BYU Football Nearly Ties Program Record For Most Invites To NFL Combine In One Year
Feb 8, 2021, 8:03 PM | Updated: 8:04 pm
HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 16: Zach Wilson #1 of the BYU Cougars congratulates Dax Milne #5 after a fourth quarter touchdown against the Houston Cougars at TDECU Stadium on October 16, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
(Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
PROVO, Utah – BYU football is coming off a banner season this past fall. The Cougars finished 11-1 and were ranked No. 11 in the final AP Top 25.
To win a lot of ball games, you need to have talent, and BYU definitely had that this past season.
It’s confirmed with the number of former BYU players who received invites to the 2021 NFL Combine.
INVITED ✔️#BYUFOOTBALL x #NFL pic.twitter.com/PjgIrtb27g
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) February 8, 2021
A total of six players from BYU received invites to the Combine. One shy of a program-record seven invites set in 2002. The 2021 class ties the 2000 and 1991 classes that also sent six to the Scouting Combine.
The six players include quarterback Zach Wilson, offensive tackle Brady Christensen, wide receiver Dax Milne, tight end Matt Bushman, nose tackle Khyiris Tonga, and cornerback Chris Wilcox.
Three of those six players declared early for the draft after their junior years in Wilson, Christensen, and Milne.
Wilson continues to rise draft boards and is consistently being talked about as potentially the No. 2 quarterback behind Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence. The 6-foot-3 signal-caller passed for 3,692 yards, 33 touchdowns, and only three interceptions in his final year at BYU.
What BYU football players can expect at the NFL Combine
The Combine will look a lot different this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There won’t be any position work taking place in Indianapolis. That will all be handled at BYU’s Pro Day. Instead, the focus will be on interviews with NFL teams and medical checks.
Being invited to the NFL Combine doesn’t guarantee that a player will be selected in the upcoming draft. But it definitely improves the odds. In the 2020 draft, 231 of the 255 draft picks were in attendance at the Combine. In 2002, out of the record seven players from BYU that were invited to the Combine, five were selected in that year’s draft (Doug Jolley, Ryan Denney, Brandon Doman, Luke Staley, Brett Keisel).
Last year, the NFL invited 337 players to the Combine.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m., KSL Newsradio). Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper and the KSL Sports app.
