“Last week I made a lot of immature decisions going off like that,” Kelly said in reference to his fast-infamous rant. “In the three years that I’ve been here, y’all have never known me to go off like that. It was out of character for me. I take full responsibility.”

That marked an about-face from April 9, when Kelly was timed as slow as 4.75 in his 40-yard dash, then implied OU’s training staff and coaches were in large part to blame.

“Oklahoma gave me an opportunity to be where I am right now,” Kelly said after running anywhere between 4.46 (a time released by his agent’s o0ce) and 4.69 (a time compiled by NFL personnel in attendance) in Wednesday’s series of 40s run for scouts of the Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers and New York Giants.

“It wasn’t any other school that put me out there on Saturdays, trusted me to come in as a freshman and play and get the recognition that I did, gave me a chance for scouts to see what I can do. I have to give all the thanks in that area.

“I apologize again for what was said last week. It was out of frustration.”

It was a frustrating week for all involved.

Kelly’s accusations — that OU moved last week’s workout from the Astroturf of the campus indoor track facility to the field turf of the Everest Training Center, and that there was a discrepancy in the extent of his late-2007 season injury — prompted coach Bob Stoops to interrupt the business of finishing spring practice to defend his program.

“We talked for probably an hour and 15 minutes, a good, long talk,” Kelly said Wednesday.

“In the end, he said he still loved me, told me I was still a great kid. He told me I never gave him any trouble. He said there’s no bad blood between us. I told him I loved him, too. I loved the university. I didn’t mean for it to come out like it did.”

The fact that OU hosted Kelly’s predraft do-over — Kelly ran his 40s on the indoor track as opposed to the field turf — seemed to signal a buried hatchet between the two parties.

But was it too late to undo all of last week’s damage in the minds of NFL personnel?

Pundits suggested Kelly had cost himself as much money with his comments as he had his times last week.

Chad Speck, Kelly’s agent, suggested the reaction across the league was that the rant was “an anomaly.”

He was quick to point out that recent highly drafted wide receivers like Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald, selected No. 3 overall in 2004, had run their 40s in the 4.6 range.

He referenced something Bill Parcells was known to say after crunching a prospect’s stats, time sand assorted numbers: “Can the guy play?”

Speck said Buffalo, supposedly considering Kelly at No. 11 overall, still listed Kelly as its best available wide receiver.

Kelly has visited the Bills.

He met with the Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings after his poor workout last week.

The consensus?

“A lot of coaches said, ‘That guy we saw in the (post-workout) interview is not the same guy our coaches rave about and talk about how good his character and personality are,’” Kelly said.

“A lot of them wanted to check my knee out, make sure my knee was just fine.

I checked out clean on all of those. They were all saying, ‘We know what kind of football player you are, we just want to bring you in and make sure your knee is OK.’

“Everything went well.

They were real encouraging.”

Kelly hopes to meet the same optimism in scheduled visits with the Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers this week.

Then it’s off to Atlanta for a final week of training before heading home to Longview, Texas, for the April 26-27 draft.

Expect the time between now and then to be stressful but very, very quiet.

“I can tell you that’ll never happen again,” Kelly said of his week-old mistake. “Never happen again.”

Guerin Emig 581-8355
guerin.emig@tulsaworld.com

A tale of two workouts

A comparison of Malcolm Kelly’s pre-NFL draft workouts at Oklahoma:

(Results gathered from pro personnel in attendance)

April 9

(Everest Training Center/ field turf surface)

40-yard dash: 4.75 and 4.68 seconds

Vertical jump: 32 inches

Broad jump: 9 feet, 9 inches

Short shuttle: 4.24 seconds

3-cone drill: 7.0 seconds

Bench press: not done

Number of NFL teams in attendance: 25

April 16

(Mosier Indoor Facility/Astroturf and track surfaces)

40-yard dash: 4.69, 4.63 seconds

Vertical jump: 31 inches

Broad jump: 10 feet, 2½ inches

Short shuttle: 4.13, 4.22 seconds

3-cone shuttle: 7.06, 6.82 seconds

Bench press: 14 reps of 225 pounds

Number of NFL teams in attendance: 3