Pro Day Recap: West Virginia and Vinny Curry
Recently West Virgina held their proday, Marshall also held their Proday. Two round two good pass rush prospects Bruce Irvin and Vinny Curry looked to improve their stocks. Irvin to solidify and early round two grade, Vinny Curry to get into the latter part of the first round.
Be sure to follow us on twitter @NFLmocks for nightly draft conversations.
Curry dramatically improved his 40 time, posting a 4.64 second 40-yard dash Wednesday afternoon.
“I knew I was way faster than that when I ran at the combine but there were doubters out that and I pro
ved them wrong,” Curry said after the workout.
Curry also showed off his strength on the bench press pushing out 28 reps of 225 lbs. for the scouts in attendance. Curry was pleased with the effort, but felt he could get a few more reps.
“Usually my peak is 34 or 35 but 28 is still pretty good,” Curry said.
Why did Curry struggled at the combine? Was it nerves?
“Everybody knew how rattled I was at the Combine,” Curry said. “I was kind of out of my comfort zone a little bit. But, you know, I’m a competitor so to come here and chop a 4.9 40 down to a 4.64 and a 4.69, it’s unbelievable.
“I knew I was faster than that when I ran at the Combine. But, you know, you have your doubters out there. But I proved them wrong. … It’s definitely been a great day.”
As for West Virginia’s proday:
Keith Tandy ran as low as a 4.43 in the 40 at the Pro-Day. ”I just wanted to come out and show that I was one of the best DBs in the draft,” Tandy told WVi. “I did pretty good – I had 35 inches on my vertical, I did 16 reps on the bench and a 10 [foot] broad jump.”
Donny Barclay ran a 5.02 in the 40 and showed his versatility by showing he could play a couple different positions along the offensive line.
Nick Arthur of The Daily Athenaeum was on hand, and noted that head coaches Mike Tomlin and Lovie Smith were on hand. He said that Tomlin and Mountaineer head coach Dana Holgorsen spoke with each other for at least half an hour.
“Thought Tandy and Irvin looked the best,” Arthur told us. ”Miller, Goode and Barclay weren’t bad, though.”
He also said that neither Irvin nor Goode ran the 40 as they chose to stand by their Combine times.
Lovie Smith attended last year’s Pro-Day and went on to draft J.T. Thomas in the 6th Round last year.
Tony Pauline has news of one my favorite rarely talked about Defensive ends, Julian Miller
Miller wasn’t invited to the combine, but he’s a very solid player and has a draft-able grade from us.
Defensive end Julian Miller, a productive three year starter, clocked 4.78 and 4.82 in the 40, touched 33.5 inches in the vertical jump and put up 19 reps on the bench. He was run through defensive line and linebacker drills for 35 minutes after testing and looked athletic. Expect Miller to be one of the two dozen non-combine participants to be selected in last day of next month’s draft.
Some of the lesser known names at the West Virginia Proday
Then there are two lesser known talents who only spent limited time in Morgantown. Inside receivers Willie Milhouse and Devon Brown have each been working out with the WVU strength staff since the season ended and feel that an event like pro day is just what they need to turn some heads.
“Having people like Bruce and Najee on the team really helps the underdog in the story because there are a lot of people here just to watch them and then they see Willie Milhouse out there performing well and that helps me,” says Milhouse.
Other participants included Julian Miller, Cody Nutter, Brantwon Bowser, Eain Smith, Tyler Urban and a few players whose careers ended prior to his past season. One of those was Will Johnson, the receiver-turned-tight end-turned-enormous.