Bryan Randall Rookie Diary #5: Randall’s Confidence Surges at Pro Day Number Two

Here’s Bryan Randall’s report from Pro Day #2 on the VT
campus last Thursday, March 24th, when NFL scouts and coaches came for the
second time to
work out the VT seniors.

There weren’t as many teams there for the second Pro Day
as there were the first Pro Day. There were about nine teams compared to about
the 20 that were there the first time. The only coach I believe was there that
was there the first time was the coach that kind of ran the whole thing, and
that was a guy from the Jaguars. There were no head coaches there, no GMs or
anybody like that. Mainly it was just recruiters for this
area from the teams.

As
far as players, everybody from the previous Pro Day was there except Jim Davis.
He didn’t do anything, he just got height and weight. I guess he just felt he
was going to stand on his numbers from the previous week and the Combine.

There weren’t any QB coaches there, but there were coaches
there that wanted to see me work out. A guy from the Vikings ran my workout, and
the Redskins, the Eagles and the Texans were all there to watch me also. There
were people there to see me throw this time. I actually knew pre-workout that I
was going to get a workout in at this Pro Day.

Going into it, I already had my mind made up on what I was
going to do, I just knew that I was going to throw. At the weight and the
height, I measured at 6.003 this time – I was 6.002 the time before – and I
weighed in at 223.

After that we went in the speed and agility room in the
back of our weight room for the vertical and the broad jump. At first I was just
standing around like "I’m not going to do anything, I’m just going to stand
on my times from the rest of the combines, you know, just use my vertical from
the Combine and the broad jump that I did the week before."

I was just going to sit back, but every time I planned on
doing that, I guess the competitor in me just came out, and when I saw everyone
else doing it, it made me want to get up and do it. So I decided to do both the
broad jump and the vertical again. And in my broad jump I did better, I jumped a
9’8". I did 9’6" the week before. And on my vertical I jumped
37", compared to the 33" I did at the Combine.

After I jumped, I said "Today’s going to be a good
day." I just had that feeling. After that I was just like, "I’m glad
for whatever made me decide to do this again today." After that I knew I
was going to have a good workout. That was the best I had ever done on the
vertical jump, by far. By almost three inches.

After that we went out to the field house to run the 40,
and I didn’t know I was going to run the 40 either, but after I did the 37"
I was real excited and said "I’m gonna run the 40 also." I’m not
exactly sure what my times were, but I think they were around the 4.6 range
again. So I really didn’t improve much on the 40, I basically ran the same. I
did ok, I wasn’t disappointed, really.

Then came the field drills. Last Pro Day I didn’t do any
field drills, I was just going to stand on my times from the Combine. I really
wasn’t going to fool with it. Those are the shuttle and the three-cone. But I
ended up doing the shuttle. I really didn’t think I was going to do that until
the last minute also. I ended up running a 4.04. At the Combine I ran a 4.08.
That’s a little better, I mean a four-point-zero-anything is pretty good. A lot
of the skill position guys try to get that. For instance, Vinnie Fuller ran a
3.8, or 3.7. I want to say DeAngelo [Hall, at last year’s Pro Day] ran a 3.7 …
it wasn’t any higher than 3.7 (Editor’s Note: Hall ran a 3.68). I was happy with
that, that’s better than a lot of people do, quarterback or not.

I was kind of scared about the three-cone, because I
really hadn’t practiced the three-cone drill. When I did it at the Combine, I
had never run through it full speed. A lot of guys practice it and get it right
to make sure they can do it real well, but it was just something that I didn’t
really focus on. So that gave me a lot of reason, and I had run a 6.9 at the
Combine and I didn’t think I could do any better than that really, but you know
I decided to do it again, and I did better. I ended up running a 6.7, I think a
6.71, around that area.

The 6.7 was better than I had planned on and all, so I was
real happy about that. So I’m real happy right now, I’m ready, the only thing
left to do is throw the ball. We worked out after the DBs again, and the guy
from the Vikings was running us through. It was me, Richard Johnson, and Jared
Mazzetta out there. I didn’t throw to the running back this time, the guy from
Hampden-Sydney, C.W. Clemmons. He pulled his hamstring running the 40.

We just ran through some routes, some different patterns.
It was kind of different from the last time because some of the routes and
patterns were just given to us on the go, like he would just tell us, just tell
Jared and Richard what to do, instead of us running stuff that we already knew
how to do. So in that case it was going to be kind of difficult to time stuff up
right and to do things, but it went pretty well. Other than a couple balls, it
went well.

Then they had me rolling out, doing some sprint out
passes. I threw well on the sprint outs. The one pass that he really wanted to
see me throw was the deep comeback. You know, the 20 yard to 18 yard comeback,
the timing. He made me throw it from the far hash as if it were an NFL hash, a
little inside our [college] hash marks. He made me take a 7 step drop and throw
it on timing to test arm strength and accuracy. The first one I threw I threw
right on the money, great timing and everything, a lot of velocity on the ball.
I knew I was capable of making that throw, it was just a matter of showing them
that I could make it. That was probably my best throw of the workout.

When I was making some good throws, the coach was saying
things like "great touch," "good throw." They were real
encouraging. When they felt I didn’t put it in a good spot, they would tell me
things like "try to put it over his outside shoulder," "make sure
you keep it down," "make sure you lob that one over the
linebackers," just little things like that. It was very helpful, and it was
a lot of positive feedback.

I feel like I’ve been on the money all three times that
I’ve thrown he ball. I think I’ve done just about as good as I can do all three
times. I feel like I’m in a groove, I’m ready for anybody who wants to bring me
in and wants me to throw, any throw. I mean, it doesn’t matter, I’ll throw right
now. I’m at a point where I’m just ready to show everybody what I’ve got.

The next few weeks are a sitting and waiting game.
Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I’ll have some coaches who want to see
me and work me out individually and fly me into their facilities, or come down
here to see me work out again. That’s what I’m hoping, but it doesn’t
necessarily mean it’s going to happen that way. If over the next couple of weeks
that doesn’t happen, then I’ll just have to wait it out till the draft and feel
comfortable enough with what I’ve done through the Combine and through the
workouts, and through the season that I’ve attracted enough attention from
coaches.

Like I always say, I have to get that one team to like me.
That’s something that everyone says in this business, when you go through the
Combines, when you’re talking to other players, everybody says the same thing.

I talked to my agent the other day, and we were talking
about which teams might be the most interested. The time when you start finding
that out is over the next couple of weeks. As it gets closer and closer to that
last week in April, the draft gets closer and you have a better idea and teams
will start contacting you if they are interested.