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bench press. He said his best vertical leap was 42 inches. "But I'm not going to sit here and complain," he said, "because a lot of guys wish they could have had the same numbers that I had that day, the per- formance I had that day. I was really happy with the off-field stuff, the inter- views, and I think I did really well in the drills with catching the ball, running and looking smooth and fluid." Barkley didn't work out for the scouts at pro day. He said that he had fully in- tended to participate, but when he learned the morning of the event that there wouldn't be any running backs coaches at Holuba Hall, he changed his mind. What remains unchanged is his draft stock – it's still sky high. Barkley will likely hear his name called soon after the first round begins on April 26, and he in- tends to be in attendance at AT&T Sta- dium in Arlington, Texas, to hear it. Many of the mock drafts that have been published in recent weeks have had Barkley headed to Cleveland. It's been assumed by many that the Browns will take a quarterback with the first overall pick – most likely Southern Cal's Sam Darnold – but they have the fourth pick, too. While Cleveland has many glaring needs after going 4-44 the past three F O O T B A L L Hamilton makes his case at Nittany Lions' pro day DaeSean Hamilton knew what he needed to do on Penn State's pro day. He was aware that scouts had con- cerns about his top-end speed, even after he had excelled at the East-West Shrine Game, Senior Bowl and NFL Scouting Combine. So Hamilton would have to become a technically sound sprinter. "My biggest thing was to come out here and post a good time on my 40 because I didn't run at the combine," he said. "I just dialed in and harped in on running a fast 40 time. That's really the only thing I was worried about." The effort paid off. In the familiar confines of Holuba Hall, his 40 time was offi- cially listed at 4.52 seconds. One scout had him at 4.47, others at 4.51. Hamilton finished his Penn State ca- reer with 214 recep- tions, including 53 for a team-high 857 yards and nine touch- downs as a senior. His body of work at the college level was unde- niable, but he had to push through and demonstrate for the stopwatches what was already clear on film. "That's how it is. That's politics, I guess. When one person says some- thing, it's going to spread like wildfire and everyone is going to take that and run with it. Teams are just trying to knock your game. But I guess that's how football is," he said. "It's not nec- essarily frustrating. I just took it and didn't really say anything. I just bit the bullet and kept working. I wasn't re- ally worried about what everyone was saying about my straight-line speed. I didn't even know what I was going to run because you don't run 40s throughout your whole training process. You just keep working and work- ing and then you sur- prise yourself. I wasn't really wor- ried about what everyone else was saying, I just knew that on my pro day I was going to be able to show everybody." Hamilton, who wrapped up his Penn State career by catching five passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns against Washington in the Fiesta Bowl, said he's been tun- ing out all the comments from scouts and draft experts. "I honestly think the NFL stuff is generic. A lot of people say the same thing to a lot of guys, especially in my situation," he said. "The negatives are all the same for a lot of the same type of people. … I let my parents go ahead and brainwash themselves into all the NFL stuff. I don't really pay too much attention to it." Hamilton said he surprised himself with his 40-yard time, noting that he was "a lot faster" at pro day than he had been throughout his career as a Nittany Lion. He has spoken to the Colts, Giants and Steelers in recent months and is listed as the No. 14 wide receiver in the draft by CBSSports.com. Now it's just a waiting game. "I'm not really a guy who does all the tests or worries about the num- bers, I just like to play football," Hamilton said. "I didn't know what to expect, I just knew I was going to put my best foot forward and really just rely on my training, rely on the last two and a half months of all the things that I've been doing and just put that on display at the combine and at pro day." – NATE BAUER DaeSEAN HAMILTON Steve Manuel

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