Bryan Randall Rookie Diary #2: Randall Departs for the Combine

I’m leaving Thursday morning, catching an 8:30 flight
heading out of Atlanta. I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen
day-to-day at the Combine. I know Thursday when I get down there, I’m getting
weighed in, measured and get my height taken. Basically, it’s not really
physical tests, just other tests such as doing X-rays, checking to see if you’re
healthy, and things like that. I don’t think we actually get to the physical
part until Friday and Saturday. So tomorrow we just walk through, I guess, and
do interviews.

I
feel pretty prepared. A lot of things we’re doing down here were geared
towards working out for the Combine. Doing a lot of the drills we’ll be going
through, I feel pretty prepared for all of it. We’ve been working on speed and
quickness. I feel shiftier, I feel faster, I feel more flexible and I’m still
maintaining a weight of around 225. So I think I feel pretty prepared.

Quarterbacks do everything at the Combine I believe,
except the bench press. We’ve got the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle, the 3-cone
drill, vertical jump, broad jump, and I think that’s it. I plan on doing all
of those, I don’t see any reason to sit out on any of them. I feel as far as
quarterbacks go that I can really be in the top percentile in all of those
things.

I am real interested in running the 40. I’ve been
working on my speed and quickness down here, and I’m real anxious to see how
far I’ve come. Some people do opt out of running in Indianapolis. Some people
say that you get slow times up there, but yet it’s supposed to be one of the
fastest turfs and the fastest turf in the NFL, but I’m gonna take my chances,
so we’ll see. The last time I ran the 40 was actually two springs ago when I
ran a 4.55. I didn’t run it last year because of basketball.

Over the years, I’ve talked to pretty much all of the
Tech players who went through the Combine while I was at Virginia Tech. Last
year after the Combine, I asked them about it, asked them how it went. Also, I
talked to Coach [Kevin] Rogers, for one, about the Combine because he coached
Donovan [McNabb] when he went to the Combine. He’s been up there a couple of
times, he’s been around a while, so he’s seen what goes on and what they’re
looking for.

I think Jim Davis, Jon Dunn, Vinnie Fuller and Eric Green
are all going to be there.

I haven’t had any serious injuries since I’ve been in
college. If you look at the consecutive starts, that says a lot about my health
since I’ve been in school. There isn’t anything that has really happened
that would hinder me or would prevent playing time. I know I’ve been blessed
to be so healthy and to remain so healthy throughout my career. I’ve taken
some pretty hard hits and been in some situations where there could have been
some injuries. I mean, there’s going to be nicks and bruises of course, but to
go through three seasons and never really have an injury that’s stopped me
from playing has really been a blessing. I know I’ve been blessed in that
aspect.

I’ll be coming back on Sunday, but I’ll be done on
Saturday. Then we have the Pro Days in Blacksburg. I’m not even sure when the
Pro Days are, I want to say the middle of March, around the 20th.

I watched them play [against Duke[. I was actually
watching it with a guy from Florida State and a guy from North Carolina who
actually really likes Duke. I was hyped almost the whole second half, I thought
they were really competing. When it got closer to the end, I was in like a
trance. I was so happy to see Jeff [King] out there doing well, I felt like I
was on the bench watching the game. My adrenaline was pumping, it was really
exciting. I was glad for the program, happy for the team and Coach Greenberg.

I think the big thing this year [for the basketball team]
is just confidence, knowing they can compete with anyone that steps on the
floor. As long they are not intimidated by anybody, they have enough athletes on
the floor to compete. Right now Coach Greenberg has them convinced that when
they step on that floor, they’re going to win. It’s really like getting over
the hump, you know, when they went out there and beat Georgia Tech, it was kind
of like a time for them to realize that "we can compete with anybody."
Right now they have it going for them, it’s in their favor, and I think now it’s
pretty much down to any time they step on the floor from now on, they know they
can win.