‘Firefighting can wait’: Inside ex-Oklahoma star Grant Calcaterra’s comeback from concussions at SMU

Grant Calcaterra was one day away from taking the next step in his post-football life. Ever since concussion issues had led to him giving up the sport in November 2019, the former Oklahoma star had been working toward his goal of becoming a firefighter.

Months of work had positioned Calcaterra, a native of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., for that next step — a job as an EMT for Care Ambulance Service, the biggest local ambulance service in southern California. The job was offered in July 2020 and Calcaterra was set to start with the company in mid-August. That never happened, though.

One day before his start date, Calcaterra decided to fully commit to a return to football. The decision, which came after receiving favorable feedback from doctors, marked the beginning of a comeback that now has Calcaterra playing at SMU and — based on the feedback coming out of that program — very much set to reestablish himself as one of the nation’s premier tight ends.

“Ultimately, it was just my passion for the game,” Calcaterra told On3. “I still feel like I’m one of the better tight ends in the country. I’ve had a lifelong dream of playing in the NFL. I saw a lot of other tight ends get drafted in 2020, the year I was planning on going in the draft, who I thought I was just as good as, if not better than. And just watching a college season, watching the NFL season, it just kind of reignited that passion.

“And I figured if I was going to take another shot at it, it would have to be now. So that’s what I did. Firefighting can wait.”

‘I have a lot of confidence that I’ll be safe’

The original retirement decision wasn’t easy. Twenty-six catches, including six touchdown receptions, during Kyler Murray’s 2018 Heisman season earned Calcaterra first-team All-Big 12 recognition and set him up as a top NFL draft prospect heading into his junior year in 2019. But then came the final two of his three concussions at OU — one during spring practice, then another during the buildup to the Sooners’ October matchup with archrival Texas.

Calcaterra never played for Oklahoma again, announcing his retirement six weeks later after consulting with three doctors who specialize in neuroscience and concussions. It ended up being feedback from those same doctors that contributed to Calcaterra’s decision to un-retire last summer.

“Ultimately, through their advice, I had confidence that I could still go back and play,” Calcaterra said. “I think having a year off can only help, having not as much contact and kind of training in a way that’ll hopefully prevent another concussion. It’s football, so you never know. But through all that process, I have a lot of confidence that I’ll be safe.”

While there were conversations with Oklahoma about a potential return to the Sooners, Calcaterra decided to move on. Calcaterra committed to Auburn in November but reopened his recruitment after the December firing of Gus Malzahn, which happened shortly before Calcaterra had been set to enroll. Five days later, Calcaterra committed to SMU.

A big part of that was the chance to play with quarterback Tanner Mordecai, a former Oklahoma teammate and one of his best friends. There was also a pre-existing relationship with Mustangs coach Sonny Dykes, who recruited Calcaterra when he was coach at California, and a comfort level with the Mustangs’ offense. SMU’s offensive coordinator is Garrett Riley, the younger brother of Calcaterra’s former coach at Oklahoma.

“It kind of fell in place for us,” Dykes said.

Dykes was able to finalize the addition after receiving additional medical clearance from SMU doctors.

“He had some doctors on his end that signed off, and then obviously our doctors wanted to do their own work kind of independent from the work that he’d had done,” Dykes said. “We have a great medical group here. Most importantly, everyone’s always concerned about player safety and making sure that he didn’t come back if he wasn’t ready.

“He had some exhaustive tests. It took a while for it to get done because at the end of the day, we don’t want to put anybody out there that has an opportunity to risk any kind of additional injuries. So our guys were very meticulous in what they did and very slow to do it. But luckily he’s healed. And so, they signed off on it. And once they signed off on it, then we went full speed ahead.”

The road back

Workouts inside his family’s garage had helped Calcaterra stay in good shape even before returning to football. Basically every morning last summer, Calcaterra worked out with his brother, Andrew. Those hour-plus sessions started with stretching and flexibility work before progressing to the lifting and strength training portion of the workout.

In those few months, Andrew put on 15 pounds of muscle (going from 165 pounds to 180) and went from “being one of most embarrassing people ever with flexibility” to “being able to fully wrap my hands around my toes.” As for Grant, it contributed to him being at a solid starting point when football training started in August.

It also was the beginning stages of Grant — who was listed at 242 pounds at Oklahoma — going from weighing 215 pounds to being at 238 upon his arrival at SMU in January. He’s now up to 245.

Besides the regular workouts, Calcaterra also incorporated “vestibular therapy” into his routine to try and lessen the risk of concussions moving forward. The Cleveland Clinic describes vestibular therapy as being designed to “improve balance and reduce problems related to dizziness.”

“It’s basically the system in your brain that causes motion sickness,” Calcaterra said. “So basically you train and do different exercises that make you dizzy. You kind of train that system to when you take a hit, that system is stronger and so the effects of that hit are less. That’s kind of the theory.”

Russian Twists are one exercise for that. Calcaterra described some of the others as “looking left and right at different points in a room while catching a ball” and “when somebody’s behind you with a ball and you’re flipping your head on both sides and catching the ball and throwing it back.”

That wasn’t all. Additional conditioning work for Calcaterra came on a Peloton inside of the family’s garage. That includes one particular session that’s quite unforgettable for Andrew, who walked into the garage to find Grant not only doing a Peloton workout but doing it with duct tape over his mouth so that he could only breathe out of his nose.

“My natural instinct was to laugh,” Andrew said. “But he didn’t let that throw him off and stayed focused.

“It was pretty incredible. I’ll always remember that.”

Big season expected

Since arriving at SMU in January, Calcaterra has returned to form on the field. SMU’s staff continues to rave about Calcaterra. His play has left coaches highly optimistic about the Mustangs’ tight end spot even after losing 2020 first-team All-AAC performer Kylen Granson. Granson led the team with five touchdown catches last season and was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the fourth round of this year’s NFL draft.

“There’s a pretty high standard for tight ends around our program, and we feel like Grant has an opportunity to have the kind of numbers Kylen had, or even better,” Dykes said. “A big part of that is just that our quarterbacks just believe in him. He’s just a guy that they want to get the ball to. And they know that if they give him a chance that, one, he’s going to compete as hard as he can for every ball and, two, he just has an ability to make those plays.

“I think he has a chance to be an all-conference-type player, maybe an All-American-type player.”

And potentially an NFL player, too.

Even after a year off, Calcaterra has preseason draft grades in the fourth-round range from the two scouting services used by NFL teams — Blesto and National Football Scouting. NFS has him with the seventh-highest overall grade among senior tight ends. Thus, it may be a little while at this point before Calcaterra has to shift back to thinking about that post-football career path.

“Things happen for a reason, and I’m really happy to be here at SMU,” Calcaterra said. “Everything’s been going really good. I’ve liked how I’ve improved as a player, and I think we could have a really good team. I think it’s a great place that my teammates and me can succeed. I’m really excited.”