My draft crush finally arrived. C.J. Spiller was the second-to-last player to show up this afternoon. Spiller was late because he already participated in the bench press. He had 18 repetitions of 225 pounds on the bench press, a solid number for a guy his size. (Reggie Bush, by comparison, kicked out 24 reps at his pro day in 2006; Percy Harvin had 19 a year ago; Toby Gerhart had 22 reps). Spiller said he would only lift and run the 40 tomorrow. He'll perform the other drills at his pro day on March 11. (Thanks to 49ers.com's Taylor Price for the pic below. Does it make my butt look fat?)
I was able to squeeze in two questions:
What do you say to people who doubt you have the size and weight to be a top draft pick?
CJS: The only thing I can do is go out there and perform. I can't worry about that. I know I play the game with a lot of passion. I'm going to go out there and compete at the highest level."
You've gotten a lot of attention for your speed. Can you run inside as well?
CJS: Oh yes. That's pretty much what we did at Clemson - ran inside, did a lot of zone blocking inside. We did a lot of power, downhill running. ... Hopefully I showed a lot of people that I can be an inside runner as well as a good outside runner.
One other Spiller notable: He graduated in 3 ½ years. Clemson is no UVA, mind you, but that's still pretty impressive.
On the other end of the running back spectrum ...
Stanford's Toby Gerhart's 40 time also will be scrutinized tomorrow. Gerhart weighed in at 231 pounds, and teams don't doubt the Heisman Trophy finalist can bowl over defenders. But there are questions whether he can outrun them.
Like Spiller, Gerhart wouldn't make any predictions, but seemed confident about his time. "That's been my biggest criticism - the speed thing," he said. "I don't know if it's pressure. I see it more as an opportunity to go out and compare myself to other guys and compete."
-- Matt Barrows
