How UCLA’s Niki Prongos went from unknown to NFL prospect in less than 10 games

In high school, Niki Prongos would hear the play call and wonder what it meant.

When he got to UCLA, the offensive lineman went over the playbook and heard teammates talking about inside zone, a popular run play used at every level of football.

“I was like, what the heck is inside zone?” Prongos recalled with a laugh.

More than two years after he entered college not knowing much about football, Prongos has mastered more than concepts. The redshirt sophomore who has participated in only nine games since he started playing the sport has become a maestro of might.

Having packed 60 pounds onto what is now a 6-foot-7, 305-pound frame, he’s smashed edge rushers, conquered doubters, obliterated expectations. Moving around early this season because of injuries to veteran teammates — not to mention their struggles to execute a new offense — he started one game at right tackle, two games at right guard and one game at left tackle. You never know where he might end up next.

“If they need me to play quarterback,” he cracked, “I’m there.”

Realizing that he needed to reward the willing walk-on who was also among his best offensive linemen, coach DeShaun Foster called Prongos in front of the team late last month. Prongos momentarily wondered whether he was in trouble.

After looking him in the eye as Prongos waited, restlessly tucking his T-shirt into his shorts, Foster extended his hand.

“You’ve got a scholarship,” Foster said to cheers from the other players who leaped from their seats, mobbing Prongos in a celebration reminiscent of when Foster was introduced in the same auditorium seven months earlier.

It was the sort of moment that Prongos always believed would come even though he played only three games in high school because of a torn knee ligament. Contemplating his strengths, Prongos knew he could compete at the college level if he learned the nuances of the sport.

Immediately impressing offensive line coach Juan Castillo with size and speed that were enhanced by a relentless work ethic and natural intelligence, Prongos started the season opener and established himself as a mainstay, playing the third-most snaps of any offensive lineman on the team this season.

“The first thing I noticed about him was he was athletic, so after that you don’t think about walk-on or this-on or whatever, you know?” said Castillo, who spent 28 years coaching in the NFL before coming to Westwood. “It’s no different than when I was in the NFL — college free agent or draft pick, it doesn’t matter. If you have God-given ability, it’s whether you develop the ability.”

Prongos grew up nurturing a different skill set. Following the lead of his older brother, Lukas, he played baseball and basketball. The siblings played together on the Lithuanian national baseball team in a qualifier for the European championship, losing in the final to Greece.

Read more: Justyn Martin shows poise and promise, but UCLA still falls to Penn State

“It was kind of funny because I’m also half Greek,” said Niki, an outsized outfielder and first baseman, “so my dad was there — my mom’s Lithuanian and my dad’s Greek — and so my dad was in a weird [spot]. But it was a cool experience for sure, because who ever knew there was baseball in Eastern Europe?”

Prongos absorbed the language and culture of Lithuania while spending a year of high school in the country to help his grandparents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Transferring into Marin Catholic High for his senior year, he wanted to try football because he knew some players on the team. Coach Mazi Moayed asked him to run around the field to assess whether he had the necessary athleticism to go with his size.

“At that point it was like, ‘Hey, you’ve got a future ahead of you, buddy,’ ” Moayed said. “There’s not a lot of 6-7 guys running around like you here.”

The coaching staff put Prongos at tight end and defensive end while also training him at offensive tackle in anticipation of his playing the position in college. In his first three games, Prongos caught two passes and made 14 tackles while showing exponential improvement.

“Our eyes were popping out, our jaws were dropping,” Moayed said, “and we were just going, ‘Oh my goodness.’”

But a torn anterior cruciate ligament in Prongos’ third game ended his high school career and scared off many recruiters who had been intrigued by his potential. No one offered a scholarship. UCLA, Washington, Sacramento State and UC Davis offered spots as a walk-on, finally acquiescing to Moayed’s passionate pitch.

“My point to everyone was, ‘Look, you lose nothing by taking this guy on your team,’ ” Moayed said, “ ‘and I promise you he’ll be a scholarship guy for you within a few years and if he works out for you, you’ve got a potential NFL guy because of his frame and his athleticism.’ ”

Ethan Young, then the Bruins’ director of player personnel, arranged for Prongos to meet the coaching staff and visit campus, leading to a commitment. Prongos didn’t play his first season and appeared in just one game as a redshirt freshman while learning terminology and technique.

A text that Moayed received from Ryan Gunderson, then UCLA’s quarterbacks coach, teased the possibilities.

Read more: Ethan Garbers returns to practice, but will he start for UCLA against Minnesota?

“Hey, your guy just ran over 20 miles an hour in the catapult vest,” Gunderson wrote, referring to equipment that tracks performance. “If he works out as a tackle, he’ll be a first-round pick in the NFL.”

Before he added all those pounds, Prongos wowed in workouts by sometimes running step for step with linebackers, tight ends, wide receivers and running backs.

“I would always want to push myself to race the smaller guys just to see if I could hang,” Prongos said.

Did he beat any?

“Maybe when I was 250, 260 [pounds,] but not anymore,” he said. “But I’m just one step behind, you know?”

No one has proven more versatile on an offensive line that put together its best game of the season last weekend against Penn State, giving quarterback Justyn Martin the time he needed to complete nine of his first 11 passes in his first college start. Prongos attributed the success to better communication and cohesion with Sam Yoon making his first start at center and Josh Carlin shifting to right guard.

The Bruins (1-4 overall, 0-3 Big Ten) will likely keep that same alignment Saturday at the Rose Bowl against Minnesota (3-3, 1-2) even if quarterback Ethan Garbers returns from the right foot injury that sidelined him last weekend.

For Prongos, it will be a milestone — his 10th game combined at the high school and college levels, with many more possible on Saturdays and Sundays. Castillo told him that he can’t stop working now that he’s on scholarship.

“I think he needs to gain another 10 pounds and continue to get better,” Castillo said, “but he has the ability to be — sheesh — a top-three-round guy, you know?”

The only thing left for Prongos to wonder is how far he might go.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.