MIKE GROSS | Sports WriterIn Penn State Football World, last week was Measureables Week , with fresh alumni going under the microscope (and stopwatch and measuring tape) at the NFL Combine, and the current team wrapping up winter conditioning with a max-out weightlifting session for the media.
Some highlights:
We start with pure physical freakdom: Junior RB Nick Singleton, the Governor Mifflin graduate, squatted 570 pounds five times during Thursday’s max-out at the Lasch Building.
That’s ridiculous.
As Mark Wogenrich at SI.com pointed out, this is like strapping an electric golf cart to one’s back, dropping from a standing position until one’s thighs are parallel to the ground, and then returning to a standing position. Five times.
What does this have to to with being a running back? It doesn’t hurt. If it’s fourth-and-1, for example, and moving the chains means moving people backward, you’d like Singleton’s chances. Even if the people are sitting in golf carts.
At the combine in Indianapolis, Penn State’s biggest winner was probably DE Chop Robinson, who may have turned himself from a possible first-round pick to a very likely one.
Robinson ran a 4.48 40-yard dash, a good number for a running back or wide receiver, and the best among all defensive linemen. He also had the fastest 10-yard split, 1.54, which bespeaks the quick-twitch explosiveness prized in an edge rusher.
Penn State played so many people on defense the past couple seasons that no individual had huge production stats (tackles, sacks, etc.). NFL people should be able to see through that, of course, but acing the combine answers some questions. Last season’s other starting DE, Adissa Isaac, also helped himself in Indy.
TE Theo Johnson is a bit different case. He delivered what was called one of the best combine performances for a tight end in combine history: a 4.57 40 (at 6-6, 260), 39.5 vertical and 10-5 broad jump and the fastest time in the 20-yard shuttle.
Here the production may raise questions, though - 77 career catches for 938 yards and 12 touchdowns in 44 games. Good not not great, in a TE-friendly system when, especially this year, no wide receivers were reliable targets.
Another riser at Indy was CB Daequan Hardy, who ran a 4.38 40 and a 1.5-second 10-yard split, His 42.5-inch vertical was tied for best among CBs; who tend to be a mega-athletic lot.
Hardy was a nickel back most of his college career. He wasn’t an elite recruit, and he’s not a big guy. But by the end of last season he had shown elite coverage skills and big-play potential as a punt returner. He’s going to get a shot.
Not acing the combine were OT Olu Fashanu and CB Kalen King, both of whom have been seen as future first-rounders, and both of whom opted out of Penn State’s Peach Bowl game with Mississippi. .
Fashanu ran a 5.11 40 at the combine, not bad for a 312-pound human, and then shut himself down, owing to a thigh injury. None of which likely changes the fact that Fashanu is seen as the best pass-protector in the draft, and a top-10 pick.
King’s fall continues. He was victimized by Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison last season, did not perform well at the Senior Bowl last month, and was among the worst CBs at Indy in most measureables.
Penn State’s own Pro Day, and perhaps a chance for King to flip the script, is March 15.
