ATHENS – It has long been argued within Georgia’s locker room who on the team is the fastest. At different times that was thought to be Eric Stokes or his defensive backfield mate Tyson Campbell. More recently it has been said to be rising sophomore receiver Arian Smith.
At the moment at least, there’s little arguing that distinction goes to Stokes.
Once again, Stokes lit up the 40-yard dash for NFL scouts, recording times of 4.28 and 4.32 seconds at UGA’s Pro Day on Wednesday. Along with measuring in at 6-feet, 194 pounds, recording a day’s best 38-½ inches in the vertical leap and clearing 10 feet in the broad jump, the junior cornerback clearly was one of the Bulldogs’ big winners of the day.
“It’s amazing that people are finally seeing my speed, for sure,” said Stokes, who ran a laser-timed 4.25 seconds last week at a combine event in Florida. “They’re finally acknowledging it and not just pushing aside like they did in the SEC. It feels amazing.”
On this day at least, Campbell was unable to hang with his friend and teammate. Measuring in at 6-1 and change and 193 pounds, Campbell clocked times of 4.34 and 4.39. They each were below his goal of 4.32, but he wasn’t complaining.
“I feel like I can run with anybody,” said Campbell, a three-year starter for the Bulldogs. “But, you know, Eric is a helluva athlete, and we’re just football players. We’re blessed to have tremendous speed, but at the end of the day, we’re here to show everyone out there that we can play football, too.”
Campbell and Stokes were two of 15 Georgia players who worked out for executives and scouts from all 32 NFL teams inside the Payne Athletic Center on Wednesday. The opinions about how many of those might get drafted and how high vary. But there was little doubt that outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari and Stokes are considered the prizes of this latest class.
Ojulari is the only current Bulldog drawing consensus first-round grades in pre-draft discussions. Next is Stokes, who may be sprinting himself out of the second round and into the first.
Ojulari, who Georgia listed as 6-3, 240 last season, measured in at 6-2¼ and 249 pounds. Then he thoroughly impressed his observers by running 40-yard times of 4.60 and 4.63, bench-pressing 225 pounds 28 times and standing out in positional drill work.
It appears that Ojulari, who had 14.5 sacks the past two seasons, may be moving up from late first-round projections.
“I believe I did really good, and it’s going to help me,” said Ojulari, a third-year sophomore from Marietta. “Everybody’s been questioning some things I can do, and I feel like I came out here and showed them.”
Credit: Georgia Athletics
Others, such as linebacker Monty Rice and offensive lineman Ben Cleveland, may have helped their stock -- and certainly didn’t hurt it.
Cleveland somewhat infamously let it be known that he was after the NFL’s all-time bench-press record of 49 repetitions of 225 pounds. He came up woefully short at 30, but then he lit up the building with a first-run time of 4.85 seconds in the 40. He came down to earth on his second pass at 5 seconds flat, but at 6-6 3/8, 354 pounds, that still seemed otherworldly.
“I got a little off-rhythm going into it and that hurt me a little bit,” Cleveland said of the bench press. “But it was nothing to hold my head down or shake it about. I can’t downplay that; I was a little disappointed in myself. But I still put up pretty good numbers.”
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So did Rice. He clearly was able to rejuvenate himself physically by skipping Georgia’s bowl game to heal his lower-body injuries and get into peak shape for Wednesday’s workout. He ran 40s of 4.57 and 4.59 seconds and really shined in position drills.
“It’s lit, man,” said Rice, a senior who succeeded Roquan Smith to start the past three seasons at middle linebacker. “We’ve been working at this since we were little kids; I know I have since I was 9. I’ve been saying since then I was going to play on Sundays. Now I’m fixing to see if I’ll get that opportunity.”
Richard LeCounte was another Bulldog trying to live out that dream. His senior season got snuffed out halfway through in a near-fatal motorcycle accident that left him in ICU for three days. While he has recovered enough to compete in Wednesday’s drills, his 40 times of 4.76 and 4.82 indicated he is still not 100 percent. A foot injury, he said, is the one thing that lingers.
“I felt good in the drills being able to get out of my breaks and being able to high-point the ball in the air,” said LeCounte, who ran consistent 4.4s before signing with the Bulldogs. “I didn’t see the official times, but good or bad, my play-tape shows what kind of player I am and how I use my speed on the field.”
Verifiable results were hard to come by Wednesday and were being circulated piecemeal. Meanwhile, NFL teams are never going to let on about who they may like and not like. But with all 32 teams represented, it’s clear Georgia is still a favorite destination.
Coach Kirby Smart said it’s not his goal to send as many players as possible to the NFL. But for those determined to get there, he and the Bulldogs are glad to help.
The most important thing is that we develop them as men of character, get a great education, graduate,” Smart said. “But I’m also cognizant of their ambitions and their ambitions most times are to have an opportunity at the NFL. Each one of them will be approached to be drafted differently, each one has a different long-term career path. I don’t know what each of those is going to be. I just want them to feel like, ‘I had a good experience at Georgia, and coach Smart’s staff at the University of Georgia has been there for me, has promoted me to give me this opportunity to go do what I want to do.’”
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