Football Potential Is Seen in a Basketball Big Man

The grainy video of Glen Davis playing high school football may be surprising to those who know him only as a burly Louisiana State basketball player called Big Baby.

Glen Davis, who was 6 feet 6 inches and 345 pounds in high school, can be seen hurdling a defender on a 20-yard touchdown run, sacking quarterbacks, catching passes and blocking for a tailback. He even makes a nimble spin move to shake a defender off his ankles on a 17-yard run.

“For a very large man, he’s incredibly nifty,” said Wayne Williams, who coached Glen Davis in football during his sophomore and junior years at Louisiana State University Laboratory School, a high school in Baton Rouge, La. “He’s very agile on his feet.”

Despite declaring last month for the N.B.A. draft and not having played a down of football in four years, Glen Davis, 21, could end up being a creative pick in the later rounds of this weekend’s N.F.L. draft.

“Somebody might take a chance on the guy,” said Gil Brandt, the former vice president for player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys, who is now an analyst for nfl.com. “I’ve heard he’s pretty good. Maybe one of those teams that’s got a compensatory pick in the last round, they could conceivably take him.”

A few college basketball players have made the switch to football in recent years, including Chargers tight end Antonio Gates (from Kent State) and Seahawks tight end Marcus Pollard (from Bradley), neither of whom played college football. Last season, at least three college basketball players pursued N.F.L. careers: George Mason forward Jai Lewis (Giants), Connecticut forward Ed Nelson (Rams) and Long Beach State forward Onye Ibekwe (49ers). Each signed a free-agent deal, but none made his team.

If Glen Davis is selected, an N.F.L. team would have a year to sign him, or his rights would be lost and he would be eligible for the draft again, the league spokesman Greg Aiello said.

Glen Davis’s agent, John C. Hamilton of Performance Sports Management in Houston, said that N.F.L. personnel had inquired with several N.B.A. teams about his client, and that some had asked for video of Glen Davis playing basketball.

But Hamilton emphasized that basketball was Glen Davis’s priority. As a junior last season, he averaged 17.7 points and led the Southeastern Conference with 10.4 rebounds a game, a year after being named the conference’s player of the year and helping L.S.U. reach the Final Four. Glen Davis, who is listed at 6-9 and 289 pounds, is projected as a late first-round or second-round pick in the N.B.A. draft.

“He’s a basketball player, so he’s not thinking, ‘This is great, because I want to play football,’ ” Hamilton said in a telephone interview. “It’s a tremendous compliment.”

Asked if Glen Davis had ruled out playing football, Hamilton said, “I learned a long time ago, especially in this business, you never say never, but ultimately, Glen has to make that decision.” Glen Davis did not respond to requests for an interview.

L.S.U.’s football coach, Les Miles, said that Glen Davis was a “great prospect” for the N.F.L. He said that he talked to Glen Davis about playing football for the Tigers in 2005.

“If he decides to turn his attention fully to football, he could work on those things that would make him a very competent left tackle or tight end or defensive end,” Miles said. “Physically, he has all the natural skill that any football coach wants.”

In high school, Glen Davis played fullback, tight end and defensive end, Williams said. During his high school career, he rushed for 976 yards and 14 touchdowns on 141 carries. He also had 13 catches for 257 yards and a touchdown.

But when Glen Davis decided before his senior year in 2003 that he would play basketball instead of football, Williams said that he tried to persuade him to reconsider.

At the time, Glen Davis was rated as the nation’s fifth-best high school offensive lineman by one service and reportedly had football scholarship offers from L.S.U., Miami and Oklahoma State.

Williams said that the former L.S.U. football assistant Jimbo Fisher, now the offensive coordinator at Florida State, told him while Glen Davis was in high school that “he could start right now at left tackle for us and make more money than a lot of other players in the N.F.L. right now.”

“I still believe he made the wrong decision,” Williams said. “Obviously, if an N.F.L. team is even remotely considering drafting him at this point in time, just think where he would have himself in the draft had he actually played the game.”