By DJ Harding –
With Saturday in the books there was another day of standout players and great performances from the Quarterbacks, Wide Receivers, and Tight Ends. The Running backs and Offensive Lineman held press conferences which gave me the chance to talk to some players.
The biggest winner of the day without much debate goes to Florida Quarterback Anthony Richardson. Richardson showed some great throwing ability, especially his deep ball. But the main story of the day on Richardson is his athleticism.
Richardson broke the record for both the Vertical Jump (40.5 inches) and the Broad Jump (10.9 feet) for a Quarterback. Richardson also logged a 4.43 second 40 yard dash which is 4th fastest since 2003 by a quarterback. Richardson did all this standing at 6’4 and weighing 244 pounds. To put that in perspective, he’s taller than George Kittle and heavier than Hassan Reddick.
Some people might say Richardosn might’ve just jumped into the top 5 of the draft board, possibly top 10, but one thing for sure with Richardson he definitely jumped some spots up on the draft board.
Another Winner on the day was Jaylin Hyatt who was on of the higher ranked receivers going into Saturday and Hyatt proved his athleticism placing first in the board jump with a jump of 11’3 feet, top five in the vertical jump with a 40 inch vertical, and top ten in the 40 yard dash with a 4.4 second run.
Regarded as the top two Quarterbacks in the draft Bryce Young and C.J Stroud were seen at the combine although Bryce Young did not participate in any workouts, C.J Stroud did participate in the throwing workouts but did not run a 40 yard dash.
Demario Douglas, who I spoke to yesterday during his press conference, spoke on wanting a high speed rating in next year’s Madden video game and he proved he’s got speed with a 4.44 40 yard dash. Douglas also posted the second best broad jump with an 11’2 foot jump. He also had a great diving catch during the Receiver Drills.
With Press Conferences I got the chance to speak to some Offensive Lineman and Running Backs and while most questions pretainted to who players met with and asked about their game and how they felt about certain games. I decided to ask the true hard hitting questions like what’s their pre-game song and if they have any superstitions and their favorite college football memory.
Wanya Morris an Offensive Lineman from Oklahoma gave me a few artist he listen to pregame those artist are from his home state in Georgia because as he put it “I gotta rep where I’m from” Wanya also talked about how his favorite college football memory is being with his teammates and building bonds with them.
Camerun Peoples, a Running Back from Appalachian State, gave me his pregame ritual which is always putting his left sock on before his right one. He also said his favorite memory was finding out he was a captain which was special to him.
Jon Gaines II an Offensive Lineman from UCLA let me know that he is a big Dru Hill fan as his pregame song are both songs by Dru Hill.
I also asked some guys their favorite sports movie and Jordan McFadden of Clemson told me his favorites are either Rocky II or Rocky III he also informed me that he will be seeing Creed III which just hit theaters this past Thursday after the Combine is over.
Atlanta Sports Journal 