CLEMSON FOOTBALL

Xavier Thomas shows speed, Will Shipley shows athleticism at Clemson Pro Day
Shipley works out at Pro Day (Photo by Merrell Mann).

Xavier Thomas shows speed, Will Shipley shows athleticism at Clemson Pro Day
by - Senior Writer - Thu Mar 14 15:51:23 GMT-04:00 2024

CLEMSON – Xavier Thomas showed his speed, and Will Shipley showed off both his speed and his vertical jump.

Clemson held its annual Pro Day Thursday morning in the Poe Indoor Facility, and all 32 NFL teams were represented. Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and Steelers GM Omar Khan were the two notable names in attendance.

The event was lower-key than in the past – no quarterbacks or wide receivers – but that allowed the focus to be on the Tigers’ smaller group of players. Players that participated (with recorded height and weight) were defensive tackle Tyler Davis (6-2, 300), cornerback Sheridan Jones (6-2, 184), defensive end Justin Mascoll (6-4, 255), defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro (6-4, 293), safety Jalyn Phillips (6-0, 204), offensive lineman Will Putnam (6-4, 301), running back Will Shipley (5-11, 206), defensive end Xavier Thomas (6-2, 253), linebacker Jeremiah Trotter (6-0, 230), and cornerback Nate Wiggins (6-1, 182).

Players participated in the vertical/broad jump, bench press, 40-yard dash, short and 3-cone shuttle, and position drills.

Shipley pulled off a vertical of 38 1/2, the highest of any of the participating players, and posted a 10-2 in the broad jump, tied with Sheridan Jones for the best jump of the day in that event. Thomas posted a 4.55 in his second run of the 40 despite suffering a cramp on his first run. He said he ran a 4.49 in training and wanted to replicate that Thursday.

“I wanted to run a 4.4,” Thomas said. “But my leg cramped up on me after the first run. I hydrated, but I just get too excited. It cramped up on me in the first ten yards. But I was so excited last night. This is a surreal experience. I was supposed to be a three-year guy here, but I am glad I went through what I did here. If I had gone after three years, I would have been two and done.”

Shipley turned in the fastest 40 time of the day at 4.39.

Orhorhoro threw up 29 reps on the 225-pound bench press, tied with Davis, his former roommate and best friend for the most on the day.

“It's been a fun process that's kind of long. I started training in December to now and just think about training for two, three months, just for one or two days to show what you've been training to putting together those three months,” Orhorhoro said. “And I'm not a big social media guy, so I try to stay off that because the mock drafts and stuff they can get in your head. You truly never know what's going to happen that day and you never know who's going to get picked, who's going to get picked where.

“So I try to stay off that stuff and not really focus on it, but I just focus on what I can focus on, and that's myself, and that's getting better as a man and growing spiritually and growing with my faith and with my family and things like that. So those are the things that I harp on. Everything else to take care of itself.”

Cornerback Nate Wiggins didn’t run the 40 after his blistering 4.28 at the NFL Combine. However, he showed good hands during ball drills.

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