Thirteen Bobcats took to the field on Wednesday with hopes to extend their football careers.
Each Bobcat that worked out at Ohio's Pro Day Wednesday had different thoughts about their workout regiment.
But their answers were nearly identical when discussing a possible professional football future.
“I’d go anywhere,” Lucas Powell said bluntly. “Any team.”
Powell was one of 13 participants in the afternoon’s Pro Day, an annual workout for Ohio’s seniors and NFL hopefuls.
Players who worked out included: Powell, Mitch Bonnstetter, Nathan Carpenter, Josiah Yazdani, Derrius Vick, Keith Heitzman, Daz'mond Patterson, Mike Lucas, Mike McQueen, Jovon Johnson, Ian Wells, Brett Layton and Aaron Macer.
Having played in two All-Star games since the end of Ohio’s season, including “Gruden Camp,” a camp run by former NFL head coach Jon Gruden, Powell said he feels prepared to take on the challenge the NFL could present.
“I talked to a bunch of scouts there,” he said. “They seem interested, but we’ll have to see how it goes.”
Powell and other players went through a series of drills on the day, starting with interviews and weight lifting, then transitioning to the 40-yard dash, 3-cone shuttle and other drills to test athleticism, before ending with positional drills.
Scouts from the New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers were in attendance for the workout.
McQueen said he tried to take a business-like mentality into the day.
“You’re not training to go have fun with your boys on Saturday night, you’re training to go take another man’s job,” McQueen said. “With that mentality, you’ve got to go train and compete against anybody. That’s how I took today, almost like an interview.”
The workouts weren’t limited to just the offensive side of the ball, however, as Johnson and Wells felt good about the day they had.
“I think I did very well,” Wells said. “I put up better numbers than scouts thought I’d put up, they think I have average athleticism. Today, I put up numbers that guys in the first and second round are putting up.”
Wells recorded two interceptions last season for the Bobcats, starting in 12 games.
Johnson, who before the season was ranked No. 9 by Pro Football Focus in their rankings of the top 10 players outside Power 5, impressed the Steelers scout on a day in which he hoped to show that he’s worthy of a team’s draft pick in April.
“I hope to get drafted,” Johnson said. “To be realistic, I’ll just probably get picked up and invited to a minicamp and just show what I can do in minicamp and compete for a special teams and linebacker spot.”
After all of the position players went in, the day still had to be concluded with Yazdani and Bonnstetter.
“I think I did alright, I wouldn’t give myself a great grade, I’d like to have some of those kicks back,” Yazdani said. “But ultimately, I’d like to praise God for the opportunity. I’d never thought I’d have a chance to work in front of these NFL scouts and all the praise definitely goes to God.”
While the Bobcats did get to try their best to impress the scouts, there was a feeling of finality as the players left the field with their families.
McQueen recognized that this was the last time all of Ohio would be together working out.
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“It’s my last time putting on this logo,” he said. “The last time being out here with the dudes who came in when we were 17 or 18 (years old) straight out of high school.”
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