University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Ben Cleveland
April 17, 2019 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
His huge hands tucked behind his head, his leg crossed with his right cowboy boot — size 17 — resting on his left knee, Ben Cleveland pondered a question about his future. When the answer came, the 6-foot-6 and 335-pound Georgia offensive lineman had a really big smile on his face.
It was a silly question about where, in a perfect world, the big man from Toccoa, Ga., would like to be in 15 years. But the way his eyes lit up when he had his answer, it looked like he might have just conceived of a dream he wanted to come true.
You'll find his answer below, at the end of a very interesting Quick Chat. The rising redshirt junior talked about wrestling with his older (but not bigger) brother, being considerate of others at concerts, french fries and a great deal more. Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: Are you the biggest person in your family?
Cleveland: Absolutely, without a doubt.
Frierson: Are you the biggest by a huge margin?
Cleveland: Probably. My dad's like 6-2 or 6-3 and my brother's 6-4 1/2 and he's 240 pounds. [Editor's note: Cleveland's brother Ryan played baseball at Georgia Southern.]
Frierson: Did you two wrestle much as kids?
Cleveland: He was a little older so he got the upper hand a good bit when we were younger, but as we both got older and into college, all the fighting stopped because we realized that stuff can start getting broken a little bit around the house. I think that has a lot to do with dad throwing us out in the yard and telling us to finish it out there when we were young.
Frierson: Do you look back on those days fondly?
Cleveland: Absolutely. I look at where we came from and the lives we've been blessed enough to live, I feel like all those things developed us into the people we were growing up, going without things here and there. Really, having to rely on each other for entertainment, whether that was hitting each other upside the head with sticks outside or whatever.
I definitely look back on those days and I'm glad it happened the way it did.
Frierson: When you think of your home or hometown, what comes to mind?
Cleveland: I think about family and friends; I've got a very small group of friends back home and every time I'm home, it doesn't matter if it's for six hours or a day, two days, whatever, we have an open-door policy. And it's the same way at their house.
Sometimes I'll go to one of my friends' houses and he isn't even there, and I'll just walk in and say hey to his parents sitting there in the living room. I think that's home, the family and friends part of it.
Frierson: What's something you could eat every day and never get tired of it?
Cleveland: French fries — definitely French fries.
Frierson: That brings up two follow-up questions: how do you feel about sweet potato fries and what is your go-to place for an order of fries?
Cleveland: Sweet potato fries are a no go. That's not going to happen.
Frierson: I think we're going to get along then.
Cleveland: And I'd say Bojangles (for an order of fries), Bojangles is up there. Either that or Hardee's. Those are my top two.
Frierson: What is a perfect non-football Saturday for you?
Cleveland: Oh, man, I actually had one of these Saturday after the scrimmage. I went home and went out to the lake with friends.
I'd say my typical non-football Saturday is me and my dad go out to the lake fishing every chance we get. And with right now being springtime and turkey (hunting) season being around, the weather's too good, so we'll go outside and fiddle around, make stuff, cut grass, do yard work, shoot guns, whatever.
Frierson: What's the most creative thing you do, or something creative you wish you could do?
Cleveland: I can't play an instrument, I can't draw, I try to sing but it ain't too good. My girlfriend can attest to that one, she has to hear it every time she's in the truck with me. I think she tries to put earplugs in, but nevertheless, I still do it.
I do wish I could play guitar and sing.
Frierson: Is there a song you wish you could play?
Cleveland: I just want to play "Simple Man" but Lynyrd Skynyrd. Either that or "Freebird" — if I could learn one of those two songs on guitar I'd be happy.
Frierson: What's the best live performance you've ever seen?
Cleveland: I've got two of them, actually. A few years ago, back when I was still in high school, I was eating dinner with my family in Toccoa and one of my friends who was a few years older than me was there and he said he had an extra ticket to Chris Stapleton over in South Carolina. I was like, OK, let's go. We went out there and he was unbelievable.
The second best concert was last summer, me and my girlfriend went to see Luke Combs play at Suntrust Park. He played with Hootie & The Blowfish and it was pretty neat.
Frierson: When you're in a crowd at a concert, being as big as you are, are you conscious of the fact that you might be blocking the view of a bunch of people?
Cleveland: Absolutely. That actually crosses my mind a lot, believe it or not. I try to give people the common courtesy of moving to the back or get up on the side or something like that, just to stay out of the way.
Frierson: That says a lot about who you are as a person.
Cleveland: Somebody paid money to be there too, so they might as well get to see it.
Frierson: If you could go anywhere in the world on somebody else's dime, where would you like to go?
Cleveland: I would probably do a two-way trip. I'd definitely go to Argentina with my dad and brother, to a place where there's all these birds there that you can hunt. And then I'd probably take my girlfriend on a nice little vacation, Bora Bora, Turks & Caicos, something like that, where the water's not dirty brown.
Frierson: In a perfect world, what are you doing 15 years from now?
Cleveland: Perfect world, 15 years from now, maybe coming up on retirement from the NFL. That's the number one option there. Have a couple of kids, got a wife, about 25,000 acres set somewhere in the middle of nowhere where I'm not going to be bothered. And cutting grass for a living.
[Editor's note: Having no concept of just how big 25,000 acres really is, I went to Google for answers. It's 39 square miles, or the same size as Disney World.]
I know I'll have enough money from football, hopefully, and I'll have something to keep me busy in the summertime. Cut grass, make a little money, travel and hunt — make my life just a cakewalk.
Frierson: I hope it comes true for you.
Cleveland: Me and you both.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
