Cincinnati’s second-round selection struggled to make ends meet while at Charlotte.
Life has not been particularly easy for former University of South Carolina linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr., who the Cincinnati Bengals selected in Round 2 with the 49th pick of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Knight began his college career at Georgia Tech from 2019-22, where he appeared in 36 games. He actually began his career as a quarterback before eventually moving to linebacker.
After the 2022 season, Knight entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal and ended up at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
This was right after the implementation of the NIL (name, image, and likeness), which allows for direct payment to college athletes. By this time, Knight had a wife and a child to support.
“My daughter was a couple of months old and we were not making very much at Charlotte, being a smaller school,” Knight recalled in an interview with Kelsey Conway shortly after his selection by the Bengals.
“So everything we were getting was going directly to our rent of a third-floor apartment. We had a small Jeep Compass that got us around, got us to and fro, and we needed some extra funds just to be able to survive and get to the next month.”
Those funds weren’t coming through the NIL, so Knight had to find another way to survive as he pursued his dream of one day playing in the NFL.
“There’s no easy, quick ways to make money when you’re playing football and going to class and also trying to raise a baby other than hopping in a car and delivering food for people,” Knight explained. “You can make quick money that way, so that’s what we would have to do, sadly.”
Even while he struggled financially, his football career thrived. In his only season at Charlotte, Knight posted 96 tackles, including six tackles for loss, three interceptions, and a touchdown, and was named First-Team All-American Athletic Conference.
“Thinking about stories and speaking into existence brings back, not bad memories, but part of that emotion from last night where I know we won’t have to do that anymore,” Knight reflected.
“But it was pretty much the entire year that we were at Charlotte, we were Door Dashin’. Even after games, we were making sure that my daughter has formula, because surprisingly, formula is expensive, and I found that out very quickly.
“I wasn’t gonna go back home until I made sure she had milk to drink and we had something that we could eat.”
Knight transferred to the University of South Carolina after the 2023 season, where he signed his only NIL deal. With the Gamecocks, he totaled 82 tackles (57 solo), eight tackles for loss, two sacks, and three forced fumbles. In the season finale, Knight intercepted Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik with 12 seconds remaining to seal the Gamecocks’ win over the Tigers.
Friday of the NFL Draft, Cincinnati made him just the fourth linebacker selected, and it’s safe to say that his Door Dashin’ days are over. But the lessons he learned along the way should continue to pave the way for his continuing success.
