“I'm a sponge, and I know coaches love sponges…I'm a sponge and I'm willing to learn from not even just players, coaches also,” Southern Illinois WR Nah’Shawn Hezekiah told me. Less than two months away from the 2025 NFL Draft, Hezekiah aims to be one of the prospects given an opportunity to showcase his talents at the highest level. I spoke with Hezekiah last Wednesday regarding his life journey and goals for the coming months.
Hezekiah spent his childhood moving from state to state before settling down in Orangeburg, South Carolina, with his mother and two sets of younger twin sisters. He credited his mother for teaching him “everything all [his] life.” The most important of those lessons, persistence, was exemplified by her daily: “If she can work a job, go to school, come home, still be able to take care of us…and do it for as long as she’s been doing it, I can do anything.”
Living in Orangeburg challenged Hezekiah from day one: “Not a lot of people make it from there, so I was lucky to even go to college.” He went further, explaining how, in Orangeburg, “it’s hard to get recruited, it’s hard to get coaches to look at you, it’s hard to even know which way to go, honestly.”
But Hezekiah’s mother taught him that he could do anything. With the odds stacked against him, Hezekiah prevailed, committing to play college football for the Howard Bison.
“I really love Howard. I love Howard to death. That was my school.” However, after three years with the Bison, Hezekiah transferred to Southern Illinois, spending his last season of collegiate eligibility with the Salukis. Transferring to Southern Illinois allowed Hezekiah to stay in an apartment near campus alongside his girlfriend and daughter. The move to Southern Illinois also boosted Hezekiah’s on-field abilities.
“I can honestly say we do more here at SIU, as far as the little things,” Hezekiah explained. From early practices, to a more complex playbook, to higher levels of competition, Hezekiah described how he “had to step [his] game up a lot.” On a daily basis, he would arrive at the football facility at 6:00 AM, stay there until 10:00 AM, and return later in the day for additional workouts, field work, and film studies.
One key difference between Howard and Southern Illinois is their utilization of their players. For Hezekiah specifically, Southern Illinois used him as a runner more often. In his single season for the Salukis, Hezekiah tallied six carries; cumulatively, in his years with the Bison, he only had the ball handed off to him once. “Getting all the touches in different ways developed me as a player,” Hezekiah said, “I really wish I would have took this chance early…here at SIU, every receiver is going to get the ball.”
Hezekiah’s success at Southern Illinois can also be attributed to his health. Up until his junior year at Howard, Hezekiah dealt with multiple shoulder dislocations until having his torn labrum repaired, an injury which originally occurred in high school.
With a strong frame and impressive athleticism, Hezekiah mentioned physicality as a strength of his. With that, he is unafraid to get his hands dirty on run plays: “I love blocking. I’ll block. It’s no problem. I know most receivers don’t like blocking, but me personally, that’s something I take pride in.”
Hezekiah is currently searching for a school to host him for a Pro Day due to the Salukis cancelling their own. Until then, Hezekiah told me he is working on overall consistency in releases and breaks on his routes. Standing at 6’2” and weighing 210 lbs, he is aiming to run a 4.4 second 40-yard dash, record a 10-foot broad jump, and a 40-inch vertical jump. A former high school track athlete who made state competitions for long jumping, Hezekiah’s goals would establish him as a high-percentile tester in this year’s receiver class.
While his physical talent is undeniable, Hezekiah has a mindset to match it: “I’ve been through a lot, so it’s not a lot that can really throw me off my game or mess my head up.”
With the beginning of his NFL career being right around the corner, Hezekiah remains grateful for his collegiate opportunities, calling it a blessing to represent his hometown. He was similarly appreciative for the opportunity to change his family’s lives.
“I know things may be hard sometimes, but I always think about it like somebody somewhere is going through something way harder than you,” Hezekiah said, “So just keep going. You never know.” Throughout his entire life, Hezekiah has just kept going. Now, he is less than two months away from it all paying off.
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