Travis Lewis' disappointing 2011 season carries over into '12 combine
Published: 2/28/2012 8:20 AM
Last Modified: 2/28/2012 10:34 AM
Travis Lewis performs the vertical leap at the NFL combine. MICHAEL CONROY/AP
I'd say nine times out of 10, that proves to be correct. Right now, however, I would also say Travis Lewis is in danger of being the dreaded number 10.
Not that Lewis' draft stock was soaring after his junior season at OU. It made sense to come back, try to reach his national championship goal, get a little stronger, a little sounder in pass coverage. What was the worst thing that could happen, holding steady as a mid-round pick?
Well…
Unlike fellow Sooners Ronnell Lewis, Donald Stephenson and James Hanna, Lewis hasn't exactly helped himself at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. He tested OK in the vertical and broad jumps, repped a decent 22 times in the bench press.
But unlike the other three, he didn't rip off a fast 40-yard dash. He ran a 4.88, just a shade faster than the 4.94 turned in by the 300-pound Stephenson. That's a problem.
Lewis was already being knocked for his inability to shed blockers (thus, perhaps, his showing up at the combine weighing 20 pounds more than he did at OU), and now he'll have to overcome a second red flag.
He can do it. He'll surely head back to the gym and chip away at that 4.88 between now and OU's pro day in two weeks.
It's just that you never like leaving poor first impressions if you're a mid-round prospect. It can turn you into a late-rounder if you're not careful.
"Think Oklahoma LB Travis Lewis is going to fall to day three and be a real steal," National Football Post college scouting director Wes Bunting tweeted Monday.
Day three? That can't be what Lewis had in mind when he announced he would play a fourth season at OU. But then nothing, really, has worked out according to plan since Lewis broke his toe the first week of two-a-days last August.
He battled back from the injury, but wasn't the same player. As the season wore on, and it became clear OU wasn't going to meet those championships goals, Lewis wasn't the same person, either. After three years of being the Sooners' go-to talker, he walled himself off from reporters. There were days, teammates said, he walled himself off from them as well.
Lewis was his old self at the Insight Bowl in late December, loquacious as ever. It was nice to see, honestly. He played a good game against Iowa, something his teammates were surely glad to see.
So he still has both personality and ability – the dude is the leading tackler of the Stoops era – to put on display between now and the draft.
"Hopefully, I can show them I'm a really athletic linebacker, a sideline-to-sideline guy," Lewis told the San Antonio Express-News at the combine, "and a high-energy, high-passion player."
Again, he can still do that. But he'll need to show them more than he did Monday in Indy.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
