Twitter Tuesday makes its return this week, as does Southeast recruiting analyst Woody Wommack as the man answering your questions. To have your question included in future weeks, follow Woody on Twitter and tweet him your queries.
This is a really good question considering all the buzz about Kyler Murray coming out of this week’s combine. When he was a prospect, I didn’t get to see much of Murray in person until the Under Armour All-America game, what was the last high school game of his career.
Obviously I knew he was a proven winner at the high school level, but I had serious doubts of the type of impact he would have in college just because of his size limitations. While things got off to a shaky start during his brief time at Texas A&M, obviously he went on to show that he should have been ranked by us as a five-star prospect coming out of high school.
As far as where he might rank if he were taller, I think that’s sort of irrelevant now. Clearly he belongs in the mix with recent top picks and outside of Patrick Mahomes, Baker Mayfield and maybe Carson Wentz, it’s hard to make a case against him until we see what he can do in the NFL.
Since Mark’s question is all encompassing and most of the information has already been put out, I’ll go through the best and worst at the three most popular drills, the 40-yard dash, the bench press and the vertical leap and give a few thoughts on them from their days as prospects until now.
Best 40: Zedrick Woods, Class of 2015, three-star, 4.29 seconds
Woods surprised many with his blazing fast time and when I saw his name pop up, I had to search him in the Rivals.com database just to remember where he was from in high school. No surprise, Woods was a Florida product, although he was ranked as a linebacker not a safety.
Worst 40: Nate Herbig, Class of 2016, three-star, 5.41 seconds
I didn’t know Herbig recorded the worst time until I looked it up, and I was sort of disappointed to see him at the end of the list. I remember seeing him at the Los Angeles stop of the Rivals Camp Series back in the day and thinking he was much better than some of the higher-ranked players at that time. He had a great career at Stanford and hopefully still gets a shot in the NFL.
Best Bench: Iosua Opeta, Class of 2014, unranked, 39 reps at 225 lbs.
Opeta was a sleeper with no FBS offers coming out of high school and now he’s the strongest man at the NFL combine. What a journey.
Worst Bench: Jordan Miller, Class of 2015, three-star, 6 reps at 225 lbs.; Antoine Wesley, Class of 2015, three-star, 6 reps at 225 lbs.
It should come as a surprise that a defensive back finished tied with the worst performances on the bench press along with a wide receiver. Both players on-field production should be enough to mitigate these poor showings.
Best Vertical: Juan Thornhill, Class of 2015, three-star, 44 inches
Thornhill was ranked as a high three-star despite only having one FBS offer. His leaping ability should help boost his stock considering his position as a safety.
Worst Vertical: Ross Pierschbacher, Class of 2014, four-star, 22.5 inches
The Iowa native surprised many when he ended up at Alabama instead of staying close to home during his recruitment. After playing plenty of the Tide and earning All-Conference honors while playing several positions along the line during his career, Pierschbacher should still be on the draft boards of several teams.
The Rivals Camp Series presented by adidas is in full swing, with the events rolling into a new city every weekend. This weekend, we are headed to Central Florida, where the event is expected to be loaded with talent. The Rivals adizero Combine is free and open for registration now, with events including 40-yard Dash, shuttle run, 3-cone drill, vertical jump and broad jump.
