North Carolina State University Athletics
Morehead Deals with New Normal
4/6/2020 11:00:00 AM | Football
Life has changed.
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, nothing today is what you thought it would be even a short month ago.
The changes that college athletes have gone through have been well-documented here and across the nation, but there is a segment of college football players that is really in between a rock and a hard place right now.
Jarius Morehead graduated from NC State last spring and was one of just a few senior starters on the 2019 Wolfpack squad. The three-year starter at safety finished the season and like most seniors do every year, he began to train for the NFL draft.
Morehead began the intense process in December. When he wasn’t one of the select few invited to the NFL Draft Combine, he began working toward a specific date when he wanted to be at the top of his physical performance.
March 25.
NC State’s Pro Day was going to be Morehead and many of his teammates’ day to show NFL teams their skills. On that day - March 25 - every NFL team would be represented and all of the Wolfpack’s draft eligible players would go through the same testing that is done at the combine: speed, agility, strength and position workouts.
To prepare, Morehead worked for long hours every day. Preparing for Pro Day and the NFL basically became his full-time job as he no longer had games to prepare for or classes to study for.
He and several of his former Pack teammates would come to the Murphy Center and Carter-Finley Stadium every day to improve.
“I spend all day studying myself,” he said. “Finding little details that I need to work on.”
On Mondays, he worked on increasing his speed. Tuesdays, change of direction was the focus.
Wednesdays were skill acquisition days. Thursdays were conditioning days and then Friday it was more change of direction work.
“We worked on the techniques of running the 40 and the 5-10-5 drills that you have to run at the combine and pro days,” Morehead said. “We did speed drills and I worked specifically on my hips. It’s just a time to learn and then take what you learn and put it into practice.”
Morehead was disappointed that he didn’t receive an invite to the Combine, but was confident that he would get his chance to showcase his talent on March 25.
“That was going to be my ticket,” he said. “This was my day to show them what I was working on and what I can actually do. It was an audition to show a team that I could’ve been invited to the combine and put up the same numbers and even better.”
But then the world changed.
As COVID-19 began to spread across the country and colleges and universities began shutting down, Pro Day became another event in a long line that was suddenly off the calendar.
Morehead was initially stunned by the development. One of the first things he did was call his close friend Jakobi Meyers – former Wolfpack wide receiver who now plays for the New England Patriots.
“He was the first guy I hit up when I found out out Pro Day was cancelled,” Morehead remembered. “He told me, ‘God’s already written the chapter – just keep your head down and keep working.’
“So I did. I just decided I would have no negative thoughts and I would keep working like I had been.”
God’s already written the chapter – just keep your head down and keep working.
On March 21, Morehead got a glimmer of hope.
The Reese's Senior Bowl tweeted a link to a video entitled “How to Run a Pro Day.” It was a “step-by-step instructional video on how to conduct and film a valid pro-day workout.” Players could upload their videos and then the Senior Bowl would make sure it was disseminated to NFL teams.
??Pro-Day Video??
— Reese's Senior Bowl (@seniorbowl) March 21, 2020
The @SeniorBowl is here to help those prospects, particularly at smaller schools, who’s Pro-Days were cancelled. Link below for a step-by-step instructional video on how to conduct &??to NFL specifications.
??????#TheDraftStartsInMOBILE https://t.co/IGtS9v7EPM pic.twitter.com/Yc2g1gfLEX
Morehead and other former Wolfpack teammates such as Emanuel McGirt and Dexter Wright began planning to film what would become their way of showing the NFL teams virtually what they would’ve seen in person on March 25.
Not optimal, of course, but better than nothing.
All they needed was a field with markings on it.
And then, facilities started closing down. First only small groups could work out in the Murphy Center or at Carter-Finley. Then the campus facilities were completely closed. Same with local gyms, high schools, etc.
Making a video even became a seemingly unsurmountable task.
But Morehead has continued to approach the new normal with a positive attitude.
“One thing I identified that I needed to work on his my hip mobility and moving the right way,” he said. “I’m learning to be more flexible, have balance and have rhythm. How to produce more force.”
Morehead has had several calls from NFL teams and says his focus is just to be ready whenever he gets a call.
“I can’t control the circumstances, but I can control how I respond to them,” he said. “I know that if I keep working hard, it’s all going to work out.”
I can’t control the circumstances, but I can control how I respond to them.
