Thursday, March 12, 2009
A familiar face returned to Anschutz Sports Pavilion late Tuesday morning.
Among the 11 former Jayhawk football players auditioning for NFL scouts, one stood out. Decked in a sweat suit, lightly jogging and stretching before his 40-yard dash, James McClinton was on campus once more.
A fixture on Kansas’ defensive line during a career capped by an Orange Bowl victory, McClinton arrived at Tuesday’s pro day looking for a second chance.
Kansas’ meteoric 2007 had its ups and downs for McClinton. He began the year as a holy terror for opposing backfields with 26 tackles through the first five games. A nagging leg injury hampered output afterwards but he still earned an Associated Press Second Team All-America distinction.
NFL scouts called four players from that 2007 squad the following April — the most since 1996. McClinton was not one of them. See, pro scouts have body issues — only it’s not their own bodies that keep them up at night and needing counseling.
Instead, a prospect’s Under Armour-clad frame can send a scout into a mad euphoria. Conversely, defensive tackles like McClinton — 6 feet 1 inch, 285 pounds — often find themselves cast off, avoided like a plague.
A seizure before the East-West Shrine Game — attended by dozens of pro scouts — and an unsavory combine performance dashed McClinton’s 2008 draft hopes. That’s why McClinton joined this year’s seniors in hopes of making one last push for a pro roster.
Before Tuesday’s evaluations, he also served as a student assistant coach for the 2008 season.
“I picked up some more coaching and understood more about offenses and defenses and why certain ones are ran,” McClinton said. “This year really helped me. People are telling me I’m underrated as a defensive lineman.”
Reached by phone last week, coach Mark Mangino told me he’d like to see McClinton make it in the NFL and offered an assessment of his chances.
“He’s an outstanding football player,” Mangino said. “He’s not really big but is especially quick and athletic. Whatever team gets him will have a powerful kid with a huge work ethic.”
And so we wait. Again. And for the majority of us who don’t fret over fast-twitch muscle fibers or Wonderlic tests, we sit and wait with nothing but hope. McClinton’s draft day prospects are slim, but as Lloyd Christmas in “Dumb and Dumber” eloquently waxed: “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!”
So why not hope again? Why not ignore the so-called draft gurus (one of whom still had the Chiefs drafting Mark Sanchez after the Matt Cassel trade)? And if McClinton doesn’t get called this April, why stop hoping?
“I’ve just got to keep my faith and go out there and perform,” McClinton said before pro day. “If I get drafted it’s a blessing. If not, I could still get picked up in free agency. I’m not worried.”
— — Edited by Heather Melanson
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