Zach Banner

Zachery Samuel Banner (born December 25, 1993), nicknamed "the Hulk", is a former American football offensive tackle.

At Lakes High School, he was a two-time All-American offensive lineman.

He played tackle in college football for USC, with whom he was a two-time All-American and First-team All-Pac-12.

As a junior in 2010, he made USA Today All-USA first team, Max Preps All-American second team, Max Preps All-American Medium Schools first team, Max Preps Junior All-American first team, and All-State 3-A first team.

His 2011 honors as a senior included USA Today All-USA first team, Super Prep All-American, Prep Star All-American, Sports Illustrated All-American first team, Max Preps All-American second team, Max Preps All-American Medium Schools first team, Prep Star Top 150 Dream Team, ESPNU 150, Super Prep All-Farwest, Prep Star All-West, Tacoma News Tribune Western 100, Seattle Times All-State, Orange County Register Fab 15 first team, Tacoma News Tribune Northwest Nuggets, and Tacoma News Tribune All-Area first team.

Banner also played center in basketball for Lakes High School, averaging 18.6 points and 17.3 rebounds, while guiding Lakes to the 2011 Washington State Class 3A championship in his junior year.

He was also the Lakes class president, logged 373 community service hours, and had a 3.6 grade point average.

His nicknames in high school were "Big Daddy" and "The Diesel."

Banner had more than 20 college scholarship offers.

Ultimately, he chose USC over Oklahoma and Washington.

He was a finalist for the 2012 Watkins Award, by the National Alliance of African American Athletes, honoring the top African-American student athlete in the nation.

Regarded as a five-star recruit by Rivals.com, he was ranked as the No. 2 offensive tackle in his class, behind only D. J. Humphries.

He red-shirted in 2012.

Banner played tackle at both positions in college football for the USC Trojans football team from 2013 to 2016 under head coaches Steve Sarkisian and Clay Helton.

He played 39 games, and started 37 of them.

Banner played only two games during his red-shirted freshman 2013 season, as the back-up offensive tackle against Hawaii and Boston College, before being ruled out for the season due to an injury to both hips that required two hip surgeries.

He had been born with a condition known as femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) that involved extra bone growth on his hips, that prevented him from squatting past 90 degrees, and had corrective hip surgery to address the problem.

Banner also played basketball for USC in 2013, but did not see any playing time.

Banner joined the historically Jewish, fraternity Zeta Beta Tau, whose members reflected a broad range of ethnicities and races, and majored in Sociology.

He won the USC Trojans' community service award.

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In 2014 as a sophomore Banner played every game at right tackle and was College Football News Sophomore All-American honorable mention.

In 2015 as a junior he was First Team All-Pac-12 Conference, Associated Press All-Pac 12 second-team, Phil Steele's All-Pac-12 second-team, CollegeSportsMadness.com All-American third-team, and won USC's Offensive Lineman of the Year Award.

He started all 14 games and his main position was at right tackle, but he started two games at left tackle during his junior year against Utah and Wisconsin.

In 2015 he allowed only nine total pressures on 426 pass attempts, according to Pro Football Focus, which graded him as the season's top pass-blocking right tackle, and the 15th-best run-blocking right tackle.

He was the largest player in college football; at one point in 2015 the 6ft 9in Banner weighed 385 lb. He played in the Senior Bowl in January 2017.

He was rated the 16th-best prospect in the country by Rivals.com.

As a senior in 2016, and captain of the team, he was again All-Pac-12 first-team, was CollegeSportsMadness.com All American first-team, Senior CLASS Award All-American first-team, Phil Steele All-Pac-12 first-team, a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award (given to the nation's top senior excelling in community/classroom/character/competition), and was the team's Co-Offensive Lineman of the Year.

Banner was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft, and made his NFL debut with the Cleveland Browns the same year.

He was also a member of the Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Banner is a native of Tacoma, Washington, where he grew up on the East Side, and has also lived in Puyallup, Washington He is the biological son of former National Football League (NFL) Pro Bowl offensive tackle and College Football Hall of Famer Lincoln Kennedy, who had dated his mother but never married her.

However, he was raised by Ron Banner, the superintendent of the Clover Park School District in Lakewood, who married his mother when he was eight years old and legally adopted him the following year.

His mother, Vanessa, is Chamorro (the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands), was born in Fort Lewis, Washington, and works as a middle school administrator.

Banner had no idea who Lincoln Kennedy was, or that he was his real father, until he was a seventh grader.

He is of Chamorro and African-American descent.

Banner was already 5 feet (1.52 m) tall in second grade, 6ft 4in in the seventh grade, 6ft 6in the following year, and 6ft 7in and over 300 lb his first year of high school.

His maternal grandfather was Rafael "Ralph" Mendiola Sukola, of Agana Heights and Dededo, Guam.

His younger brother, Xavier, played football at Eastern Washington University as a linebacker, and his sister, Mia, is a high school soccer goalie.

Banner attended Lakes High School, where he was a two-time football All-American offensive lineman on the Lancers football team, and played two seasons at left tackle.

He was named the Lancers' Most Inspirational Player when he was a freshman, and still a bench player.