PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – There were several good performances and eyes opened, but no one put the numbers together during Pitt Pro Day on Wednesday like linebacker Brandon George.
It starts for these NFL Draft hopefuls with getting weighed and measured in the Panthers weight room at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. They then moved to the bench press. Several put up big numbers including offensive lineman Branson Taylor bench pressing 225 points 25 times.
Then George st on the bench, laid on his back and went to work. He just rolled through 20 reps like he was pushing air from his chest towards the ceiling. It wasn’t until the last one or two where he really appeared to struggle at all. George wasn’t even aware of the number until it was over.
“I heard 28, I was like, ok, I can deal with this,” George said.
That’s pushing 225 pounds off his chest 28 times, which didn’t reach what NFL defensive linemen Aaron Donald or Jaylen Twyman did, but George is a linebacker.
He would then do what Donald and Twyman didn’t, he jumped a 42.5” vertical, best of any Panthers player and ran an unofficial 4.6 40-yard dash, which is third fastest among the former Pitt players.
“I saw it for the last three months, so I knew exactly what was going to happen today,” said Pitt teammate Nate Matlack. “I think he didn’t even do as good as he thought he would have, that tells you something. I knew he was going to perform well and probably be the best one out here.”
George credited having Matlack as a training partner. He said it is so valuable to get up in the morning and know you have someone pushing you. They would compete every day, no doubt helping the other when it may have been a day you didn’t want to go. George thought both prepared for Wednesday with a chip on their shoulder.
“I feel I did well overall,” George said. “I feel like I showed my athleticism. I feel like I showed that even though I am 246 pounds, I can still move well. Overall, I feel good about what I did today, I hope everyone else did too.”
That’s the trick, to make sure you open the eyes of the NFL.
“Obviously I’m not the top linebacker off the board I’m not delusional to that,” George said. “But I feel like the ability I have to play special teams that I’ve been playing in Pittsburgh definitely helps my case because some teams think I may not be a guy that’s drafted, but I’m a guy that will stick because I’m willing to do special teams in all phases.”
George has been at Pitt since 2019. He’s seen a lot, through COVID-19 to an ACC Championship to a final season where he was named captain.
“This place has done a lot for me,” George said. “It’s somewhere I’ve grown up. I became a man here at this university. I gained a solid degree from this university.
I credit the coaching staff and support staff here.”
“You can’t really put into words how thankful I was that I came here.”
Now he’s looking for someone else to take a chance on him.