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MORGANTOWN -- On paper, the "Baddest Man in Morgantown" is slow.
At the NFL Combine in Indianapolis earlier this month, West Virginia University running back Leddie Brown ran the second-worst 40-yard dash time among all running backs: 4.64 seconds. At the Mountaineers' pro day yesterday, he opted to skip the drill.
Simply put, he's not worried about it.
"I was just going to stand on my combine 40," Brown said, "and my film speaks for itself."
Whether or not that was a wise decision, the answer won't be known until late next month when the 2022 NFL Draft is scheduled to take place.
According to WalterFootball's rankings, Brown is currently the 20th best at the position -- likely to be chosen in rounds five to seven, if at all -- while Pro Football Focus has him as the 29th best. Ahead of him are the likes of Breece Hall, Kennedy Brooks and Abram Smith -- all fellow Big 12 rushers.
Unfortunately for Brown, each of them put up much better stats last season, besting him in total rushing yards, yards per carry and yards per game.
Still, with the deck stacked against him, Brown remains undeterred.
"Not really nervous, I'm really confident in my abilities," Brown said. "If I go drafted, if I go undrafted, whatever team picks me up, they're gonna be picking up a big-league back. I'm a back that can do it all and play special teams and contribute to any team the way I can."
Six players in all
In addition to Brown, five others participated in WVU's pro day: safeties Alonzo Addae, Sean Mahone and Scottie Young, as well as kicker Evan Staley and punter Tyler Sumpter. Among the participants, Brown finished first with a 36.5-inch vertical jump. He also had the best 20-yard shuttle time, finishing in 4.21 seconds.
Of those running the 40-yard dash, Mahone finished with the top time of 4.56 seconds. That number would place him 14th overall in comparison to the 15 safeties who ran at the NFL Combine.
"I feel good," Mahone said at the conclusion of the event. "I've been training hard ever since February -- everybody's been training hard. I just felt good today. I felt very excited, pumped, and I tried to give it my all today."
Addae finished the 3-cone drill in 7.01 seconds, also tying Mahone with a 9-foot-8-inch broad jump.
QB play 'up and down' in practice
Nobody expects Neal Brown to name a starting quarterback after only four practices, which is good because the group's early performance is still inconclusive.
According to WVU's fourth-year head coach, redshirt sophomore Garrett Greene has been the most consistent and "he probably hasn't had as many highs or as many lows as the other guys." Freshman Nicco Marchiol struggled on Saturday, but bounced back yesterday. Redshirt sophomore Will "Goose" Crowder has also been up and down.
"Overall, what you want to do is you want to get probably into the double-digit practices before you really have a feel of what they're doing," Brown said.
The Mountaineers will practice Thursday and Saturday of this week, and have a total of 11 spring practices remaining.