Offensive tackle Will Campbell's reach registered at 33 inches

John DeShazier

Baton Rouge The driving force behind many of the NFL personnel and media attending LSU's Pro Day on Wednesday likely was to gather a bit more information on offensive tackle Will Campbell, a projected first-round pick, and tight end Mason Taylor, forecast to possibly be taken in the second or third round.

But running back Josh Williams grabbed a piece of the wheel.

The 5-foot-9, 203-pound former walk-on ran a 4.5-second 40, bench pressed 225 pounds 23 times and posted a 42-inch vertical leap in an eye-catching display that had his former teammates and Pro Day comrades cheering his show.

"A lot of emotions," Williams said of the outburst he had following his 40-yard dash. "It's been a long journey for me in this process of getting ready for this day.

"A lot of doubts from a lot of people, a lot of people that don't think I can run fast thinking I'm a 4.6, possibly a 4.7. I just had that fire in me to prove everybody wrong, anybody that thought I was going to run slow."

Whether he ran himself into a draftable position remains to be seen, but Williams worked himself into being a scholarship player at LSU who played in 60 games, started 17 and ran for 1,494 yards and 17 touchdowns at LSU. He also caught 71 passes for 600 yards and a touchdown.

"I always knew it was going to be this type of journey, by the way I came to LSU," said Williams, who was on the SEC Academic Honor Roll four times and earned two degrees bachelor's in marketing in 2022 followed by a master's in business administration in 2023.

"I understand what LSU means to the state of Louisiana and the respect that they give the players here, and the pride that they have in the team," he said. "So I didn't necessarily want to be given any type of leeway, I wanted to earn what I got and I feel like as time has gone on, I have.

"For me, the process has been great. Just taking everything with a grain of salt, just taking it day by day. It's my first and only time going through this process, so I'm just taking everything and going with the flow, essentially."

Campbell also wanted to show something that his arm length was more than the measured 32 5/8 from the NFL Combine. He checked in at 33 inches Wednesday, and the 2024 All-American didn't see the need to do more.

"There's a lot of people at the Combine that messed up measurements, that's why I really didn't say too much about it other than meeting people, because nobody really bought into it," Cambell said. "And quite frankly, nobody really cares. I knew my arms were 33 inches. That's why I measured in today, even though I didn't do anything because I knew that, that's not right.

"For two years, nobody had any measurements on me, nobody said anything about arm length. So now all of a sudden my arm length is going to decide if I'm a good player or not? I think it's B.S. But any decision-makers in the NFL, they don't really care. It's all people who don't coach, and they don't coach for a reason."

Taylor didn't work out at the Combine because he was in the middle of training but Wednesday he ran a 4.65-second 40 and bench pressed 28 times.

"I was showing a lot of progress in training so I thought it best for me to keep training, come to Pro Day and show out," said Taylor, who caught 129 passes for 1,308 yards and six touchdowns at LSU.

"I think I did that pretty well."