Why Utah tackle's career path is similar to Bears' Long
INDIANAPOLIS - One of the more interesting stories coming out of the NFL's Scouting Combine this week is that of Utah offensive tackle Garett Bolles.
As a teenager, the 6-foot-6, 300-pound Bolles was suspended or kicked out of five schools. He was also kicked out of his own home, when his father grew tired of the son's drug use, truancy and recurrent run-ins with the law that eventually resulted in jail time.
But Bolles' high school lacrosse coach, Greg Freeman, and his wife Emily, kept him from homelessness by taking him in and providing structure, discipline and religion.
On the field, Bolles' career path resembles that of Bears guard Kyle Long. Like Long, Bolles got a late start and played just one year of FBS football following two hugely successful years at Snow Junior College. Now he's a married man with a baby boy and could be a first-round draft pick in April.
Bolles has curbed his destructive off-field personality, while maintaining an ideal mindset for an offensive lineman. He says he's a new man.
"When I'm on the field, I want to put people in the dirt," Bolles said at the Combine. "And that's what I'm here for. "As an offensive lineman, you want to be the nastiest (guy) that you can be. Whoever's in front of me, I want to drive them and put them in the dirt. I'm going to try to be that every single day.
"And when I come off the field, I love my family. I just learned how to turn the switch to go back to the new Garett."
Looks the part: At 6-foot-6 and 310 pounds, with long arms, Illinois State guard-tackle Cameron Lee has an NFL body.
But he played at a lower level of competition than most of the other scouting combine attendees, and he'll need to continue to improve his technique and strength to have an NFL career.
Lee has already come a long way after making the ISU team as a freshman walk-on and progressing to all-Missouri Valley Conference honorable mention as a senior. Lee credits ISU coach Brock Spack with improving his mental approach to the game.
"Coach Spack is a very serious guy, a very old-school guy," Lee said. "The biggest thing he helped me with is toughness. Not that I wasn't a tough guy before, but coach Spack really ingrained a blue-collar attitude, a come-to-work and work-hard kind of attitude, That's been a big part of my play style and getting me to this point."
The highlight of Lee's final season was the Redbirds' upset of Northwestern.
"That was one of the coolest experiences of my life," Lee said. "It was the first win over a Big Ten team in school history. To be a part of that team was a surreal feeling."
Strong roots:
LSU center Ethan Pocic will become the latest Lemont High School graduate to play sports professionally, following center David Molk and safety Clayton Fejedelem into the NFL. Pocic's brother Graham was a three-year starter at Illinois.
Ethan Pocic credits his environment with helping him become one of the top three centers in this draft.
"It's a testament to where I'm from," he said. "Blue-collar town, a middle-class town and just the culture of our football team and our sports there, it's all a result of hard work.
"When I got to LSU, I already knew what hard work was. No one had to tell me to to do extra, no one had to tell me 'Don't skip reps.' "
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