Cal Pro Day: Craig Woodson, Teddye Buchanan. Nohl Williams Perform for NFL Scouts

Golden Bears cornerback Marcus Harris wows pro officials with his blistering 40-yard dash time of 4.38 seconds

Cal safety Craig Woodson / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Cal cornerback Marcus Harris was the star of Cal Pro Day on Thursday, running a blistering 40-yard dash time of 4.38 seconds. And offensive lineman T.J. Sessions impressed NFL scouts with his strength by pumping out 30 repetitions on the 225-pound bench press.

But the three Cal players who attracted the most attention on Pro Day at Memorial Stadium -- cornerback Nohl Williams, safety Craig Woodson and linebacker Teddye Buchanan -- only participated in drills.

.Harris' 40-yard dash

Woodson did not run a 40-yard dash at Thursday’s Cal Pro Day at Memorial Stadium. He didn’t need to.  He had proved at the NFL Combine last month that he was more than adequate in the one category in which pro scouts had doubts about him:

Speed.

At the Combine, Woodson was clocked in 4.45 seconds in the 40, which is more than good enough for a safety whose strengths are his intuition and field intelligence.

“They all didn’t expect me to run that fast,” said Woodson of the feedback he got at the Combine, “but I already knew I had it in me. It was all good feedback, though. I think I’m really putting myself in good position.

“That was really the one thing I had to prove, that I could run. I read some stuff sometimes, they kind of ding me for my speed, but I got speed and I showed that at the Combine.”

Woodson was one of 16 players from Cal’s 2024 team that participated in Cal’s Pro Day, and three of them have a chance to get taken in next month’s NFL draft.

Like Woodson, the Golden Bears' two other draft possibilities, cornerback Nohl Williams and linebacker Teddye Buchanan, chose not to participate in the long jump or the 40-yard dash on Thursday, having already done so at the Combine in Indianapolis.

However, all three took part in a number of drills so the many NFL scouts on hand could judge their movement, flexibility and any number of issues.

Nohl Williams (3) and Craig Woodson in a short shuttle drill:

“I just wanted to show I’m a fluid mover,” said Buchanan, “show my ball skills and show that I’m an overall great athlete, and I feel I was able to do that."

He also joked that his short hair makes him more aerodynamic than he was with the long hair he had while playing linebacker at Cal. (Actually he just lets it grown long periodically, then cuts it off.)

His 40 time of 4.60 seconds, 40-inch vertical jump and 10-feet-5-inches broad jump at the Combine showed enough to scouts.  He wanted to reinforce his fluidity in the drills Thursday.

Buchanan in the short shuttle drill

Like Woodson, Buchanan might  be taken on the third day of the draft when rounds four through seven are held.

Williams is likely to go in Day 3 too, although there is an outside chance he will go in the third round on Day 2.

With that in mind there was speculation that Williams might choose to run a 40 on Thursday, hoping to improve his 4.50 time at the Combine.  But he didn’t, knowing that speed is adequate to be an NFL cornerback.

Instead, he like Buchanan and Woodson, participated only in the shuttle runs and pass-defense skills events.

Woodson and Buchanan in back-pedal pass defense drill

The top long jumps of the day were turned in quarterback Chandler Rogers and cornerback Harris, who each jumped 10 feet even.

Harris has only an outside chance of getting drafted in the late rounds, but he he certainly helped himself with his speedy 40 time and his 36.5-inch vertical jump as well as his 10-foot borad jump.

Other Cal athletes who participated in Pro Day were outside linebacker Xavier Carlton, kicker Ryan Coe, defensive lineman Ricky Correia, outside linebacker Cheikhsaliou Fall, cornerback Lu-Magia Hearns III, defensive back Matthew Littlejohn, defensive lineman Darius Long Jr., offensive lineman Rush Reimer, offensive lineman T.J. Session, offensive lineman Victor Stoffel, and punter Lachlan Wilson.

Coe attempted a field goal from 61 yards out but it went wide left.

Recent articles:

Former Cal linebacker Ron Rivera officially named general manager of the football prtogram, a new position