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FAIR LAWN - T.J. Clemmings couldn't get on the field nearly as much as he wanted.
The Teaneck resident's redshirt sophomore season had just ended and Paul Chryst, then the University of Pittsburgh's football coach, proposed a position switch. Chryst asked Clemmings to move from defensive end to offensive tackle, a change Clemmings resisted when Pitt's previous coach, Todd Graham, suggested it.
Clemmings called Chryst later that day and agreed to an experiment that has completely changed the former Paterson Catholic star's life.
"I thought I was better than I really was defensively," Clemmings said following a recent workout at Parisi Speed School. "I had the size and I had some of the tools, but mentally I wasn't ready to be on the college level as a defensive player. And I didn't know that. Playing on the offensive line brought out everything in me that I didn't have on the defensive line."
Despite playing just two college seasons at offensive tackle, the 6-foot-5, 315-pound Clemmings has emerged as a first-round lock in May's NFL Draft.
ESPN expert Mel Kiper Jr. predicted Clemmings will be...