TEMPE, Ariz. -- The moment Hayden Conner moved over from guard to center late in the second quarter of Texas' College Football Playoff game against Clemson, his draft stock went up.
Up to that point, Conner, a guard, hadn't played center all season and had taken "no more than 10 reps at center" every week in practice. He knew he was the backup, but Texas had a stalwart at the core of its offensive line in Jake Majors, who was durable all season until a blindside block by Clemson knocked him out of the game.
Conner more than held his own, helping Texas score two more touchdowns and a field goal in a 14-point win.
"I just watched a lot of his film getting ready for the games and that allowed me to go out there and be myself," Conner said. "But also show that I can do it all."
Conner moved back to guard for the CFP quarterfinal, but he proved he could transition seamlessly. And the Arizona Cardinals noticed.
The Cardinals took Conner in the sixth round with the No. 211 pick and added him to the mix at guard, where he'll have a chance to compete for playing time during training camp.
"He's a big, strong guy," Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort said. "He can get movement. Texas runs the ball a lot. He's played well in that system, and he holds up really well in pass protection, so I think he's a good fit for what we try to do."
Why, though, was Conner able to make the jump to center so seamlessly? Part of it was his football prowess. It also helped that when Conner learned Texas' offense, he studied it through the lens of a center so he could learn the front-side and back-side combinations, giving him a "general idea of what's supposed to be going on."
Seeing Conner take over at center on such short notice -- without much practice in a pressure-packed situation -- showed Arizona that Conner possessed a slew of traits that would translate to the next level.
"It shows some versatility," Cardinals assistant general manager Dave Sears said. "It also shows a lot of mental toughness. A highly intelligent kid, especially when we sat down and interviewed the kid. He's extremely intelligent. You could tell right away, this is a guy that if athletically he can handle it, this guy can play center. He's smart enough, he's got enough on the ball that way.
"But it also shows that his coaches trust him, his teammates trust him to go and do a job like that that you haven't done on tape. Probably not a ton of reps in practice, honestly because they have a really good center there, Jake Majors. So, it was very impressive in that regard."
Conner joins an offensive line room that includes left tackle Paris Johnson Jr., right tackle Jonah Williams and center Hjalte Froholdt, among others. Before the draft, multiple league sources said addressing the guard positions was one of the team's top priorities. Arizona may have found one of its answers in Conner.
Heading into his first NFL training camp, Conner's focus is on football. But whenever his career is over, he hopes to turn back to aerospace engineering as a career. At Texas, he wanted to major in aerospace engineering after entering college on a physics track, but there were too many scheduling conflicts between football and school, so he chose geography.
"I've always wanted to go to space," he said, "but maybe I could help people get there.
"I think I might be too big."