Thread: Twixt First Day and Draft Day................

Interesting shots and stats of how 2011 draft picks have bulked up during the course of their college careers. The first shot of Von Miller is a good one. From a skinny HS player into the #2 pick in the NFL draft. Gabe Carimi gained 47lbs between his frosh and senior years.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footbal...n=ncaaf-wp1188

Wed May 04 07:27am EDT
Von Miller, then and now: How recruits grow (and grow some more) into draft picks, by the numbers

By Matt Hinton






Jon Lee, editor of Texas A&M's official athletics site, dipped into the archives earlier this week to compare Von Miller, the 210-pound freshman who showed up in College Station in 2007, to Von Miller, the 240-pound All-American who was taken with the second overall pick in last week's NFL draft. The difference … well, you can see the difference. Note that Miller's weight-training program as a senior consisted of hauling around his little black book of coed phone numbers, little being the operative word.

By Division I standards, however, the transformation is fairly typical for the 99 percent of players who don't arrive on campus looking like a pro from Day 1. Including Miller, more than half of this year's first-round picks gained at least 25 pounds between signing day and draft day, and a handful of the linemen put on twice that. Two of the more unheralded prospects who turned themselves into first-day studs, Wisconsin defensive end J.J. Watt (a former walk-on who originally signed with Central Michigan; pictured bottom right) and Colorado offensive tackle Nate Solder (a converted tight end), added some 65 pounds apiece from the beginning of their careers to the end.

The full accounting of modern strength and conditioning programs is below the jump, with one very clear, very important lesson: Whatever you do in life, never, ever get between Nick Fairley and a buffet. Or between Nick Fairley and anything, really.
All recruiting weights by Rivals; click on the highlighted numbers for each player's original recruiting profile.
PickPlayerRecruiting WeightDraft WeightChange PickPlayerRecruiting WeightDraft WeightChange1Cam Newton232247+15 17Nate Solder240305+652Von Miller210240+30 18Corey Liuget260300+403Marcell Dareus277306+29 19Prince Amukamara180200+204A.J. Green184207+23 20Adrian Clayborn247285+385Patrick Peterson193211+18 21Phil Taylor346355+96Julio Jones215211—4 22Anthony Castonzo260295+357Aldon Smith235255+20 23Danny Watkins290310+208Jake Locker210226+16 24Cameron Jordan250282+329Tyron Smith260285+25 25James Carpenter305300—510Blaine Gabbert226240+14 26Jonathan Baldwin233225—811J.J. Watt220285+65 27Jimmy Smith175210+3512Christian Ponder202227+25 28Mark Ingram195215+2013Nick Fairley257314+57 29Gabe Carimi268315+4714Robert Quinn245270+25 30Muhammad Wilkerson255300+4515Mike Pouncey280310+30 31Cameron Heyward264288+2416Ryan Kerrigan233263+30 32Derek Sherrod298305+7- - -