March 5, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. - This is one of the most critical times of the year for outgoing senior football players like UCF offensive tackle Pat Brown who is less than two months away from learning his NFL Draft fate.
Right now, many seniors and early-departing sophomores and juniors around America are spending their entire days at unfamiliar combines far and wide preparing to impress NFL scouts. Brown, on the other hand, is working out in earnest for this lifelong goal in a far more familiar and comfortable setting. Every weekday, just as he has done for the past four years, he arrives at the Wayne Densch Sports Center to workout with UCF strength and conditioning coaches Ed Ellis and Scott Sinclair.
Brown wakes up in his own bed every morning, eats at familiar locales, sees his girlfriend and, perhaps most importantly, attends classes to complete his degree, on time, in communications with a minor in marketing. It is a routine that not every prospect gets to know in the spring of their senior year and one which has been working out quite well for Brown thus far.
"It's going really well," Brown said. "We've got a good mix of strength, speed, flexibility. Everything is coming together really well and I've been happy with the results so far. I've been with these guys for four years. I trust them. They know me. I know them. And, it allows me to stay here and finish up my degree. It's a great situation."
Ellis and Sinclair are able to design workouts specifically for Brown because they know him so well. They know his strengths and weaknesses. They know the best way to motivate them. They know how to make Brown get the most out of his time in their gym. There is no acclimation period like with the new faces and trainers who flow through combines every January.
"We've seen Pat for four years so we know what his body's like," Sinclair said. "We know exactly what he can do well and what he can't do well - where his weaknesses and strengths are - and we can target those things. It's helpful too because he's accustomed to us and how we coach. The environment is the same. Any little tidbits of information or extra things we can find out, we're going to tell him because we're working for his best interest. We want to see him do well. He's not just a prospect. He's one of our kids."
Brown will first work with Sinclair who focuses on his flexibility and agility. Sinclair leads him through a variety of drills to help with Brown's mobility and also paces him through the standard combine cone drills, focusing on everything from footwork to his stance in an effort to make Brown's times quicker. After working with Sinclair, Ellis will take over and put Brown through the strength portion of the workout. Ellis concentrates on making Brown more explosive and building the power that is measured by NFL scouts through the vertical jump, broad jump and bench press repetitions.
UCF is fortunate to have the ability to host Brown for these workouts. Not only does the school have excellent staff but the facilities are also first rate. The Wayne Densch's weight room, training room, hydrotherapy area and the Nicholson Fieldhouse combine to offer any equipment Brown may require to complete his pre-draft training. It also does not hurt that he is practicing on the same field and in the same weight room where he will look to impress NFL scouts at UCF's pro day later this month.
"We don't have to go anywhere to find stuff that we need," Sinclair says. "Everything is right here and his familiarity really helps."
Ellis also feels that Brown made the right move by continuing to train at UCF.
"Every year you see guys listen to the agents and go to a place where they have a hook-up," Ellis says of the process in general. "A lot of those guys do well, but they would have done well regardless because they are so athletic. To me, the advantage of training for the draft at UCF is that we've been with them for four and sometimes five years. We know them inside and out. We can just get working with them and go off of what we all ready know. And, for Pat, it's great because he can continue to go to school and do the things that he needs to do to get ready for the draft in an environment that he's familiar with.
"We just want to help Pat do the best that he can. He's a great guy that works really hard. He's done it his whole career. We're just trying to help him any way that we can."
Brown considered several options beyond the Orlando-based path that he chose while meeting with potential agents over Christmas break but is pleased with his decision to stay in familiar hands.
"I explored different training facilities and figured that this would be the best one," Brown said. "I've been used to it. I've been here for four years and seen great growth. I have continued to see it this spring."
The UCF staff is just as happy to have Brown around every day as he is to be here.
"One of Pat's biggest attributes is how hard of a worker he is," Sinclair said. "He's one of those guys where if you tell him to run through a brick wall, he will literally try and do it. It's been fun working with him because if you ask him to do something and show him how you want it done, he tries his best to do it that way. It makes it easy for us to work with him because he's eager, he's ready to learn and he does whatever you tell him to do. He goes after it 100-percent and it's nice to work with someone like that."