Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

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Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith Nails It
PERSPECTIVE
By John Turney

Thanks for posting this. The narrative that Mamula came from nowhere and got drafted based on his combine results never sat well with me, because Mamula was a well-known college player. I think the more interesting cases involve the freak athletes from small schools whose combine-type numbers get them attention from NFL teams...Don Beebe's 40 time from Chadron State...Christian Okoye's workout numbers from Azusa Pacific. A guy I remember from a few years ago was a WR from Cal Poly named Ramses Barden. He had a nice career at Cal Poly, but it was his combine numbers that got him recognized. He was 6'6" 225, fast, strong...the Giants traded up in the 3rd round to get him, and then he sat on the bench for a few years and was out of the league.

As for Mamula, I think one part of his story is still impactful. I don't know if he was the first player to specifically train for the combine drills, but the attention Mamula received made future NFL prospects see the value in doing so...which is kind of like a "no duh" moment to me. If I have to take a test in order to get a certain job, why WOULDN'T I train specifically for that test? I thought that was the criticism of the Edward James Olmos character in "Stand and Deliver".

To be fair to Okoye, small school and all, didn't he have ~2000 yards as a senior.

NWebster wrote:To be fair to Okoye, small school and all, didn't he have ~2000 yards as a senior.

I couldn't find his specific college stats, but I did find this blurb: "In his senior year he led the nation in rushing with an astonishing 186.7 yards per game, averaging 7.2 yards a carry."

IIRC, Azusa Pacific was a fourth division NAIA school in the late-80's. It was Okoye's size/speed that attracted the attention. No one really cares when NAIA players put up big stats.