Editor’s note: This article is part of series of player capsules called "Meet the Tigers," revealing things you probably don’t know about members of the 2019 Clemson football team.

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Gage Cervenka

Position: Offensive guard

Year: Graduate

Height: 6-3

Weight: 325

Hometown: Greenwood

Notable statistic: Played a career-high 62 snaps in the Tigers’ 2018 win against South Carolina, helping the team to 744 total yards.

Plenty of sole

When Cervenka was a freshman at Emerald High, the Vikings were bound for a playoff game at Pendleton when he realized he had left his cleats at the school. Coach Tim McMahon called his brother, who was driving from Morganton, North Carolina, to watch the game, and asked him to stop at a sporting goods store and buy some size 14 cleats. He complied, but no one realized that one of the coach’s wives had gone by the school and picked up Gage’s cleats or that his parents had stopped and bought a new pair. “He went up there with no shoes and came home with three pair,” McMahon said.

Gage the grappler

Cervenka was a standout wrestler, compiling a record of 199-1 in his career at Emerald and becoming the only heavyweight in state history to win four state titles. “Watching him wrestle was like watching a lightweight wrestle – he had such athleticism,” McMahon said. “If he’d wanted to wrestle collegiately, I have no doubt he’d have been one of the best in the country.”

Best on bench

“I’ve coached a long time and I don’t know if I’ve ever had a kid as strong as Gage,” McMahon said. Few have. A preseason All-ACC selection, Cervenka now ranks as one of the strongest players on the Clemson team, tying the program position record for most bench press repetitions with 43 reps of 225 pounds. The top effort at the 2019 NFL Combine? 39 reps.

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