Light prepares for, anticipates NFL draft

By Paul Trembacki
Sports Editor

This morning Matt Light made one of the most important trips of his football career.

He and teammate Chukky Okobi, both seniors on Purdue's Big Ten tri-championship team this last season, made the trek to the NFL scouting combine at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. That is where 300 invitees from colleges across the country will be trying to show off their skills in hopes of getting selected in the NFL Draft, which is April 21 to 22 in New York.

Light is putting a lot of emphasis on performing well at the combine.

"This is a big stepping stone for me," he said. "It's the most important thing to me right now. There wouldn't be a combine if it wasn't really important."

Purdue's other NFL prospects, quarterback Drew Brees and receiver Vinny Sutherland, will drive to Indianapolis Friday because receivers and quarterbacks report a day later than kickers and linemen.

Light, a 6-foot-5, 297-pound All-American left tackle, said most pro scouts have film of at least some of his 37 games at Purdue. But he knows that representatives from each team come to the combine because they really want to see him in person to try to discern what he's like and to test his physical skills.

"They're going to challenge me mentally and physically," Light said.

Light and Okobi will get physicals today and go through interviews and football IQ tests Friday. The physical tests are Saturday.

Every prospect who works out at the combine is timed in a 5-10-5 shuttle run, in which athletes start at a line, run five yards, come back 10 yards and then turn around and go back five yards to where they started. The "three-cone drill" tests players' abilities to traverse cones.

Players are also tested in the broad jump, vertical jump and 40-yard dash. There is a bench press test in which players try to press 225 pounds as many times as possible.

Light hopes to bench 225 at least 28 times, which is above average for a lineman.

There are linemen-specific tests that require linemen to call out defensive schemes and exhibit their pulling and pass-protecting techniques.

Light is confident he will perform well at the combine and improve his draft status. He is not listed among the top five offensive linemen by any publication but he hopes to get drafted in either the second or third round of the seven-round draft.

That goal has been foremost in Light's mind throughout the last two months.

Since shortly after the Boilers' 34-24 loss to Washington in the Rose Bowl Jan. 1, Light, who graduated from Purdue in December with a degree in industrial technology, has been training in Pittsburgh with Jim Steiner, his agent. Steiner's other clients include Mississippi running back Deuce McAllister, Notre Dame tight end Jabari Holloway and Wisconsin receiver Chris Chambers.

Although he was the lone offensive lineman training in Pittsburgh, Light had two defensive linemen, Illinois' Fred Wakefield and Missouri's Justin Smith, to keep pace with. He said the training was "really productive."

Light, who has played organized football since he was nine, never had a favorite team when he was growing up.

"I played football but I never watched it," the Greenville, Ohio, native said. "I was always outside getting in trouble."

Light has already talked to scouts and coaches from teams such as the Eagles, Jets, Patriots and Buccaneers.

He had a particularly long conversation with Tampa Bay head coach Tony Dungy at the Senior Bowl in January in Mobile, Ala. Dungy informed Light that Bucs will be trying to stockpile offensive linemen in the draft.

But Light is willing to play for whichever team picks him.

"A lot of teams need linemen; it's just a matter of timing in the draft and which guy they want at what position," Light said.

There will be 61 linemen at the combine, many of whom are similar to Light in size and strength. Light is optimistic he can show people that he is better than the rest.

"It looks good," Light said. "But it all depends on how the combine goes."

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Sports editor:
Paul Trembacki

Assistant sports editor:
Anne McLaren

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