FanHouse Dorien Bryant

In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 10 of 10 (read Chapter 9 here) installments that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

At 6:35 in the morning, gray mist encircles the stone barracks of West Point. First-year cadets stand in the hallways counting down the minutes until formation, Cadet Caleb Campbell tucks in the corner of his bed, the green cover tight and without wrinkles. He adjusts his hat and steps outside of Eisenhower Barracks room E313. It's 6:39 in the morning. Look quickly across the timeless cadet procession standing in the courtyard, past the parade ground bleachers that say Beat Navy, and it could be any year, any time, but only one place: West Point at morning.

In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 9 of 10 (read Chapter 8 here) installments that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

The corner of Craig Stevens' left eye is twitching. He can't stop it. We're sitting across the table from one another and again and again the eye twitches, a metronome of ocular discomfort.

"Can you see it?" he asks.

"Yeah," I say.

He nods, flexes his arms on the table, "I can't get it to stop. I was really worried about it, but then my girlfriend told me that sometimes your eye can start twitching when you get really stressed."

"Has your eye ever done this? Before a big game or anything like that?" I ask.

"No," Stevens says, "I think it's going to stop as soon as I finish the combine."

In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 6 of 10 installments (read Part 5 here) that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

None of those stresses of the guys I'm training with compares to Army's Caleb Campbell (right), a 6'2" 229 pound safety from Perryton, Texas. His future plans are extraordinarily simple: either he's drafted by an NFL team or he's likely shipped to Iraq as a 2nd Lieutenant. Campbell doesn't announce this to the rest of the guys he's training with. Instead he confides it to me one afternoon as I review his NFL Combine questionnaire. One minute we're talking about Wolf from the new American Gladiators television show, and the next moment Campbell unburdens himself. "I need this Bookman," Campbell says, "or else my ass is headed to Iraq."

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In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis (right) recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 5 of 10 installments (read Part 4 here) that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

The next day's workout begins quietly, Big Mike's absence has left a giant void, literally and figuratively. Kurt Hester senses the change in atmosphere brought on by Michael Oher's departure, and steps up his chatter accordingly. As we're running forty's, Hester encourages us. "This training is all about gaining an inch," he says, "I wish I could gain an inch. It would help my porn career." Greeted with laughter in between sets, Hester continues, "If I could keep gaining inches like you guys are gaining inches, I'd roll out to the bar in athletic shorts, hike my leg up, and say, 'What's up ladies?' "

In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 4 of 10 installments (read Part 3 here) that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

As the days dwindle for Michael Oher (right) to decide whether to leave school early or return to Ole Miss, we end another workout and gather in front of the television. The Program, the 1993 college football movie starring Omar Epps, Halle Berry, and Craig Sheffer, as quarterback Joe Cane, is on the television.

For the first time I feel old since most of these guys were in first or second grade in 1993, when the movie came out. In fact, the majority of the guys haven't ever seen the movie before. As we watch, in one scene the starting quarterback, Joe Cane, complains because his father has never come to see him play a football game. Sitting in a large red chair to the left of the television, Big Mike Oher reacts. "Never come to see him play a football game?" asks Oher, scoffing. "I've only seen my own dad about four times."

They aren't the dregs but nor are they real threats to win the league. They could lose to Iowa State or a MAC team and I will watch their crappy December bowl games pulling for them to win just so everyone can finally shut up about how much the Big Ten suxxxx; I will usually be disappointed about the outcomes of these games. Ladies and gentlemen: the mediocre of the Big Ten. A veritable cornucopia of the average. A smörgåsbord of the typical. A vast array of another noun used to denote something sort of good and sort of bad.

THRILL to the sartorial stylings of Illinois linebackers

BOGGLE at just how Joe Tiller hasn't yanked his starting quarterback over and over the past few years

WONDER what is up with Iowa, anyway? Shouldn't they be better?

All of this... and more! After the jump.