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Rome Was Not Built in a Day, As He Demonstrated at the NFL Combine

The former Husky receiver worked late into the night to meet his goals.
Dan Raley|
Rome Was Not Built in a Day, As He Demonstrated at the NFL Combine
Rome Was Not Built in a Day, As He Demonstrated at the NFL Combine

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As far as anyone knows, Rome Odunze did not sleep overnight at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, yet he was still in the building fairly late.

On Saturday, after all of the other NFL Scouting Combine participants had left, the former University of Washington wide receiver was still pushing himself, vowing to stay until he reached a target time of 6.6 seconds in a cone drill.

About a dozen people watched, including an NFL Network broadcast crew, amazed at Odunze's persistence, especially with him being a consensus All-America selection and a projected top 10 draft pick.  

Otherwise, a man walked past, pushing a Gatorade cart across the field to pack it away somewhere. Others across the field appeared to be disassembling stages that were set up for the four-day event. It was last call at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Odunze continued to work at his craft, a factor that has NFL execs and scouts overly enthused about him. While others such as Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. didn't take part in the combine, this UW player with so much personality and little ego did and said anything people wanted to see see and hear from him while in Indiana.

In that nagging three-cone drill, set up in the shape of a triangle, players run back and forth in a straight line, then head for a trip around a third cone. 

Odunze kept tipping over that outlier cone, which prevented him from reaching his desired time, at least through five attempts. Whether or not he hit 6.6, he won a lot of high marks for not giving in so easily.

Once the combine finishes up, the talented receiver and his Husky teammates will return to Seattle for their UW Pro Day event at the end of the month, with the NFL Draft about seven weeks away.

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Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on X — @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation. Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook — at Inside the Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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