News and notes from MSU's Pro Day

Heading into my first Pro Day on Wednesday at MSU’s Duffy Daugherty Football Building, the only thing I expected was to watch former MSU wide receiver Blair White grab the attention of the NFL scouts on hand.

Most of the scouts and media were only there for one reason: To see White. The former walk-on turned potential NFL Draft pick performed well at the combine but his draft stock is all over the place.

White ran his 40-yard dash in the 4.5-second range at the combine — which is fairly decent — but White was discouraged by it, telling me he ran better during his training in California.

Given another opportunity, White ran around a 4.4, depending on the stopwatch you looked at. Some had him in the 4.3 range.

The fact that White only participated in a few drills tells me he wanted to focus on the drills he performed poorly in at in the Combine.

At the Combine, White was among the top-six receivers in the 20-yard shuttle, 60-yard shuttle, bench press and 3-cone drill. He did not participate in any of those drills Wednesday.

Maybe doing less drills helped White’s 40 time, maybe not. Either way, White is out to prove he’s more than simply a possession receiver.

Outside of White, there were several other Spartans who stood out in my mind. Whether it helps these kids get drafted, I don’t know. But I do know that this was one of the most memorable days in the lives of some of these players.

Cornerbacks Jeremy Ware and Ross Weaver performed very well in most of the drills. Both jumped 37.5 inches in the vertical jump and ran sub-4.5-second 40-yard dashes, which begs the question: If these guys are so fast and can jump so high, why was the team so dreadful at covering the deep ball? It’s a question that will never be answered.

Weaver surprised many by benching 225 pounds 20 times.

Ware ran fast (4.3 40-yard dash) and had the attention of every scout, but he had trouble in the shuttle drills, failing to touch the line on several occasions.

Here are some other tidbits

Linebacker Brandon Denson had a tough day. It may have been his cleats, but he was slipping on almost every drill.

Former offensive lineman Jesse Miller participated in Pro Day, hoping he still can make an NFL team after not being drafted last year.

Of the players who left East Lansing to train, all but Swenson already has graduated. Swenson said he currently is taking online classes and plans on graduating.

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