Friday, March 06, 2009
Pro days loom for Tech, UVa
ACC could have seven first-round picks
Doug Doughty
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SportingNews Today, a new online site that I would highly recommend, devoted a whole page of Friday’s edition to diaries from NFL Draft hopefuls Clint Sintim of Virginia and Victor Harris from Virginia Tech.
Of course, Tech fans recognize Harris by his nickname, “Macho.” He apparently had a Nappy King moment when he got off an airplane in Dallas after a flight from Richmond, his hometown.
Harris said he spent two hours traversing the parking garage in search of his rental car. Eventually, Harris remembered that he had flown out of Dallas on America Airlines and was looking for his car in the wrong lot. His return flight had been on U.S. Airways.
In Dallas, Harris has been training at a performance center operated by former Olympic champion and world record-holder Michael Johnson. Harris said his goal is to improve on his 40-yard time from the recent NFL Combine.
The Hokies have a pro timing day March 19, as does UVa.
“I try to focus on my stance and come out like I was coming out of a track block,” Harris said. “Sometimes, I was fighting myself when I ran.”
Sintim, who started the last 49 games of his college career, was struck by the medical attention the players received. He underwent two MRIs and thinks he was asked if he had sprained an ankle in the third grade.
“For me especially, the strength of my game is going to be from the game tape,” Sintim said. “It solidifies the type of player I am. Also, my intangibles will be a big asset.”
THE TOP 40 TIME by a Virginia or Virginia Tech was the 4.45 clocked by UVa’s Cedric Peerman, who was the fastest of the running backs.
The fastest player overall was Maryland wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey with a 4.30.
Those times are from NFL.com. I’ve seen another list that shows ex-Virginia wide receiver Kevin Ogletree as having run a 4.37 40 but don’t know where that originated.
A blog on the Internet side gridironstuds.com said that Harris had a 4.57 “unofficial” clocking that placed him 37th among 44 defensive backs.
A site called fftoolbox.com has the same combine times as NFL.com for Peerman and Heyward-Bey and lists former Tech running back Branden Ore with a 4.67 in the 40.
(Ore, advised that he was not welcome to return to Virginia Tech’s football team in 2009, finished his career by rushing for 1,257 yards and 20 touchdowns this past season for Division II West Liberty (W.Va.) State, which finished 7-4. Ore caught 30 passes and even threw two TD passes).
FFtoolbox.com has official clockings of 4.45 for Ogletree, 4.61 for Harris, 4.79 for UVa tight end John Phillips from Bath County, 4.8 for Sintim, 4.88 for Tech defensive end Orion Martin and 5.16 for UVa offensive tackle Eugene Monroe.
BILL KIRWAN, senior analyst for NFL.com, wrote a column earlier this week in which he projected Monroe as the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft, which would reunite him with former UVa teammate Chris Long, the second pick in the 2008 draft.
Seven ACC teams would have first-round picks, according to Kirwan: Monroe, Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry (No. 3), Florida State defensive end Everette Brown (No. 11), Boston College nose tackle B.J. Raji (No. 12), North Carolina wide receiver Hakeem Nicks (No. 17), Heyward-Bey (No. 26) and Georgia Tech defensive end Michael Johnson (No. 31).
On Thursday, SportingNews Today ranked the top 99 prospects going into the various college pro days. Monroe was eighth, Sintim was 41st and Peerman was 54th.
BILL EICHENBERGER, a well-known sports editor who had a stint covering VMI for The Roanoke Times in the early 1980s, now works for Sporting News in Charlotte, N.C.
“It is available to anybody with a computer,” Eichenberger wrote in an e-mail Friday. “The plan is for it to remain a free service, supported by advertising,
“It is part of a three-pronged approach, with sportingnews.com for breaking sports news during the day, Sporting News Today for the most recent and complete daily sports section that looks and reads like a print sports section, and Sporting News magazine, which now publishes every other week and emphasizes the words and opinions of the coaches and athletes themselves.”
