Thunder’s McGee gets NFL tryout

Mahoning Valley’s 24-year-old defensive lineman had a workout with the Buffalo Bills.

By John Bassetti

Vindicator sports staff

YOUNGSTOWN — Maybe the biggest non-game story last week was Frashon McGee’s tryout with the Buffalo Bills.

The 6-5, 280 defensive lineman was pleased with his results during a workout with the NFL team, but it’s now back to business as usual in af2 with the Mahoning Valley Thunder.

“It was a different experience and felt good to get back on a bigger field,” said the 24-year-old Cleveland State graduate. “I think I had a real good workout.”

McGee was among 60 individuals in Buffalo.

The mention of Cleveland State doesn’t conjure up fabulous football because the school doesn’t have a football program.

Instead, McGee played basketball for the Vikings, for whom he averaged five points and four rebounds. As a sophomore, he earned all-league and all-region honors.

Now it’s a waiting game for McGee, who signed with an agent recently.

“I’ll wait and see whether they call me back for camp or if another team brings me in.”

The Waterloo, Iowa, resident said that connections through Thunder line coach Brennen Booth, as well as those with former Thunder coach Mike Hold and current coach Chris MacKeown, all worked on Frashon’s behalf.

A friend of McGee’s in Cleveland, who already had an NFL workout, also put in a good word.

McGee has played in 10 Thunder games. He started three games at defensive end, two games at nose guard and one game as the Mack linebacker. He’s also subbed elsewhere. Frashon has 9.5 tackles, 1.5 sacks, two tackles-for-loss and one fumble recovery.

For this Saturday’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton game, McGee is listed as the backup to noseman Larry Harrison.

McGee might play alongside Tim Cheatwood, Michael Alston, Jon Loyte and TaVoris Horton or rotate with any of the four.

“We have a lot of guys up front who can really play,” Frashon said. “The good thing about us is that we can rotate and not lose a step at those [DL] positions.”

McGee is an arena rookie, whose exposure to organized football is limited to high school.

“My No. 1 sport in college was basketball and I had couple opportunities to go overseas, but I kind of wanted to pursue football because it was my first love,” he said. “Because I was tall and thinner, I was always told that I should play basketball. So I did that because I had more scholarship coming out of high school.”

After Cleveland State — and after a semester of graduate school at Northern Iowa — he decided to play football because he was blessed with talent in both sports.

McGee’s purpose for coming to af2 was to get more experience if he wanted to pursue the NFL.

“Because I was a basketball guy, they told me I needed to get more football under my belt,” he said.

Because of preparations for his Bills workout, McGee missed the Thunder’s last two games: Albany and Manchester.

This will be his third game against Wilkes-Barre, but McGee didn’t face the same individual across the line from him in both games.

“They had a couple guys suspended and they moved players around [last time]. This is a big game, so it doesn’t really matter who they put in front of me.”

McGee and other Thunder players who were in that 73-37 loss on May 8 remember that Wilkes-Barre pushed for a final touchdown in the last minute by calling timeouts to ensure a tally.

“I didn’t play that whole game,” Frashon said of tweaking a hamstring in the first half, “but I remember that play. They had no reason to score again. That leaves a bad taste in our mouths.”

McGee works with the Boys and Girls Club in Waterloo, coaches football and basketball and works with a mentoring group.

During a workout, McGee said he met former South High player Ray Marrow.

“He was one of the first guys who opened up to me and was telling me about things I could work on because he saw a lot of talent in me,” McGee said of Marrow, who also played quarterback in a Thunder game in 2008. “So, I kind of took a liking to Ray.”

Despite its 1-11 record, McGee stresses a good Thunder trait.

“We got a lot of guys who know how to handle adversity, who will still play when their backs are against the wall,” he said. “A lot of that transfers from football to life and we have coaches who care about us, so this is a good life experience.

“Things don’t always go the way you plan them to go, so you’ve got to keep working at it. Sometimes that shuts doors but opens windows for you.”

bassetti@vindy.com