ODU’s NFL draft hopefuls put on a show for scouts at pro day

NORFOLK — Vertical jumps. Shuttle runs. Bricks. Chipotle.

Several former Old Dominion football players got complete once-overs from potential employers Friday. Some were more thorough than others.

About 14 players, including one from Virginia State, went through drills and answered questions from 35 NFL scouts and coaches during the Monarchs’ annual pro day under sunny skies at S.B. Ballard Stadium.

Two ex-ODU players, offensive lineman Nick Saldiveri and tight end Zack Kuntz, were giving scouts bonus looks after taking part in the NFL Combine earlier this month.

Others, like long snapper B.R. Hatcher and kicker Dominik Soos, were hoping to catch the eye of just the right coach.

Friday’s workout was the next step in the long process leading up to next month’s draft.

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Old Dominion offensive lineman Nick Saldiveri participates in a drill during pro day on ODU's Kornblau Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium in Norfolk, Va. on Friday, March 24, 2023. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)

“It’s out of my hands now,” said Saldiveri, who raised his profile with a solid performance in last month’s Senior Bowl. “What’s done is done, and I feel like I’ve done what I needed to do. I’m content with the showing that I’ve done throughout the Senior Bowl, combine, pro day.”

The 6-foot-8, 251-pound Kuntz, a transfer from Penn State who was injured for the second half of last season, gained attention with a 4.55-second 40-yard dash at the combine, where scouts were impressed with his athleticism.

“I would definitely say, given my dimensions — my height, weight, all those things — and being able to run fast and jump high obviously caught some people’s eyes,” Kuntz said.

Hatcher, who played his entire college career without botching a single snap, is hoping to be in the right place at the right time. Teams typically only employ one long snapper at a time, making it a matter of a player in Hatcher’s position finding the perfect fit.

“It’s always going to take one set of eyes in the specialist world,” Hatcher said. “There’s got to be some coach willing to pull the trigger on it, so you’ve got to hope you’re on in front of them on that day. It all comes down to that moment. Same way with a last-minute field goal: It don’t matter how many you did in practice. Are you going to do it then?”

Soos, who was a kickoff specialist during college, said he connected on field goals from 55, 58 and 60 yards before the scouts Friday. The native of Budapest, Hungary, was the last player on the field, taking questions from an iPad-wielding scout in the end zone.

Soos (pronounced Showsh) didn’t begin playing football until his senior year in high school after moving to California to be near his brother.

A potential summa cum laude graduate in computer science and math, Soos said he’d consider continuing his studies in graduate school at ODU if he’s unable to land a football job.

“Whatever the universe decides,” Soos said. “There’s a saying that the wolf climbing the hill is hungrier than the wolf at the top. I was always the one that keeps climbing the hill. That’s kind of what drives me: that climbing.”

Part of the pre-draft process for scouts is peppering potential players with questions designed to reveal elements of their personalities. Saldiveri, for instance, was asked by one scout to name uses for a brick. (His answer: Build a house, a well or a stadium.)

Kuntz said he’d been asked a few versions of the following question involving a visit to Chipotle: “You go sit down to a table, and there’s a stack of napkins. They appear to be unused. Are you going to use those napkins or are you going to throw them away?”

“You wonder to yourself, ‘What could they possibly use this information for?’ " Kuntz said. “You don’t want to overthink it sometimes.”

Ultimately, though, he came up with an answer.

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“I’d use them to wipe down the table,” he said.

Whether that helps him get drafted remains to be seen. More likely, his physical gifts and the 73 receptions he had to lead the nation’s tight ends as a junior will win out.

Putting on a good show for the scouts can only help.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to tape,” Kuntz said. “Your tape is your resume.”

For Hatcher, a country boy from rural South Carolina, the prospect of throwing a ball through his legs for money is intriguing.

“That’d be pretty sweet,” he said. “A whole lot better than working for a living. Farming is a whole lot harder than snapping.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com. Twitter@DavidHallVP