Assistant Coach Starkey, Combine Coordinator
Assistant Coach Luck, Assistant Combine Coordinator

Combine season is in full swing for the 2008 season and there will be a number of combines in the state of North Carolina as well as in neighboring states this spring and early summer. Coach Starkey will be handling the primary point on information concerning combines and it is highly encouraged that if you have questions about individual combines or the combine process in general that you contact him for additional information. If you are unable to get in contact with Coach Starkey, Coach Luck will also be able to help out with information about the events or assist you in getting in contact with Coach Starkey.

2007 Combine Season (currently being updated)

2006 Combine Season (currently being updated)

 

What are these combines anyway? Combines are events that allow athletes interested in playing football on the collegiate level to showcase their overall athletic ability. In many cases you will be timed in the 40 yard dash, 20 yard pro agility shuttle, bench press repetitions typcially at 185 lbs and the vertical jump or broad jump.

Even if I'm interested in playing collegiate football, do I have to go to these combines? Nope, it's a free world and it's hard to say how important these events are in comparison to how you play on the field on Friday nights. It would be safe to say that these are simply one piece of the puzzle that allows you to be OFFICIALLY scored in what I like to call the SATs/ACTs of athletics, ie the 40 yard dash, 20 yard pro agility and bench press reps. Just as if you are trying to get into Harvard, their admissions will look heavily at your GPA and SAT score, in the same way, schools that are recruiting for football will look heavily at your height, weight, 40 time, and bench press max/reps.

Can a combine help my chances for getting a look? Sure, if you are someone that has excelled on the football field during your underclassmen years or are primed to excel during your senior year and you run a solid 40 time for your height/weight/position or you throw up a solid amount of reps in the bench for your height/weight/position then sure the combines will help. Why, because you will have had your scores OFFICIALLY registered and college coaches will have more faith in those times, measurements and scores than what might have been taken at your home school. As an example of this, there have been two receivers in the NC area over the past years that I know for a fact were getting subtle attention and then after one ran a 4.3/4.4 40 at a Nike Camp and another at a NC Shrine Bowl camp, because in part of what they had done on the field, plus how their speed related to their height and weight they began to see a ton of attention.

Can a combine hurt my chances for getting a look? This is somewhat hard to say...I would first say that before you go to an event you should have a ball-park estimate of how you'll stack up. In other words, when you show up at an event it shouldn't be the first time you've run the 40 in a year? Just as if you were preparing for a test, you should have some general idea of what type of time you'll run or how many reps you'll get at 185. What you might find as you obtain that information is that it would be better to hold off for a later combine after you've been able to prepare a bit more. As a coach I respect greatly what one of the coaches that mentored me once told me concerning the Nike Camps..."Coach, this camp and all of the Nike Camps are all about speed. If you have someone that for his position has great speed, make sure they are here, otherwise it's probably just a good experience and not much more." Getting a look is a weird question...college coaches sometimes see different things,but the facts are always the same, you have to excel at your position (that typically means that whatever level you are playing at, you need to be looking to push it to another level, play in and play out) and fundamentally, just as you do in your academic studies you need to be looking to be the best or at least better each successive day in what you are doing. In general, I think that if you are on the radar with some colleges because of film they may have seen then if you go to a combine and run a terrible time...well, a ton of things could be going through their mind and to be honest, I don't know what all they may be. Again, there is no easy answer for this question other than to say, if you go to a combine, you should be working to perform to your best and at the end of the day feel confident that you did give a championship type effort. If you prepared before hand and understood where you should fall with the different tests and then on combine day met or exceeded those expectations then I think you are on target. If you fell a bit short, then quite possibly you simply had a bad day, but my gut would tell me you won't be too far off from what you expected.

The take home message with these combines is that (a) it isn't the only factor going into decisions, but that (b) it is one piece of information that a college coach will use to help him understand what you can do athletically. As an aside...there are a number of other pieces to the puzzle and you should always remember them (a) GRADES, GRADES, GRADES...do your homework and study for your tests, (b) how do you perform on Friday nights? It doesn't start on Friday night, it starts in the weight room and on the practice field Monday through Thursday, it starts at home with what you are eating and how much rest you are getting. Just remember to put it all in perspective, at the end of the day your GRADES are what is most important to your future, whether football is there or not.