Feb. 25, 2010

Diary 1 | Diary 3

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I actually did sleep decently Tuesday night, before we flew here from Florida. I didn't go to bed until 11 and had to wake up at 4:45, which was rough.

No issues with the flight up here, other than this guy on the plane wanted to trade me seats so he could sit next to his wife. So of course I traded him my aisle seat for the window. It was not a comfortable 2 and-a-half hours to say the least. Other than that, it went smoothly. When Riar Geer and I got in we got some Q-Doba, which was great because we hadn't had it in months, since I went to the place across the street from the McGraw Center in Fort Collins.

We were picked up yesterday morning by a shuttle service and rode in with Riar and two other combine guys. I don't really recall their names.

My trainer, Derek, got in today. Haven't seen him yet but we been talking through texts about what's going on. It'll be good to have him when I get ready for the bench and the running. That way, I can follow my warmup and have a some comfort talking with him about the things we've done over the last several weeks.

Today, we woke up at 5:30 for testing. We were at Lucas Oil Stadium most of the day doing team physicals, which was pretty dragging at times. But it's a good problem to have. We also did height and weight today. I measured in at 6-7, and weighed 315 pounds. I was happy with what I got. I think Shelley came in at like 5-10 (just playin').

Orientation was pretty brief. They usually don't go too far ahead about what we have to do, and are always directing us and keeping us on track and where we are supposed to be. It's amazing how many people they have here working the combine.

I was told by Kory and Gartrell last year about the long days and tough schedule so it was expected.

The interviews with the NFL teams went well. They went late into last night, too. A lot of them are similar. They want to kind of feel you out at first and see what you're about, where you come from, etc. They also would quiz you over offensive plays and defensive schemes to see where you're at on a football intelligence level. I felt comfortable with this part because Coach Meyer at CSU always did a good job of making sure we understood the offensive plays. I did meet Steve Loney, who is the offensive line coach for the St. Louis Rams. He told me how he coached Coach Meyer back in the day and how James Cregg, another former CSU guy, had to tell Pat what to do some of the time.

Shelley and I have been hanging out when we can. Usually, we're just talking about the interviews we did and how we feel about the tests coming up. We both are ready to get to the testing portion of the combine.

That's about it for tonight. I'll try to write again from here, but may not have time to catch up until after it's over. Go Rams!

Cole Pemberton

For more information on the combine:

http://www.nflcombine.net/

http://www.nfl.com/combine