Joe Simon
Sports Reporter Tribune-Chronicle
jsimon@tribtoday.com
It’s a procedure a few Youngstown State players are getting to know well. Derek Rivers and Avery Moss each had superb senior seasons for the Penguins and caught even more attention with YSU making a run to the FCS Championship.
Rivers was a two-time All-American who shattered YSU’s career sack record, while Moss was a highly touted prospect at Nebraska before transferring to Youngstown State. Their success led to a courtship of sorts by NFL officials.
Rivers was invited to play in the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. Aside from impressing scouts at the practices leading up to the game, he recorded a sack and a tackle-for-loss during the South’s 16-15 victory.
That was just the beginning. Rivers was joined by Moss at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis from Feb. 28 to March 6. The event is invitation-only, bringing college football’s elite to be analyzed in every way possible for one week.
The combine was much different than what Rivers expected.
“The most surprising thing so far is definitely the combine,” Rivers said. “Everybody sees it on the NFL Network, and they just see the day that you run (a 40-yard dash). They don’t see the three days when you arrive. You stay up till 12:30 at night, and then you have to wake up at 5 for three consecutive days and then go out and perform. A lot of people don’t know that. It’s a crazy experience.”
Rivers still excelled — in a big way.
His 40 time of 4.61 seconds was the fourth best of all Division I defensive linemen, including teams like Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, etc. He also bench pressed 225 pounds 30 times, which also was the fourth-best mark among defensive linemen, and reached 35 inches in the vertical leap (fifth best overall).
Moss put up solid numbers as well, but his measurables come in a different form. His size of 6-foot-3, 265 pounds is a good start, but it’s his limbs that caught the attention of scouts. While Rivers is more than an inch taller, Moss’s arms are nearly two inches longer and his hands are larger as well.
So while his overall statistics at the combine weren’t nearly as good as Rivers (a 4.79 40 and 14 reps on the bench press), his length and athleticism didn’t go unnoticed.
“I think he (benched 225 pounds) 14 times, but he plays extremely physical and strong,” said YSU coach Bo Pelini, who worked in the NFL and evaluated players entering the draft. “Somebody might lift a lot more than that, but they don’t play as physical, and that (strength) doesn’t translate onto the field.
“When I used to evaluate guys for the draft, I’d watch all the film, and it wasn’t until the film was over that I’d go back and look at the numbers, just to see if it translates. Sometimes it did, and sometimes it didn’t.”
The process continued for Moss and Rivers on March 14 at YSU’s Pro Day at the Watson and Tressel Training Site on Youngstown State’s campus. The two were able to skip the events they already performed at the combine, but they were put through rigorous position-specific drills — with scouts from 18 NFL teams watching.
On hand was former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter as well as NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Kevin Greene. It was Greene who instructed the two through the first set of drills, which included sprinting diagonally to a cone, then back toward the center of the field several times in a row. They proceeded to perform numerous other drills, and then did others for Cincinnati defensive line coach Jacob Burney, who wasn’t shy to let them know when they made a mistake.
“A little yelling’s not going to bother me,” said a smiling Moss about Burney, who was loud and animated while instructing the two during workouts. “He’s a wild one, and you’re going to have those coaches. They want to break you to see if you’re mentally tough, and I’ve been through too much adversity to be broke by anybody.”
Moss and Rivers, who have been training since the season ended, continue to try and build their resumes this month during private workouts.
Each said they have workouts with multiple NFL teams during March and April, but they didn’t want to disclose which teams. The workouts will be their final chance to show potential suitors what they can offer. In the end, Rivers thinks it’s what they did during their careers at YSU that will entice teams.
“There’s going to be guys that didn’t run as fast as I did or didn’t jump as high as I did, or I didn’t jump as high as them,” Rivers said. “Some guys get picked up just off of film. That’s the most important thing is your film.
“The one thing that my one coach did tell me is that it’ll be the teams that aren’t here (at the Pro Day), or the teams that aren’t talking to you that will be the one that draft you. That’s how they do it. They try to show the least interest in you as possible, then they jump on you right at the end.”
The NFL Draft begins Thursday, April 27 and concludes Saturday, April 29. The Draft is televised live on ESPN.
