Holloway Signs With Ravens

OLE MISS BASKETBALL STAR MURPHY HOLLOWAY REACTS TO BALTIMORE RAVENS SIGN-UP

Murphy Holloway prepares to catch a pass while training for the NFL draft. Photo by Shannon deLoach

To most people he is known as one of the stars of the Ole Miss basketball team, but Murphy Holloway is now planning to make a new name for himself on the football field.

On April 27, the graduating senior signed a free agent contract with the Baltimore Ravens to play the tight end position.

“It’s a dream come true to be a professional athlete even though I played basketball most of my life growing up,” Holloway said.

Scouts began contacting Holloway immediately after he finished basketball, during the second week of April. He was contacted by scouts from several different NFL organizations including the Eagles, Ravens and Dolphins.

Holloway is listed on the Ole Miss basketball roster at 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds. He played the power forward position for the Rebels.

According to the official NBA website, the top 15 power forwards currently playing in the NBA range from 6-foot-8-inches to 7 feet tall, giving Holloway a disadvantage.

But Seph Anderson, sports writer for Bleacher Report and HottyToddy.com says the NFL scouts saw something they liked in Holloway.

“At the tight end spot they want taller, more physical players there that can move and that’s kind of exactly what he can do,” Anderson said.

Holloway hasn’t played football since his sophomore year in high school at Dutch Fork in Irmo, South Carolina.

Nathan Dye, Graduate Assistant for the Rebel basketball team and close friend of Holloway’s, said that people have always told them that Holloway would be a great football player but they never took it completely seriously, until now.

Holloway says what stands out most to NFL scouts about him are his frame, how quick he is and his height.

He is not the first college basketball player to forgo the NBA for a chance to play in the NFL.

Antonio Gates, who is now an eight-time Pro Bowl tight end for the San Diego Chargers, played college basketball at Kent State University and was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2003.

Holloway will be attending a rookie mini camp in Baltimore beginning May 3 and will attend the Ravens training camp later in the summer in hopes that he will make the final cut.

If he does not make the final roster, there is always basketball. The NBA draft does not take place until June 27.

In regards to the possibility of being released, Holloway said, “I would definitely do the NBA, but let’s not speak on me getting cut.”

http://youtu.be/gAesP2g3La0

Murphy Holloway speaks about how he feels after signing with the Baltimore Ravens.

—  Shannon deLoach;  jsdeloac@go.olemiss.edu

Shannon is a freshman journalism major in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at Ole Miss.