Treavor Scales Gets Falcons Tryout

For the vast majority of student-athletes who enter Harvard’s football program, four years in a Crimson uniform represents the finale of a career on the gridiron. But for a few, it’s not enough.

For senior running back Treavor Scales, his 63-yard touchdown sprint that sealed Harvard’s victory over Yale in The Game was not just the culmination of one career, but rather the impetus for a new one.

From earning the Ivy League Rookie of the Year honor as a freshman to recording his first 1000-yard rushing season in his final year as a collegiate player, Scales certainly has had a prolific career—but the senior isn’t done yet.

“This is kind of like one of those sappy, lifelong dreams that I’ve always had,” Scales says. “It’s kind of something I pushed to the back and didn’t really let anyone know of until I saw that it could come true. Things just start clicking—from the beginning of my junior year, when I finally got that starting position and I was hearing more and more talk about the possibility of getting to the next level, it became more of a given that I would make that leap [to the NFL] rather than ‘I’ll just do it just to make sure I don’t look back and say ‘what if.’”

With the NFL Draft over, the Stone Mountain, Ga. native now looks to follow in the footsteps of recently-drafted teammate Kyle Juszczyk and find a spot on the roster of one of 32 NFL teams. Scales cites the success of Juszczyk, an H-back drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the fourth round, as both inspiring and helpful to his own potential career.

“We knew for a long time that Juice was going to get drafted, and because of his popularity, for lack of a better term, we knew that we were going to get a better look,” Scales says. “It was kind of like that whole deal where you’ve got a guy that’s bringing around a lot of scouts, it’s a good opportunity for you, so from that standpoint, it was awesome, and knowing that a guy could do it from our school and seeing him competing with those big names, it was that much more inspiring. We could all do this, we could all go out there and compete with the best of them.”

Scales participated in Harvard’s annual Pro Day, which mimics the NFL Combine to showcase the talents of Crimson football players looking to enter the NFL, and recorded a sub-4.5 40-yard dash at the meet—a faster time than that of Giovani Bernard, the top running back pick of the 2013 draft. Senior offensive lineman John Collins parlayed his Crimson Pro Day showing into an invitation to the Seattle Seahawks’ rookie mini-camp.

“For some guys, it’s a very specific and easy route to the NFL,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy says. “For a lot of other really great college football players, it’s very uncertain. Treavor’s a terrific college football player, he has NFL-level speed, and we think he’s a kid that could make a roster. It’s very difficult for skill guys—there’s so many of them, when you put it together with all the BCS schools, to make a name for themselves. I thought Treavor to some extent did that with his tremendous testing at our Pro Day backed up by some really outstanding film, but sometimes it takes more than that.”

Because Scales was not picked during the draft, the senior will now become a free agent and try out at various rookie mini-camps in an effort to land a contract.

“It’s essentially the same process as the draft except the players have the opportunity to choose which team to go with if you have a lot of suitors, so after the draft, after the free agent signings, there’s calls that go out to offer tryouts, to see if they want to sign a free agent at that point,” Scales says. “From there, you go on to the July training camp and into season, with a series of cuts in between.”

Of the teams that Scales has talked to, the Atlanta Falcons and Cleveland Browns have shown particular interest in the tailback. The senior has flown out to Atlanta once already for a local tryout and is headed back this weekend for another tryout.

Although the process has been lengthy, as the senior has had to continue his training during his final semester of college, Scales cites his support system as being integral to his success.

“[Coach Murphy] is making sure that I can get all the publicity that I can garner and also just looking out for my overall well-being, making sure that I’m enjoying the process, and all of the other coaches on staff are always trying to keep abreast with all of the happenings with the guys that are trying to make this next step,” Scales says. “My family, we’re always loving every bit of this experience…. My little brother found out that I’m being scouted by one of his favorite teams and we got to go nuts over that. Every one of my friends, my teammates—pretty much a synonymous term—they’ve just been great, really supportive of the whole process.”

While Scales notes that the Falcons would be his ideal team, he would be excited to continue his journey with any team.

“Being from Stone Mountain, I’m always rooting for the Falcons, so getting to go back to Atlanta would just be the great, clichéd, hometown kid coming back home, getting to play ball for his favorite professional team [story],” Scales says. “But any opportunity that I can get in the NFL would be an amazing opportunity.”

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samanthalin@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @linsamnity.