Terry Hawthorne Runs A 4.44 Forty-Yard Dash

Yesterday we took a look at the results of Akeem Spence, Michael Buchanan and Hugh Thornton in the NFL Combine and today it's Terry Hawthorne's turn. So far the most impressive display put on by any Illini at the combine was Akeem getting down on the bench press, lifting 225 pounds 37 times, which was the third most of any player at any position in Indianapolis.

And while Terry didn't quite grade that high in any of the drills, he did give an impressive performance in the 40-yard dash.

Hawthorne clocked in at 4.44 seconds. That's pretty damn fast, and to be honest, it's faster than I thought Terry would check in at. That was good enough to finish in a tie for 13th amongst all the defensive backs, with Mississippi State's Darius Slay putting up the best time at 4.36.

Still, to give you an idea of how impressive Terry's run was, LSU's Tyrann Mathieu ran a 4.50. So The Black Cat is faster than the Honey Badger.

As for how he did in other drills, Hawthorne had a vertical leap of 35.5 inches, did 13 reps on the bench press and had a 116-inch broad jump.

Having seen Hawthorne run a couple of other drills, I'd say he looked impressive overall. He's going to need some work on his backpedaling as he was a bit back on his heels while doing it, but these are things that can be fixed with coaching.

All in all I'm not sure anything Terry has done today will truly improve his draft stock, but it's safe to say that he's going to be drafted in the early to mid-rounds.

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