Draft Diary: Stanford LB Trent Murphy details private visits (Part III)

Trent Murphy, who played at Stanford, is projected as one of the top linebackers in the 2014 NFL Draft. Murphy will take you through the process of training for the NFL Combine, his pro day in Palo Alto, Calif., and the anticipation for draft day. (PART I, PART II)

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Ever since my pro day, I have been getting back to my normal training regimen. It’s important that I get back into football shape. I’ve been staying ready for private workouts and my focus is solely on working out and my diet. I’m usually guilty of overtraining, so with all extra time I’m just sticking to the plan of the day and not trying to train too much.

Typically, I’ll work out Monday through Friday and take the weekends off. It’s good to be here at Stanford. The surroundings are familiar and I love being around the locker room.

I have met with roughly 10-15 teams privately and I can say that they’ve all went pretty well.

Right now, I need to always be ready to go on a team visit. The team can decide to schedule a visit at any given moment with my agent. From there my agent will text me and say, “Boom, you’re going here on this day.”

The team will set up the flight. When I arrive at my destination, I’ll get picked up by a team scout and they’ll take me to the hotel to check in.

That night, a makeup of the team’s coaching staff and I will attend a dinner, which usually takes place at a steakhouse. It depends on the team, but they like to get to know the person you are and get a meal in you. It’s meant to be a relaxed, get-to-know-you atmosphere, but as a player in this process, I know that everything is an interview. I try to take advantage of these dinners and ask the coaches questions. I like to let them hear my football intelligence, including my pass-rushing knowledge, and I also like to see how they teach things. I’m going to end up at one of these 32 teams, so I’d like to get something out of these visits and learn more about football. A lot of it is about family and personality, but I always bring up football.

When the head coach is present at the dinner, it adds a little more importance to the dinner, but I’m always trying to make sure I’m leaving a good impression with every member of the staff. At the end of the day, it’s usually the position coach who is pushing for you. After dinner, I head back to the hotel and call it a night.

The next day gets started around 7 a.m. A team scout will arrive at the hotel and we’ll make our way to the facility.

On the car ride over to the facility, I’ve had some scouts forewarn me to not get too big of an expectation about the facility. Usually, college football programs have all the bells and whistles to attract recruits, but in the NFL it’s different. They don’t have to impress anyone. There isn’t a lot about the facilities that are state of the art and some of them haven’t been renovated for years and are quite old. It’s nothing that blows your mind when you walk into the place. A lot of places have a blue-collar feel to it, which I really like and enjoy. I like that some don’t have a lot of flashy things because that’s my style. You can get a good feel for teams and the dynamic of the coaching staff and how they run things.

We’ll usually have breakfast at the facility and then they give you a tour. It almost has a college-recruitment feel to it, except they don’t have to impress you. It’s you that has to impress them. It’s a funny dynamic in that sense. They show you the weight room, training room and where they meet. Meetings with the strength coach and athletic trainer will take place. Then, I’ll usually do another medical check.

The team will make time for me to get on the board to display my knowledge with a few of the defensive coaches present. The visit doesn’t last that long. It’s usually a lot of traveling for a quick trip. On most visits, I’ll be at the facility until noon and then head back to the airport.

With a little over two weeks remaining until the draft, I couldn’t be more excited to find out where I’ll be playing. It seems like it has been a long process, but it’s a dream come true. The anticipation has been building for some time now by my friends, family and coaches to find out where I’m going to be and what team I’ll hopefully be making an impact on.