Cal Football: James Looney Prepares to Take on the Combine
Cal football’s star defensive lineman James Looney prepares to take on the NFL Combine en route to the NFL Draft in April.
After three seasons playing for the Cal football team, defensive lineman James Looney prepares for his next challenge. On Thursday, he begins his participation in the NFL Combine, which will be his most widely-viewed opportunity to showcase himself before the draft kicks off on April 26th.
Looney, who also participated (and drew some good reviews) in the East-West Shrine Game, reports to the combine on Thursday along with his fellow defensive lineman, and linebackers, as well. He is Cal’s lone representative, but will report with fellow Pac-12 defensive lineman like Matt Dickerson (UCLA), Rasheem Green (USC), and Harrison Phillips (Stanford), among others.
On Friday, these players will undergo their pre-exams and take x-rays, to ensure that they are healthy enough to participate in the Combine and so teams can get a good look at a player’s past injuries and how it impacts their body currently. They will also go through orientation, and begin interviewing with teams.
The next day brings measurements, getting exact numbers on a player’s height, weight, arm length, and hand size. More medical exams follow, as do more team interviews.
Sunday brings with it the psychological tests, including the famous Wonderlic test, and players meet with the Player’s Association and begin media interviews. Most popularly, players will test their strength on the bench press, trying to rep 225 pounds as many times as possible.
Monday is this group’s final day, and the one that the fans will see the most of. It’s on-field workout day. Players will run the 40-yard dash, as well as go through the vertical jump, the broad jump, the three-cone drill, and the shuttle run. They will also do position specific drills, which for Looney and company, includes getting off on the snap, and footwork and hand fighting in the trenches among many other things.
It is a bit surprising that Looney is Cal’s only representative. Inside linebacker Devante Downs missed almost half of the 2017 season, but was an utterly dominant force in the middle of Cal’s defense when he was on the field. He was making a strong case for Pac-12’s Defensive Player of the Year before the injury, but couldn’t finish off his breakout year healthy.
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Instead, Looney will try to prove that he is worthy of a draft pick against some top competition in the same position group. Best of luck goes out to James!