ATHENS — The University of Georgia didn’t pay anybody for advertising Wednesday, but what the Bulldogs got from the NFL and SEC Network would have been worth a lot had they been required to.
A record 122 NFL personnel evaluators, including several general managers and at least six head coaches, attended UGA Pro Day at the Payne Indoor Athletic Facility on Wednesday.
“Luckily we have a new team meeting room that we’re able to house these guys in,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said, referencing the Bulldogs’ new $80 million football operations building, which adjoins the indoor building.
Yes, these are indeed good times for the defending national champions.
“It’s only going to get better,” said senior defensive lineman Jordan Davis, who ran position drills for the scouts despite turning in one of the greatest performances of all time at the NFL combine.
“Georgia is in a prime, prime state right now. I know the state of Georgia is still buzzing off the national championship win. So, you know, just having this and the young guys are seeing it and knowing if we can do it, they can do it. They’re the ones who have seen what we’ve done day in and day out and truly know us as a person. Seeing us live out our dreams should motivate them to be a better player.”
Georgia had a school-record 14 players invited to the NFL combine in March in Indianapolis. So a lot of what happened Wednesday was a mere formality compared with the intensive scrutiny they were put through there.
The biggest news to come out of the proceeding was that linebacker Nakobe Dean did not run the 40-yard dash, as many scouts and outsiders had expected. Turns out that the Butkus Award winner had strained a pec muscle training on the bench press for the combine. Dean did run through position drills, however.
Cornerback Derion Kendrick, defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt, linebackers Channing Tindall and Quay Walker and sixth-year senior defensive lineman Julian Rochester did run, however.
Some former Bulldogs and UGA relatives also ran. They included Prather Hudson, a former UGA walk-on running back who transferred to Illinois to play defensive back last season, and Deon McIntosh, a 5-11, 195-pound running back from Washington State who happens to be the brother of Georgia senior Kenny McIntosh.
Georgia receiver George Pickens did not run after impressing scouts in Indianapolis with a 4.47-second 40 time just 11 months after undergoing an ACL reconstruction. But NFL personnel, including New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, crowded the sidelines as Pickens ran pass routes with Georgia sophomore Carson Beck delivering the passes.
Tight end John FitzPatrick met with scouts but did not do any physical tests because of a foot injury that had to be addressed after the Bulldogs’ championship season.
“Yeah, he probably needed surgery about halfway through the year, but he chose not to; he wanted to play out the year,” Smart said. “The good news is he’ll be healthy for all the minicamps and all the OTA days, wherever he gets to go. And he’s bulked up some; I think he’s jumped to 265.”
Numerous former and current Bulldogs crowded the sidelines and balconies surrounding the indoor field to get a look at all the activity.
“If you look up there, a lot of our kids like to try and miss class to come watch this. That’s always a concern of mine,” Smart said. “… But we’ve all been there before. I was a player, and you wanted to watch all of those guys ahead of you and you aspired to do what they’re doing. It’s an exciting day for them.”
Meanwhile, both NFL Network and SEC Network were providing live feeds of the proceedings. Davis even interviewed his little brother on live television.
Smart could not have asked for better marketing had he ordered it himself. But he wasn’t entirely sure what the real impact is.
“It depends how many kids watch it, right?” Smart said. “You think all these kids watch it and then you bring a recruit in and they say, ‘I spend all my time on social media looking at other recruits.’ But we want to push out what these guys have done, what they’ve been able to achieve, the amount of NFL personnel here, we want kids to see that.
“We’re one of the few schools in the country where we’re open to NFL teams. Whenever they can come, they can watch our players. A lot of coaches aren’t comfortable with that, but we want our players to get seen, get evaluated and be able to put their best out there. I think that has helped our guys be comfortable in front of NFL personnel because it’s not the first time they’ve done it.”
And certainly not the last.
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