ATHENS, Ga. — In the case of tailback Elijah Holyfield, the numbers apparently don't lie.
At UGA's Pro Day on Georgia's campus, before a large gathering of NFL scouts, executives and media, Holyfield's 40-yard-dash times ran similar to his so-so figures at last month's Scouting Combine – posting a range of 4.76 to 4.85 seconds.
(NOTE: The Tuesday times were unofficially gauged on hand-held devices.)
With this middling consistency, Holyfield — who left Georgia after his junior campaign — must now convince NFL teams that he's worth a Day 2 or 3 selection. This, despite logging times closer to those of tight ends or nimble offensive linemen, instead of this year's crop of lightning-fast tailbacks.
For example, eight different tailbacks notched sub-4.5 40s in Indianapolis. They were Justice Hill (4.40), Mike Weber, Darrell Henderson, Karan Higdon and Miles Sanders, to name a few.
Of course, some teams might be indifferent about Holyfield’s Tuesday results, since he possesses a power-rushing skill set that translates better to on-field action ... than a track-style setup.
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On the down side, other teams might not prefer Holyfield (1,018 rushing yards, 7 TDs last year, while averaging 6.4 yards per carry) in the latter rounds, since he wasn’t particularly dynamic in the pass-catching realm (seven total receptions in a three-year span).
From a numbers-comp perspective, Holyfield (5-foot-10, 217 pounds) and former Saints tailback Mark Ingram tallied similar ranges with 40 time, bench press, broad jump and vertical leap.
Charting his 2011 Combine results, Ingram had a better vertical (31 1/2 inches) and 40 time (4.62 seconds), but Holyfield enjoyed the edge with bench press (26 reps of 225 pounds).
The broad jump tallies were identical, at 118 inches.
