Blue White Illustrated

May 2015

Penn State Sports Magazine

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lot of things that you can say, but I don't regret it at all." Barnes wasn't the only early entrant to perform for the assembled scouts. Also on hand were offensive tackle Donovan Smith and tight end Jesse James. Smith checked in at 6-5, 328 pounds and ran the 40 in roughly 5.0 seconds. He did not address the media after his workout. James also focused on the 40-yard dash, turning in a time of about 4.65 seconds. On the heels of an impressive showing at the combine, he said he's ready to move on, even though the NFL Draft Advisory Board recommended that he use his final season of eligibility at Penn State. "I was very prepared and confident in my ability. That's what it came down to," he said. "If I felt like I wasn't prepared to play at the next level, then I would have stayed. But I felt very confident that I'm going to succeed at the next level and I'm excited about it." Defensive back Adrian Amos said he felt he did well at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis in February, but he wanted to improve on his time in the 40-yard dash, and he also wanted to take part in the bench press, which he hadn't done previously due to injuries. "I wanted to run the 40 again because I knew that I didn't run my fastest 40 at the combine that I had been running," he said. "It's a better situation back at Penn State and more relaxed here. I feel like I did better in a lot of stuff, and I had to bench because I didn't bench at the combine." Amos said he was timed at 4.38 sec- onds on his first run and 4.42 on his sec- ond. In the bench press, he put up 21 reps. Several other Pro Day participants were working their way back from in- juries, including running back Zach Zwinak, offensive lineman Miles Dief- fenbach and tight end Matt Lehman. Zwinak did not participate in any of the physical tests, as he is still recover- ing from the bro- ken leg that ended his college career in late October. Dieffenbach, nearly a year removed from the ACL tear that cost him most of his senior season, said his goals were to move well in front of the scouts, put up good numbers in the strength tests and prove he's fully recovered from his in- jury. "The numbers were actually a little better than I thought," he said after- ward. His knee "feels better every day you're working on it and doing rehab. It's kind of a gradual thing where you get to the point where you don't even feel it. I'm basically at that point." Lehman was in a similar situation after missing the 2013 season due to an ACL tear he suffered in the Nittany Lions' opener against Syracuse. He did his re- habilitation in Harrisburg, Pa., and in addition to his training, he worked the counter at a local pizza shop. His goal at Pro Day was simply to show that he was still capable of doing the things that earned him a big role with the Nittany Lions as a junior. His broad jump was 9 feet, 11 inches and his vertical leap was 33 ½ inches, both of which were im- provements over his previous results. WEIGHTY MATTERS Thir- teen former Penn State players took part in Pro Day on March 19. They worked out for the assem- bled scouts as current players, coaches and me- dia members looked on. Photo by Nate Bauer

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