By Jennifer Smith – jsmith3@herald-leader.com
Lining the walls of the weight room and the sidelines of the indoor training center taking in Friday’s Kentucky Pro Day festivities were more than a handful of players hoping to be participating in it a year from now.
Watching their 15 former teammates go through skills and drills for scouts from 16 NFL teams were players such as defensive backs Mike Edwards and Derrick Baity, defensive end Josh Allen, tight end C.J. Conrad and running back Benny Snell.
There’s a chance those guys will be a big part of this event soon, which is expected to draw an even bigger crowd of scouts a year from now.
“We’ve got some great guys out here and guys that did well today are going to get noticed,” said linebacker Courtney Love, who ran 4.6 and 4.77 seconds in the 40-yard dash in times taken for the SEC Network broadcast. (All scouts keep their own times and none are official at this event.)
Love also was excited by his 24 repetitions on the bench press, which would’ve been fourth best for his position group at the NFL Combine a couple of weeks ago, as well as his 35-inch vertical jump, nearly 3 inches better than he’d done in training.
“My vertical surprised me a little bit,” Love said. “When they say you take a leap of faith, that was a leap of faith for me.”
“It’s good to see the numbers they posted because everyone did phenomenal I think today,” Love said. “I think it’s a huge step toward boosting what’s to come next year because we’ve got some guys next year who are going to come out and I can’t wait to see.”
Love predicted there will be head coaches at UK’s Pro Day in 2019.
“I believe that,” he said, “because these guys who are coming out next year are going to be well prepared and know what’s in front of them. … I’m really excited about it and as much as I can help them, I will.”