions, and I was answering the questions. It was kind of like my first time getting fanfare.”
Grant’s unfamiliarity with media attention is a product of his circuitous path to the NFL. At the beginning of his junior year at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Va., Dontrell Leonard, the school’s football coach, witnessed Grant take down an offensive lineman during a wrestling tournament. On the spot, Leonard offered Grant a place on the team, which he hesitantly accepted.
Grant’s decision paid off instantly. He was selected to the all-state and all-district teams during his first year of organized football, and he earned another all-district award after his senior season. Grant racked up his accolades while weighing just 270 pounds, an unremarkable mass for a tackle looking to play in college.
Despite his impressive resume, Grant’s relatively slight frame and lack of experience meant he received just one Division I scholarship offer upon his 2020 high school graduation. William and Mary defensive coordinator Ras-I Dowling, who grew up fewer than 30 minutes from Grant’s hometown, was alerted to the lineman’s talent by coaches in the Hampton Roads region. When he made the trip out to a Churchland game, Dowling saw an athletic, agile prospect the Tribe staff was willing to take a gamble on.
“I know people probably looked at him initially and shied away because he didn’t look ready-made or ready-grown, but that’s what happens sometimes,” William and Mary football head coach Mike London told The Flat Hat. “Some schools want guys who are ready-made, but in college athletics, particularly college football, with linemen, you have to be able to project. Could they get to the requisite size and strength and things like that? It was a no-brainer as far as Charles doing all that.”
The William and Mary staff was enamored with Grant’s potential as a player, but according to London, Grant’s potential as a person had already been fulfilled by the time his recruitment began. It was after interviews conducted with Churchland High School employees, London said, that the Tribe coach knew Grant was a worthy addition to his program.
“You take the visits, when you sit down and you talk to him and his parents,” London said. “You take the things that people have said about him. You go in, and you talk to the librarian, you talk to the bus driver, you talk to not necessarily the principal or the coach, because they have a vested interest in him doing well. I’m not saying that all the other people that I just mentioned don’t have a vested interest, but they observe him when he’s not even looking. You ask a lot of people about, ‘What kind of guy is he? How does he treat other people? Have you seen him interact? Have you ever seen anything that might raise a red flag?’”
“You have a collective group of people in a high school that sees everything,” London said. “When they say from one person to the other that [he’s] a great young man who treated people with dignity and respect, then you say, ‘OK, he’s got some potential for growth. Now it’s our job to get the right kind of training and coaching and teaching to get that done.’”
Upon his arrival in Williamsburg, it did not take long for Grant to grow into his body and establish himself as one of the best offensive linemen in the country. In fall 2021, he appeared in 11 games for the Tribe, starting five of them. In 2022, he started all 13 of William and Mary’s games and was an All-Coastal Athletic Association first-team honoree. In both 2023 and 2024, he was named an FCS first-team All-American.
Grant became more and more physically imposing as the years progressed, gaining 30 pounds in three seasons and holding his own against the Tribe’s uber-talented defense in practice.
“We had [former William and Mary defensive lineman] Nate Lynn ‘23 — Nate Lynn is playing for the Detroit Lions,” London said. “We had a guy that was here that ended up transferring — [former William and Mary linebacker] John Pius was here. He was the Buchanan Award finalist for the one of the best defensive players in FCS. He left and went to Wisconsin. They would go against [Grant] in practice.”
Before long, scouts were filing into the stands at William and Mary games to watch Grant excel in matchups against FBS schools Virginia, Coastal Carolina and Charlotte. Soon enough, the Tribe’s coaching staff realized they had an NFL prospect on their hands.
“We played really good FCS teams, but we started playing FBS teams where [Grant] was holding his own against quote-unquote the caliber of talent that was graded above him,” London said. “When you start seeing that on a consistent basis, you know you’ve got something special.”
As Grant’s star began to rise, scores of offers from big-name programs began to flood in. According to London, several FBS teams tried to coax Grant into the transfer portal throughout his William and Mary career, and the NFL wasn’t far behind. Multiple professional teams asked Grant if he was willing to leave college after the 2023 campaign.
However, Grant ultimately chose to stay put in Williamsburg, citing the Tribe’s decision to give him a chance out of high school when no one else would.
“I was talking to someone earlier, and I was like, ‘William and Mary is family to me,’” Grant said before the draft. “[There were a] pivotal five years of my life where I’m developing as a man, and they were there through it all, helping me every step of the way. So it’s family. It’s going to be like I’m getting drafted with my family.”
Grant also praised the school’s focus on fostering well-rounded students: in his opinion, William and Mary contributed as much to his character development as it did to his football development.
“[William and Mary] focuses on on-field stuff, but off-field stuff as well,” Grant said. “So it’s not just about being a football player here. It’s about growing as a man, and growing as a — whether you’d be a father at a point, you’d be a husband, it just kind of touches on all aspects.”
London said Grant’s strong connection to William and Mary can be partially attributed to the football program’s extensive network of NFL connections.
“[Pittsburgh Steelers head coach] Mike Tomlin ’95, [Buffalo Bills head coach] Sean McDermott ’98,” London said. “When I was here [as an assistant coach] in the mid-90s, Dan Quinn was the assistant D-line coach with me, and Dan is now the head coach of the Commanders. [New York Giants head coach] Brian Daboll was an assistant coach here. So there’s scouts, there’s player personnel directors from William and Mary.”
“I coached a year in the NFL,” London said. “Ras-I Dowling was a second-round draft pick with the New England Patriots. [William and Mary special teams coordinator] Darryl Blackstock played seven years in the NFL. [William and Mary defensive line coach] Keenan Carter played in the league.”
In London’s opinion, William and Mary’s wealth of coaches and alumni with big-league experience allowed the Tribe to assure Grant it would help him live out his NFL dreams.
“When you have an NFL family — but also you have coaches that have been there, done that — irregardless of the level that you’re at, you’re able to see and you’re able to service some of the things that a young man who starts to realize he’s got hopes and dreams,” London said. “And then the reality of playing on Sunday, it starts to come to fruition.”
Those dreams came true Friday, as Grant became the first William and Mary player to come off the board in the third round since former Tribe cornerback Derek Cox ’09 was selected with the No. 73 overall pick in the 2009 draft. Grant also became the second Tribe offensive lineman to get drafted in the last two years, joining Colby Sorsdal ’22.
Grant kept in consistent contact with Sorsdal, his William and Mary teammate from 2020 to 2022, throughout a frantic NFL Draft process that put him in constant transit to cities across the country.
“I’ve definitely leaned on him for some advice,” Grant said. “Every time a new process of the journey comes up, that’s when I start asking questions.”
London, who coached both players, believes that Grant and Sorsdal reached the next level due to a shared mindset allowing them to ignore the underdog label and prove their worth to scouts.
“Character is what you do when nobody’s looking,” London said. “When they were working out by themselves or with their teammates, they got that in the back of their mind of all the people that said they couldn’t, that they didn’t look like what was going to be necessary to [make it to the NFL]. And the mindset of those guys was like, ‘You know what? Don’t talk about it. Be about it.’ Then those guys developed themselves into really good prospects for the NFL and to have long careers. I’m extremely proud of them.”
Ultimately, London emphasized the pride he takes in Grant and the program that produced him. In his opinion, Grant’s journey is a triumph of community, player and university, a testament to the lineman’s character and the advantages William and Mary provides. According to London, Charles Grant encapsulates what Tribe football is about.
“The kind of people that have gotten their degree here and have gone on in whatever aspect of this society to be productive citizens, either in sport or out of sport — he’s associated with that from here on, forever,” London said. “I’ve been doing this for a while. It makes me proud to know that there’s some Charles Grants out there that will probably get overlooked because they don’t fit the criteria for an FBS team. They’re looking for an academic situation that’s going to be beyond the NFL, which stands for ‘Not For Long.’ Charles is that, and our goal is to keep finding those kind of guys.”
