(SportsNetwork.com) – Exactly one Division III player was invited to the NFL Scouting Combine and Hobart offensive lineman Ali Marpet flashed why on Friday.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-4, 307-pound Marpet broke the 5.0-barrier in the 40-yard dash, clocking in at 4.98 seconds, the fastest time among all the offensive linemen at the combine.<\/p>\n
Marpet also showed off his unique athleticism with the top 10-yard split among the OLinemen, at 1.74 seconds, along with top-tier strength, putting up 225 pounds an impressive 30 times, tied for fifth among the big uglies assembled in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
Rewind back to 2014 and the speediest offensive lineman was eventual first- round pick Taylor Lewan of the Tennessee Titans, who was only a tick faster than Marpet with a 4.87 40.<\/p>\n
Don’t expect a similar end game for Marpet, who was a three-year starter at left tackle for Hobart and the first offensive lineman to be named Liberty League Offensive Player of the Year. He is, however, regarded as a draftable commodity with most scouts placing a mid-round grade on him while projecting a move inside to guard or center at the professional level.<\/p>\n
“He has the ability to be a starting (NFL) center,” NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said of Marpet, who didn’t allow a sack during his senior season at Hobart and was named to the D3football.com All-America first team as well as the Associated Press Little All-America second team.<\/p>\n
So why was a talented prospect like Marpet toiling at tiny Hobart in Geneva, N.Y. instead of Alabama, Ohio State or Notre Dame?<\/p>\n
Physically, he was a late bloomer, weighing in at just 250 pounds during his sophomore campaign.<\/p>\n
If this were still the 1970s, perhaps a 250-pound Marpet could have found a home in the NFL but these days, some quarterbacks are bigger than that and bulking up was paramount.<\/p>\n
“I need to eat 3,500 calories a day to maintain my body weight,” Marpet said. “So when I’m exercising, I think I need 7,000 to maintain. So in order for me to gain, I need to eat 8,000–9,000 calories.”<\/p>\n
As he got bigger, Marpet was able to maintain his unique athleticism and pro scouts began to notice.<\/p>\n
Marpet first showed up on a lot of people’s radars during his junior season at Hobart.<\/p>\n
“My junior year, BLESTO (Scouting Service) came by and I ran the 40 for them,” Marpet said. “I took the Wonderlic and they measured me, and I discovered that I had the same physical tools as some of the other offensive linemen, so I said ‘why not me?'”<\/p>\n
Others were beginning to say the same thing after a very impressive Senior Bowl week in Mobile, where he was also the only player from a Division III school in attendance.<\/p>\n
“It was fun for me,” Marpet said when discussing the Senior Bowl. “I’m a competitive person, so I love playing against the best. That was a huge opportunity for me.”<\/p>\n
Marpet even held his own against projected first-round pick Danny Shelton of Washington.<\/p>\n
“At first, I wasn’t sure how I was going to match up,” he continued. “Pretty soon, I knew I would be OK. I was invited there for a reason. But it was huge for me, that first day. Going out and getting used to the speed … the speed was the biggest difference going from D-III to D-I. I was able to handle the size, and once I had a few reps, I was fine.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if anyone saw me as a D-III guy — I don’t know if the defensive linemen looked up film on me. I was looking at them, seeing what they were doing. There probably wasn’t much expectation, so I just was doing what I was doing. Just going out and executing.”<\/p>\n
Marpet brought the added confidence he gained from the Senior Bowl to Indianapolis where he cemented his ceiling as a potential third- or fourth- round pick.<\/p>\n
“He definitely belongs,” NFL Media draft guru Charles Davis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(SportsNetwork.com) – Exactly one Division III player was invited to the NFL Scouting Combine and Hobart offensive lineman Ali Marpet flashed why on Friday. The 6-foot-4, 307-pound Marpet broke the 5.0-barrier in the 40-yard dash, clocking in at 4.98 seconds, the fastest time among all the offensive linemen at the combine. Marpet also showed off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}