The newly constructed Walter Fieldhouse played host to the annual Ohio football Pro Day on Thursday in preparation for May’s NFL Draft.
In their quest to fulfill their lifelong dream of playing professional football, a handful of former Bobcats displayed their skills in front of 18 scouts from 17 NFL teams. Participants included cornerback Travis Carrie, wide receiver Donte Foster and running back Beau Blankenship
The day allowed players to have their skills measured through a variety of different on- and off-field workouts. Events included speed, quickness and jumping ability tests, which were identical to events at the NFL Combine except specific to Ohio football.
Much of the scouts’ attention was focused on Travis Carrie after he did not participate in any of the skill workouts at the NFL Combine. Carrie was Ohio’s only invite to the February Combine, where he only participated in the bench press and posted 17 reps.
Green Bay Packers scout and former Bobcat running back Chad Brinker was impressed with Carrie’s performance.
“Travis Carrie was invited to the Combine and he was unable to work out at the combine, so a lot of scouts came down here to workout.” Brinker said. “We needed him to run the 40 and do position drills and all those things. He did a nice job. ... Overall it’s a good crop of guys.”
Scouts tracked Carrie hard, including a scout from the Jacksonville Jaguars, which was the only team that brought two representatives.
“Preparing for this event was fun,” Carrie said. “It’s something that you love doing waking up at five, six in the morning getting to the facility, eating right, and stretching. It hasn’t set in yet there is still a lot of work left to be done, still a lot of meetings left to be completed. It’s just getting started actually, just stepping stones to take to achieve a dream I’ve wanted for so long.”
Another Bobcat who impressed scouts Thursday was Foster, who raised his stock after good performances in every event. According to Ohio strength coach Zac Brouillette, Foster posted a 4.47 40-yard dash and a 42-inch vertical jump.
After posting impressive numbers on Wednesday at Oklahoma’s Pro Day, Beau Blankenship drew some interest from Jacksonville and Kansas City Chiefs scouts. Blankenship, a Norman, Okla. native, ran a 4.47 40-yard dash and posted a 37-inch vertical at the Sooners’ Pro Day.
He thought that it took him a while to get loose, but was still happy with his performance on the field.
“It was good to come out here and run a little bit and show the scouts what I could do,” Blankenship said. “I talked to some teams today and yesterday and I heard some good feedback.”
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