Notre Dame Pro Day Primer
Seventeen former Notre Dame players will participate in the program’s pro day at the Loftus Sports Center in South Bend on Thursday.
A little more than one month ago, 10 of them traveled to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis to showcase their skills and interview with NFL front offices.
Some, such as wide receiver Will Fuller with his blistering 4.32 showing in the 40-yard dash, helped their draft stock while others — linebacker Jaylon Smith and cornerback KeiVarae Russell — sat out the physical portions of the Combine due to injury.
That trio will be joined by wide receivers Chris Brown and Amir Carlisle, running back C.J. Prosise, quarterback Everett Golson, offensive linemen Ronnie Stanley, Nick Martin and Matt Hegarty, defensive linemen Sheldon Day, Romeo Okwara and Ishaq Williams, linebacker Jarrett Grace, and defensive backs Matthias Farley, Eilar Hardy and Elijah Shumate.
Here are the top storylines heading into Notre Dame’s pro day:
Everett Golson Returns To Notre Dame
Less than one year ago, Golson departed South Bend for Florida State as a graduate transfer for his fifth season of eligibility.
He started eight games with a 7-1 record for the Seminoles before Sean Maguire started the remaining contests. Golson threw for 1,778 yards and 11 touchdowns with three interceptions.
Golson started for the Irish as a sophomore in 2012, guiding the program to the BCS National Championship Game and a 12-1 record. After serving a suspension in 2013 due to an academic violation, he returned to school in 2014. Notre Dame began the season 6-0 and 7-1 before falling apart with four consecutive losses to end the regular season, due in large part to Golson’s turnover woes.
After a spring ball competition with Malik Zaire at quarterback went unresolved, Golson transferred to Florida State.
He debated between pro days at Notre Dame and Florida State, with the Irish ultimately getting the nod. He will throw to the Irish receivers participating in the event, which should benefit them with returning signal-callers DeShone Kizer, Malik Zaire and Brandon Wimbush not allowed to throw.
“There’s going to be a lot of spotlight on Everett Golson,” said Scott Wright, an NFL Draft analyst who runs the site DraftCountdown.com. “I think he might end up being the big star of it. We already saw C.J. Prosise and Will Fuller run, so we kind of know what they’re going to do, but Everett Golson is kind of a mystery.
“There’s a lot of publicity about him being not invited to the scouting combine and he’s a high-profile player and a quarterback obviously. I think he’s going to be the No. 1 story from the Notre Dame pro day this year.”
KeiVarae Russell Set To Participate In Physical Tests
The former Irish cornerback opted not to participate in the on-field drills at the NFL Combine last month while rehabbing the fractured tibia he suffered Nov. 21 versus Boston College.
“I’m going to go back and train for the next four weeks, and really train to make sure I get all of my explosiveness back and give the NFL 100 percent of me,” Russell said at the Combine. “I’m not going to put up some crazy vert and broad jump [at the Combine], so I want to make sure I give them 100 percent KeiVarae instead. I still think I can jump better than a lot of guys right now.”
Russell has always impressed with his raw physical talent and athleticism, but his consistency suffered in 2015 after sitting out the prior season due to an academic investigation. The Everett, Wash., native attributed those struggles to stress fractures he said he suffered during fall camp and played with most of the season before the fractured tibia.
“There’s another player where the workout is going to be huge for him because you’re basically drafting him based on that workout,” Wright said. “I don’t know based on his tape from 2015 that you would necessarily draft him, but the tape from early in his college career, he looked like a potential early-round pick.
“If he works out as well as we expect him to, that might be enough to make some team feel confident to invest that day three pick because right now he’s kind of on that fringe.”
Chris Brown Also Set To Run The 40
Brown backed out of physical testing at the NFL Combine at the last minute, but will have his chance to impress scouts Thursday. He and Fuller had a friendly competition throughout college about which player was faster, and although Fuller’s 4.32 will be tough to match Brown has an opportunity.
With a general dearth of speed in this year’s NFL Draft among receivers, Brown could help his rise stock with impressive showings.
“Anytime you can run well, and there’s a couple positions — wide receiver, cornerback — where if you can run a fast 40 time, that’s going to go a long way toward helping you get drafted,” Wright said. “No question that running a good 40 time would be good for Chris Brown and I think most feel he’ll be in that mid-4.4 range. That’s the bar and if he does better than 4.45, he’s going to help himself. Worse than that and I think he’ll be considered disappointing.
“The wide receiver class as a whole is down a little bit, but I think it’s also a case of the last two years we’ve become a little spoiled because we had two phenomenal wide receiver classes where you’re getting basically first- or second-round talent in the fourth round, like Martavis Bryant for example. There’s just incredible depth all throughout.
“I don’t think this draft is quite as strong at the top. You don’t have Calvin Johnson or A.J. Green, but I think it’s closely bunched after that and there’s still going to be good value in the second or third round. You just don’t have the elite guy at the top or nearly as much depth as we’ve had the last two years.”
Ishaq Williams Returns
Williams has not played a down since the 2013 season due to the aforementioned academic investigation. As one of five players involved, Williams was suspended for the 2014 season and ruled ineligible for the 2015 campaign by the NCAA.
The Brooklyn, N.Y., native struggled to live up to his potential as a five-star recruit and is not expected to be drafted next month. He hopes, however, that his Notre Dame pro day performance could set him up for an NFL contract and opportunity to be invited to camp by one of the 32 organizations.
One of the other five players, Hardy, also returns. He was the only one of the five to register snaps in the 2014 season after serving an initial suspension. He transferred last offseason to Bowling Green and played in all 14 games last fall while starting 13. He notched 82 tackles and picked off two passes.
Hardy ran a 4.58 at Bowling Green’s pro day two weeks ago.