Dawgs at the Combine

First, a couple of links worth checking out over at ESPN.com...

-- Mark Schlabach has an interesting story on the growth and significance of Junior Day around college football.

-- Len Pasquarelli has a good piece on Rennie Curran, who is fighting an uphill battle in the draft due to his size.

As for the combine, here's how Georgia's former players stacked up. You can find full combine results HERE.

-- I'm not sure how much any of this means when discussing Georgia's strength and conditioning program, but all for of the Bulldogs' participants ranked among the leaders on the bench press at their position.

Geno Atkins: Measured in at 6-1, which made him the shortest defensive tackle at the combine, in a tie with North Carolina's Aleric Mullins and, coincidentally, Georgia's own Jeff Owens. He checked in at 293 pounds, which was also among the lightest, but again no big surprise, since it's Atkins size that has been the biggest question mark when evaluating his draft stock. Of course, while he's not the tallest DT in the draft, he is among the fastest. He clocked in with a 4.75 40 time, behind only Arizona's Earl Mitchell, who ran a 4.70. Atkins was nearly a full second ahead of Terrence Cody (5.64). On the bench, he mustered 34 reps, tied for the third most among DTs. His 33-inch vertical left a bit to be desired, but his 9-9 in the broad jump was tops among those who participated.

Jeff Owens: Checked in at 6-1, 304, which is two inches less than his listed height at Georgia. Owens ran the 40 in 5 seconds flat, which was a little under the average at his position -- nothing that will necessarily turn heads, but good enough to keep his stock rising. Of course, where Owens really showed out was on the bench press, where he did a whopping 44 reps -- five more than the next closest competitor and 15 more than the average among other defensive tackles. As a point of comparison, Owens' 5.0/44 was every bit as impressive -- if not more so -- than Ndamukong Suh's 4.98/34. Arkansas offensive lineman Mitch Petrus was the only combine participant at any position to do more bench press reps than Owens.

Rennie Curran: A pulled hamstring forced Curran out of Monday's portion of the combine, which certainly didn't help his stock. He measured in at 5-10.5, which is a half-inch shorter than the 5-11 mark some scouts had said was the bare minimum and he was the only OLB who checked in at less than 6 feet. Despite his smaller size, Curran's arm length was 31.5 and his hand length was 10-3/8, both of which were above average. On the bench, Curran mustered 25 reps, which made him one of the top performers at his position, with only Missouri's Sean Witherspoon (34), Oklahoma's Keenan Clayton (27) and Penn State's Navarro Bowman (26) doing more.

Reshad Jones: Jones likely helped his draft stock a bit at the combine. His 24 reps on the bench press were second only to Oklahoma State's Lucien Antoine among all defensive backs, while his 4.54 40 time was the eighth best among safeties (although a good bit slower than Eric Berry's 4.40 or Taylor Mays' astounding 4.24). Defensive backs wrap up the combine this afternoon with broad jump, vertical and cone drills.