Colony alum shuttling up draft board

JEREMIAH BARTZ/ Frontiersman sports editor

This weekend Cole Magner will be sitting in his Bowling Green, Ohio, apartment with friends and family, waiting for the telephone to ring.

And if the phone does ring, the call could be from Magner's agent telling him he has just been selected in the National Football League draft.

Magner, who recently completed a four-year career at wide receiver with Bowling Green State University, is among hundreds of college juniors and seniors eligible for the NFL draft. The 2001 Colony High School graduate and former Alaska State Player of the Year hopes to be one of the 255 players selected.

The NFL draft is televised live on ESPN and ESPN2, starting Saturday at 8 a.m. AST.

And if Magner does get selected in one of the draft's seven rounds, it could be due to recent workouts and some eye-opening numbers. Following his junior season, where he broke a pair of school single season records, scouts began to take notice of the Palmer native and his name became included on a list of possible late-round draft choices. Magner suffered an early-season injury during his senior campaign, and still enjoyed a solid season, but his stock did not exactly skyrocket.

But on a pair of scheduled events where Bowling Green seniors worked out for professional scouts, Magner went from just a name on a sheet of draft-eligible players to a wide receiver being noticed by coaches from across the NFL.

On the school's first Pro Day player workout on March 15, Magner ran a blistering 6.49 seconds in the three-cone shuttle run. Magner's time was so alarmingly fast, coaches asked him to do it again, and he ran a 6.42.

For Magner, who runs a modest 4.55 seconds in the 40-yard dash, it was not only his fastest time in the three-cone shuttle run, but the fastest time recorded for any draft- eligible player. Indiana University's Courtney Roby's time of 6.61 seconds was the closest. According to John Murphy of nlscouting.com, no player over 190 pounds had broken 6.9 seconds and there were only seven wide receivers at the NFL Combine - the biggest of all player workouts - who broke 7.0 seconds.

Magner weighed in at 195 pounds prior to the run. Eleven teams were in attendance for the workout, and most of the scouts left following Magner's drills. Only a handful of coaches stayed to watch the final Bowling Green player run through drills.

During the second Pro Day, with coaches from the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts in attendance, Magner ran another 6.42 in the three-cone shuttle and added a time of 3.82 in the short shuttle.

Murphy added in his evaluation of Magner on his Web site, "(Magner's) results should help him garner late round attention."

Magner said his times in the shuttle drills have most certainly allowed his stock with teams to rise. And his speed on the shuttle drills better demonstrate his skills at the wide receiver position.

"That's always what I have been good at," Magner said. "Quickness - getting in and out of cuts. I have never had a great 40, blazing speed. I know my strengths and weaknesses."

Scouts also know his strengths and now Magner is hearing rumors he could be getting that phone call anytime during the second day of the draft, where teams will select in the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds. If not drafted, Magner would be listed as a priority free agent. With the success Magner has earned attention from several NFL teams. He worked out privately for the Colts and Packers. Coaches from Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and the N.Y. Giants have also called.

"Those numbers are tie-breakers," Magner said from his Bowling Green home on Wednesday. "When teams are deciding between players, they use all those things from the Pro Days."

Magner said the coaches and scouts have not told them a lot about where or when he could be selected.

"Things change every day," Magner said. "They just say they hope they can find room for you."

And if he is drafted or signs as a priority free agent, Magner will become just the 10th athlete to play high school football in the state of Alaska to raise an NFL jersey with his name on the back and the first to hail from the Mat-Su Valley.

Reggie Tongue, a Fairbanks native and N.Y. Jets defensive back, is the lone Alaskan currently in the NFL. East graduate Mao Tosi and Service graduate Branden Drumm were both drafted within the last decade and are now out of the NFL.

Two weeks after his senior season, Magner signed with BTI Sports, an agency that represents NFL players such as Minnesota running back Michael Bennett, Philadelphia defensive lineman Hollis Thomas and San Francisco wide receiver Arnez Battle. One of BTI's managing partners is former Notre Dame and Chicago Bears standout Jim Flannigan.

Magner said players don't necessarily find out about agents, agents find out about players. After his junior season, Magner was fielding about two or three calls from agents per week and he narrowed down the list throughout his senior year. He finally settled on the agency he was most comfortable with, BTI, after taking advice from another BTI client, Washington Redskins linebacker Khary Campbell - a former teammate of Magner's at BGSU.

After signing with an agent and declaring for the draft, Magner was introduced to another side of sports - the business end.

"The business side it's different. People get caught up in money and greed," Magner said. "I am not going to be in the position to negotiate contracts. I'm looking to get into the door and play."

While letting his agents shuffle through the business side of preparing for the draft, Magner has focused on his workouts and finishing his academic requirements at BGSU. Magner's agent set him up with an athletic training business in Cleveland and he arranged his schedule to take classes part of the week and work out in Cleveland the remainder of the week.

The trainers, who specialize in the development of the speed and strength of professional athletes, have a client list that has included professional football players Nate Clements, Tony Fisher and Josh Harris and professional basketball player LeBron James. Magner said he trained specifically for the pre-draft speed testing and drills. But now his emphasis is staying in shape.

In addition to his times during the work out, Magner is selling versatility as a strength. He started at wide receiver and saw time at running back, quarterback, punter, kick returner and was the holder on special teams at Bowling Green.

"I want to make it to where I am on every special team, the emergency quarterback, the back up punter, everything," Magner said. "If they cut me, they'll lose a whole lot."