OXFORD — Kennedy Masoli stood with his video camera in his right hand.
His son, Jeremiah, was a few seconds away from his first 40-yard sprint in front of the 24 NFL scouts that came to Ole Miss’ pro day Tuesday. The proud father pointed his camera all the way down his son’s sprint, then looked up from the viewfinder when it was over to see his yellow-shoed son decelerate past the orange cones.
Everywhere Jeremiah went Tuesday morning, Kennedy, wearing an untucked red polo shirt, followed with his video camera. He had flown in from his Daly City, Calif., home on Monday just for the occasion — another one in the long, sometimes celebrated, sometimes narrow road to his son’s dream of the NFL. Kennedy talked and smiled and laughed with about everyone he saw; he even went to the former Rebels prepping for their 40-yard sprints and encouraged them to lighten up a bit. Clearly, Kennedy was in a good mood — both for Tuesday, and for what’s to come with his son’s football future.
And Jeremiah?
“As ready as he can be, nervous or not,” Kennedy Masoli said.
This scene on Sundays?
Jeremiah Masoli was the last one on the field Tuesday, peppering some of his old Ole Miss teammates with pass after pass as some scouts stayed to watch. The final two things he did were telling: He lined up in the backfield and caught swing passes, one in each direction.
He said teams were having “different answers” for his question about how he’d be used. “A couple of teams might use me in their scheme as a running back, a wildcat guy, or other guys are talking about QBs only,” he said. “It varies.”
One thing doesn’t vary: He wants any shot he can get, but he’d love to play quarterback.
“I’m a QB at heart,” he said. “I’m also a baller at heart, so any position, I’d take it.”
Masoli said “a strong six” teams have been talking to him, but he wouldn’t name them. He was realistic about what they were telling him. “Late round, priority free agent,” he said. “You get all sorts of different stuff from 32 teams.” Masoli hasn’t been taking it lightly. He spent much of the past few weeks training near his agent in Arizona; he flew to Mississippi Friday to prep on-site for Tuesday’s pro day, his father said.
But nothing he did Tuesday changed the big question: Can Jeremiah Masoli make it in the NFL?
Masoli is listed as 5-foot-11, 220 pounds. So Masoli relies often on his athleticism — being elusive, really — to create things outside of the pocket. If that means he runs, he runs. If that means he slings a pass out on the run, that’s what he does. It’s good for college. But in the pro game? Well, here’s what the Los Angeles Times‘ Chris Dufresne wrote in 2009: “Jeremiah Masoli is the kind of quarterback college football loves and the National Football League recommends to the Toronto Argonauts.”
The website NFLDraftScout.com projects Masoli as the 38th best quarterback available in the draft. It also says he’s the 702nd best player in the draft. There are 32 teams times seven rounds. You do the math. (OK, I will: That’s 224. Last year, with compensatory picks added, 255 players were chosen.)
The draft is April 28-30.
Masoli has one player on his side: Kansas City Chiefs receiver/returner Dexter McCluster, the former Ole Miss star.
“Definitely,” he said, asked about Masoli’s chances to make an NFL roster. “You can see he’s a ballplayer. Wherever it’s going to be, whether it’s quarterback, whether it’s whatever, if you’re a ballplayer, you can play football no matter where you’re going to be put. You see he has the leadership. I saw that a lot. He really stepped in and became that leader for Ole Miss. And he has that passion for the game. I think he’ll be OK.”
Masoli, who said he felt Tuesday’s pro day “went OK,” will now go back to his San Francisco bay area home to train and wait for draft day. “That’s pretty much the plan for most of us,” he said. But with him, it’s been a long route to get to this long wait.
