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View the profile for Ben Grubbs | View all Blogs

I had a pretty good experience at the combine. Much like at the Senior Bowl we got to be around the whole NFL environment once again. I felt as though everything from the psychological testing to the team interviews went well. The wonderlic wasn't bad. I think I did pretty well on it but I haven't received my results yet.

The medical was a long day. If they had a question about anything at all, they'd do an MRI on it. I was doing well until the very last station when they asked if I had ever had a groin injury. I said I had and that was it. They wanted to do an MRI on it. I had to go to the hospital for two hours to get that done. I had never had a MRI before. You have to fit in a tiny hole and we were so big we couldn't fit our arms in there. So we had to lay in there with our arms hanging out. It was very uncomfortable and you had to stay in there for a little over an hour for them to take all of the pictures. If you move, it messes the whole thing up. That was a rough day for me but I don't think anything came up in my medical that anyone would question.

I interviewed with 19 teams. Eight of my interviews were on the first day and the other eleven were on my second day. I think I did well on the interviews. All of the teams seemed to be interested in me. A few teams jumped out at me, but for the most part they all said I had a great season. They said I was a great guy, and that they were looking forward to seeing what I could do out on the field the last day.

As for workouts, I had 29 reps on the bench press and I ran a 5.18. I had a 27 1/2 inch vertical but I don't recall what my three-cone or my shuttle times were. I think I did well, but my numbers were about average. I believe I can do better and I plan on going out at my pro day and doing everything again. When the time came for positional drills, I was the first guy to do each drill, which was challenging. But I felt as though I did well. Right now I'm just getting ready for my pro day which is next monday. Hopefully I can improve upon some of my combine numbers.

After our bowl game, I flew back to Atlanta. I got back to my hotel around 11:30. I didn't really want to take any time off. I was ready to jump right back into training. I began that the very next morning. I trained all the way up until two days before leaving for the Senior Bowl. I took those two days off because I felt I needed it to give my body a rest. I got a massage. That was the first time I've ever had a massage so that was great. I basically just took care of my body before I went to the Senior Bowl.

I arrived in Mobile, Alabama on Sunday. We had to do alot of psychological test taking, looking at different shapes and sizes. We took alot of those tests are they consisted of about 100 questions per test. We had an orientation for the Senior Bowl to welcome us in and we also weighted in on Monday. I measured in at 6-3 315. The first couple nights when the NFL scouts were there we did interviews. I interviewed with about 15 teams. Each night I started my interviews around 7:30 and I didn't get back to my room till around 11:30. That was pretty stressful. I was nervous and didn't really know what they were going to ask. But I think I did well in that area.

We started practice on Monday. We practiced in helmets and shoulder pads the first day. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we practiced in full pads. Thursday was just helmets and Friday was the walkthrough. Practices were similar to our practices back at Auburn, but they were very intense. I had to learn alot of different techniques and polish up my fundamentals. We worked with the San Francisco staff and my coach was Coach Warhop. Some of the things I thought I was doing right may have been right for Auburn, but they were wrong for San Francisco. I had to change my stance and how I set to different techniques (nose tackle or three technique). It was kind of like learing football all over again, but it was fun.

At the game a guy came up to me and told me I was the Offensive MVP for the South Team. I didn't believe him at first. I thought he was just joking with me. He said it was real and that I had to come with him after the game. I'm very thankful for that. I worked hard during the week and I'm just glad that all that hard work paid off.

Now that I'm back from the Senior Bowl, I'm back to my old workout schedule. The everyday schedule for me is working out five days a week. Monday and Tuesday we do our normal workout. Then on Wednesday we have what is called the pool workout, which is probably the most intense workout we have here at Competitive Edge Sports. Thursday and Friday we are back to our normal workouts again. Then we get Saturday and Sunday off.