North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: The Flight of T.J. "Batman" Graham
10/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
A former Wolfpack All-America placekicker, Marc Primanti, taught him to kick a football, a skill he used on his Pop Warner and middle school football teams.
And one day, Graham challenged his family’s red-wearing minister to a foot race.
“T.J., you’re fast,” said the minister. “But you aren’t that fast. Not yet, anyway.”
And who knows, maybe Danny Peebles, pastor of
But, six games in to his collegiate career, Graham is making strides to catch up with the former NFL star and world-class sprinter who is remembered, along with Alvis Whitted, as one of the fastest players in NC State football history.
Graham, the freshman from
His future seems brighter than the exhaust flame that trails behind his every run.
From the outside, Graham might appear to be a track star in pads. Both his parents, Trevor and Ann Graham, were college track stars at
The younger Graham called “Batman” by his high school classmates for his speed and his tendency to wear all black, all the time obviously inherited that speed from his parents. Earlier this spring, he won North Carolina High School Association 4-A championships in both the 100- and 200-meter races, setting a state record of 10.44 seconds in the first event. And his speed is what initially caught the eye of his first high school football coach.
NC State fans know of him former
“Coach Rivers opened up a lot of doors for me,” Graham said. “It was his last year at
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The fact of the matter is that Graham likes to run track. He’s obviously very good at it. But he has a true passion for football.
Graham’s best high school season was as a sophomore under Rivers. The last two years, he didn’t contribute much on the football field. As junior, he caught 12 passes for 242 yards. As a senior, he missed much of the season with an injury, finishing the year with seven catches for 42 yards.
In his final game, he threw a 76-yard touchdown pass and scored another in
“I never played to my potential in high school,” Graham said. “I’m kind of glad I didn’t. I flew under the radar.
“In high school, when the ball was in my hands, I could make plays. But it was rare that the ball was in my hands.”
Graham is not awed by the fastest runners in the world. But he has idolized football players ever since his dad began throwing him a green Nerf football not long after he began to walk. “My path has been laid out to play football, not track,” Graham said. “Track was something I was good at. But just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you should do it all the time. It’s what you like to do. I like to run track, but I love to play football. “I hate all the practice on the track. It’s just running and repetitive. In football, you can run and juke and jump, catch and hit somebody. I determined a long time ago that I was going to play football.” Early on, he befriended former NC State assistant coach Dick Portee, who let him chase down punts for the kickers as they practiced far away from the offensive and defensive scrimmages. Primanti spent some one-on-one time with the young speedster. And there was never a doubt, when it came time to choose a school, that he would play for the Wolfpack. Especially after he spent his first Tom O’Brien football camp catching passes from Mike Glennon, a top-rated high school standout who committed to the Wolfpack one week after Graham did. “We connected from the first time we were out there together,” Graham said. “We knew we wanted to play for the same college team.” O’Brien noticed Graham right away during those camp workouts. And he noticed that he was more than just a speed merchant. “I was impressed at how skilled he really was at catching the football,” O’Brien said. “We all had an idea that he was extremely fast. It’s his ability to catch the ball and run with it after he catches it that makes him a complete player.” Graham admits that he was a little overwhelmed and a bit picked on by upperclassmen when he first arrived at NC State. Graham had no idea that he would have to contribute so early. He was still fairly green as a football player when he arrived on NC State’s campus from “I couldn’t be a freshman anymore after that,” Graham said. On his first collegiate play, however, in front of 80,000 people at Graham has also learned some of his limitations. He can’t use his speed on every play. As a kid he suffered from asthma, and he can sometimes be short-of-breath when he runs back-to-back downfield patterns. “I have God’s gift to be fast, but I also have God’s leash on me,” Graham said. “Running full speed repetitively, I can get pretty winded. That’s when your mental game and toughness comes in.” Now that he has earned a spot as a playmaker, he doesn’t get picked on any more. In fact, he gets protected. “The other day in practice, [senior safety] J.C. Neal came flying in,” Graham said. “In preseason camp, he would have taken my head off. I’ve matured pretty quickly since then. I kind of slowed down and made him miss me. “We talked about it later in the weight room and he said You don’t hit your playmakers.’ If I would have been on the scout team, it would have been a different story. That made me feel respected, like I have earned some stripes. I don’t feel like I’m a typical freshman any more they’ve thrown me into the snakepit but the snakes aren’t biting any more.” But even the world’s fastest snake can’t catch Batman. You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
