The Full Court Press - Utah State Aggie Football Pro Day

it was a great day for the agies I thought we all performed really well uh what we heard was uh it's kind of funny cuz we were Underdog everybody thought we were underdogs all year right but uh they were like wow this this is one of the most talented groups we've had it's like wow I wonder why we won the championship and I wonder why we're 11 and three you know and we just joking around about not having that many All Conference guys I'm like no the Aggies can play and I think we all showed that today and it's a great showing another last little Hur ra a good way to leave an exclamation point on the 2022 or would be 2021 agies right 21 agies so it's good how did it feel just I mean getting into it was there any expectations before you got into this that and then things were a little bit different when you did the pro day was there anything like that uh some of the drills were a little bit different but for the most part if you're doing linebacker stuff or if you're dropping into coverage you're doing the same things if you're DN D lineman they want to see you bend bend the hoop run around so although the drills might be slightly different the movements are very similar so H olon just tweeted out after the year reps came out publicly and said your reps were the most impressive of any DTD end at the combine he was just bragging about you uh your uh preparation and going into that and being ready for it uh well that's awesome uh he's obviously a a well accomplished highly looked at a football figure especially uh here in our realm and uh for him to say that's really cool my minimum was 30 I had a little bit of shoulder tightness for the last month or so so I knew my minimum was to get 30 cuz I I knew I could and uh just uh it was great to to go out there and uh be able to perform cuz there are 100% more Jitters on game day like the stress can add to it less reps but if we were just lifting in the backyard or at the gym you know I feel like everybody's like ah I was running fast in this but that's just how you do it how you got to handle the stress and still be able to perform at at a high level and I think we all did that today how special was it just to be reunited with these with your your your fellow senior teammates again and kind of have that reunion after uh how things went in 2021 uh it was great and I don't think how many years go past that whenever we see each other it'll be that same special bond that you have with whether that be a best friend or family member brother cuz uh we all went through the same adversity and uh it's just a different connection that we have and especially last night we actually met as a whole team cuz we we had the ring ceremony got our rings from last year which was awesome but it it's been really awesome love this team uh it really was a one of a one of a kind type of Team you you you're lucky to have one of these type of cultures and your whole lifetime to be a be to be able to be a part of it and uh so it was great great seeing these guys Nick what's the process been like for you leading up to prod day and then now what's going to happen after this kind of leading it up to April and stuff um I no longer have to train like a track athlete which is cool get to train for football which we all love and are familiar with so I'm really excited about that I've been training down with uh Dr Skyler M and uh South Jordan Utah Sandy area with a bunch of Utah Big Time Utah guys BYU uh Weber State and it's been a a great central location and for me it's back home cuz I went to Bingham and that facility is where a lot of our high school guys went and trained so for me I felt right at home very comfortable environment and uh he's a great trainer he all of our guys that would have been going with him have been balling out I'm excited to see uh some of my other brothers at 2 p.m. today Weber State and then tomorrow Utah and then BYU so I'm excited to see those guys fall out so kind of like you mentioned this is a very talented group and we saw that out here today and yet nobody got invited to combine did that add maybe a little bit of you know as you're talking last night let's let's go go out and show these guys like this is how we do it in M yeah I mean that would have been cool to have the combine right combine invite for more of our guys uh I thought as far as it goes for the entire State I thought we should have had more cuz I mean we got 10 plus wins and three teams right but at the end of the day we all got the opportunity which is all you need and not one opportunity to show these Scouts show these guys what we can do and we got that we're fortunate enough to get that so combine's cool it's flashy and it's awesome but hey we still get the same look and uh just blessed to even have that opportunity how cool is the ring ceremony we saw the Rings come out on Twitter yesterday they look pretty beautiful oh yeah they're pretty big too not really a ring you can really wear out on the dayto day but I'm sure any football games or unions and stuff it'll be up in the trophy case put it on for those but hey really quickly I want ask about Blake Anderson what he came into last year and dealing with some adversity before um in Arkansas State comes here first year you guys kind of fall in love with him and just talk about the relationship that was building and having him as a coach for you guys um guy's a special guy he's been through a lot of adversity and even recently the man is one of a kind right I think that goes to I know that goes towards building our culture here at Utah State uh truly is a family environment even last night we were talking one of the younger players that just came by was asking the coaches like why do you do this and Coach Anderson cut him off was like hold on what do we why do we do this and he just always reinforces the wi and we are a team we are a family and he does it through his actions through his words he reinforces it and he's a one-of A- coach uh I love him on and off the field and that's the kind of Coach you want uh I've been fortunate to have a few that I look up to them on and off the field because I want a great man who's also a great coach and so how did it feel today oh it felt great felt amazing been working all my life for this for this day right here and uh you know think I did performed well hopefully you know get some call backs and whatnot and yeah yes sir really showed out on the on the Press today 32 that's high for as high as anyone in the combine how does that feel I mean it was I'm not going to lie I feel pretty great about that um I didn't even know that that was a that that was a number right there had I known I would have tried to get 33 heck yeah so you you do that and then you come in here and what was it 4 47 unofficially 47 I mean okay that's that's impressive you know to come do those back to back how do you feel about that you said what now uh 47 you know you go into to do 32 on the bench and then come in here you know 20 minutes later you run out a 47 you know that's that's impressive for you oh yeah what you how do you feel about that uh I feel pretty good about it um to be honest like with the bench and whatnot you know you're maxing out and it's a little difficult you know your body get a little tight and whatnot so you come out here and really try to get warm um but obviously you know I did my best I could and uh for GU 47 is what it was heck yeah feel great about it Marcus obviously a you got sick last year and you had to play below your normal playing weight you're back to more Clos to that right now so how good does it feel to be to be what what playing it the way that you're you're comfortable it it feels amazing to be back up here uh waigh in today at 281 um man playing from at 233 playing defensive tackle it was very difficult playing against you know bigger guys 300 lb dudes and um I mean I got the job done but at the same time you know having that extra weight most definitely is a is a blessing anything everything goes expected here for you did you have any expectations was anything different from what you expected before you got into this um I mean you know I think I did well today but at the same time like certain things I could have I believe I could have done better um you know but that's just the hunger within me just want to do do better than what I do Marcus what have you been doing in lead up to this have you go down to Florida and train or what you been doing uh so I went down to Houston Texas uh a place called alland with a o um one of my good friends from back home childhood friend my brother basically uh brought me up there to Texas uh got me working out up there and whatnot and you know work my butt off you know obviously you guys seen it today I worked really hard before I got up here you know two days every day Monday through Monday through Saturday work my butt off yes sir and could you tell us how any teams Scouts have you been in communication with with any teams or anything uh to be with me no I have not spoken with anyone hopefully you know moving forward I get some calls and whatnot yes uh can you talk about the support from other teammates guys showing up to watch you guys do this how cool is that guys you know during my 40 I'm like out here Mario let's go you know cheer me on and whatnot I'm like yeah I love it and then obviously you know I got up here about 2 weeks ago you're used to the altitude so just to be able to see the guys and what not you know they just starting Spring ball and they got up this morning they had practice yesterday they was here today I'm I'm thankful for that for them coming out here and supporting heck yeah I think I did pretty good today you know I think I hit all my numbers that I needed to and um just really showed all the scouts the you know how my film uh you know like my speed and stuff on film I feel like I reflected everything today so kind I'm I'm happy about what I did today there were definitely some some good performances today uh I mean nobody from this group got invited to combine which I think surprised some people so how much uh did you guys kind of come in with that chip on your shoulder um mentality coming into today um I don't know you know I feel like everybody really just you know we I think we all took the you know the whole combine thing and know not being invited just like for what it was you know at the end of day we understand like there's a system and a process things of that nature so but at then you know we came out here worked hard and did exactly what we knew we were going to do been talking to Scouts have you heard from scouts at all before this pro day um yeah a couple have reached out to me uh before so got I got to talk to a couple on the phone they told me they' be here today and they were here so it was pretty good that obviously wasn't Logan boner throwing you the ball today was it no no not at all but I mean you know worked out you know 38 in vertical it's really impressive you know you get up do you think being able to get up that high kind of maybe compensates for maybe being a little bit undersized compared to a lot of guys yeah definitely you know I mean the film shows that you know for itself so uh you know I just know that my athleticism is what's going to separate me from everybody else how's it catching punts that was easy you know there's light work right there I do that all the time so but yeah do you do you expect to be a punt returner if you or when you get into the NFL you expect GT what's the preparation been like for you is where were you before training and stuff for for today M um I was back I went back in Florida and um you know I mean it was a great it was a great process um you know I put on 14 lbs you know I kept my speed you know kept my kept my leaping ability and everything like that so feel like I I did exactly what I needed to do this offseason so what do you think it looks like for you now moving forward now reaching out to Scouts maybe hopefully get more interest than you've gotten already yeah um you know I just you know it just throw it up in the air and I hopefully know somebody come pick me up you know somebody likes me a lot so at this point you know I really just I don't know right now you know I heard the Rings are pretty big is it true oh yeah nice nice yes definitely so how was it it was good a lot of preparation coming into today uh I was anxious just to get it over with um a lot of I mean it's been what like 3 months of just building up for this day so felt like I executed well and most of the stuff um wasn't happy with a couple things but um overall was I was excited about today so what do you think you're most proud of of the different events that she did today um I was pretty pretty proud with my bench um thought I did well with my routes showed that I you know have good hands and can be reliable um my vert was about where I've been testing I wanted it a little bit higher but overall I think everything was relatively good so I think uh Derek I mean you USU fans saw your route running abilities and your hands the last couple of years um I think we got a a pretty good idea you're know you ran five four 5 in the 40 today and you know 38 in the vertical how good was it to kind of showcase some of those other uh skills and let let these Scouts know that you do have some speed that you you know you you can get up yeah um I think on film I don't look very fast I think I don't really think the scouts were expecting me to run well um I was hoping for a little quicker 40 but you know overall I was pretty happy with it and I think um I think it was better than what we're expecting so so what are kind of the next steps for you now moving forward after today um just keep training um do more football stuff a lot of this training we've been doing is just getting ready for the tests haven't done a lot of you know football training so going to keep you know working out and do try to do more on field routes catching and stuff like that um just wait till the end of April and see what happens DK did you get a chance to talk to any of the scouts today do they have any insight for you or anything um I talked to a few of them a lot of them were talking to coach SEO uh said they were happy with what they saw I wanted to go back and watch my film again which that was my goal coming in was to do well enough in here today to where it makes the Scout say we need to go back and re-evaluate the film um you know if they can see that what I did today translates to on the field then it's going to give me a good shot how was the ring ceremony last night it was sweet yeah it was a lot of fun we hadn't seen or um helped with the design of the Rings or anything so we didn't know what they were going to look like um but they're beautiful and they're big so happy with them your brother's up here right now so how how exciting is it to have a a right right here in Logan to keep the tradition going yeah I was I was thrilled when he decided to come up here I wish he would have been up here the last couple years with me but uh me and my family are excited to be able to keep watching you know more Utah State Games I was already planning on watching a lot anyways but it's going to mean a lot more now that that Wesley's playing here so excited