INDIANAPOLIS — The big news of the NFL Combine on Thursday morning happened after Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray stepped on a scale and got measured.
Murray, one of the top quarterback prospects in the draft, had one big mark against him in his evaluations.
Or maybe, a small mark. Murray isn’t very tall. Of course, he was listed on the Oklahoma roster at 5-foot-10, but the problem with that is that college lie — all the time.
They lie so often when it comes to the height and weight of their athletes that it became generally accepted that Murray was going to — literally and figuratively — come up short.
But that turned out not to be the case, as the two-sport star measured out at 5 feet, 10 1/10 inches. The fact that Oklahoma was on the money this time means Murray will likely be rolling in the money, and not regretting his decision to forgo his first-round draft status in Major League Baseball, shortly after the draft.
Other teams seemed to have their measuring instruments properly calibrated, as well. All six Penn State players checked out at the same height and close to the same weight as their college program.
But not every team is so honest.
Qadree Ollison, the lone Pitt representative, shrunk from 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-1. West Virginia wide receiver Gary Jennings also lost the same inch. Wide receiver David Sills and tight end Trevon Wesco were both downgraded from 6-foot-4 to 6-foot-3. Mountaineers cornerback David Long had his 5-foot-11 height check out, but weighed in at 221 — 27 pounds heavier than his listed playing weight from last fall.
Those are just the examples from around the region.
It’s not a trend that’s likely to end any time soon, so the first day of the NFL Combine will continue to be one where the attention gets turned to the tape measure and the scale.
PUMPING IRON
The other big event on Thursday was the bench press, as most of the combine’s offensive linemen and running backs grabbed the rack and got to business.
The biggest early total came from a small school. Lineman Iosua Opeta from Weber State, a small FCS school in Utah, put up 39 repetitions. According to NFL.com, that’s the most repetitions from an offensive lineman at the combine since records have been kept.
The combine record in the bench press was set by Oregon State defensive tackle Sitiveni Paea. Paea got picked in the second round, but had to retire after seven seasons due to knee injuries. Washignton defensive tackle Vita Mea put up 41 reps last year before going to Tampa Bay with the No. 12 overall pic and Buffalo Bills third-rounder Harrison Phillips performed 42 repetitions.
The second-best performer wasn’t a lineman at all, as Kansas State running back Alex Barnes did 34 reps.
Of local interest, Ollison put up 19 reps at 225 pounds and Sanders, a Woodland Hills alum, counted 20 bench press repetitions. Both backs will perform running drills on Friday.
