Running backs have enough to worry about each play that they aren’t too concerned with the opposing team’s personnel, especially not in an all-star game like the Senior Bowl earlier this month, where players constantly rotate in and out of the lineup.
Bhayshul Tuten quickly noticed the heat-seeking missile tracking from his right on a second-quarter carry, however. How could he not? The defensive tackle jumped the snap, shot the gap, beat a late-arriving center and had Tuten wrapped up and on the ground in less than a second.
The kicker? It was Virginia Tech teammate Aeneas Peebles who’d just committed a bit of Hokie-on-Hokie crime.
“I saw him come through, I was like, ‘Oh, shit!’” Tuten said with a laugh. “After, I was like, ‘Dang, bro. You’re going to jump it that fast on me?’ But it was all good.”
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That’s life on the showcase circuit, however, where everyone’s trying to make a name for themselves in the leadup to the NFL Draft. Tuten, Peebles, receivers Da’Quan Felton and Jaylin Lane and cornerback Dorian Strong were the five Virginia Tech players in Mobile, Alabama, a few weeks ago for the Senior Bowl, a great opportunity to get in front of personnel from all 32 NFL teams.
One of three mileposts in the leadup to the draft, along with the NFL Combine and each school’s pro day, the Senior Bowl is the only event that involves some actual football, with participants strapping on the pads for real, even if it’s just a showcase game.
“You’ve been training for a combine and stuff and all that, so it’s really like a track-based workout,” said Tuten, who last played a game two months earlier in Tech’s win against UVa. “So just being able to go back and go between the lines and play actual football and practice felt good.”
A jam-packed week
Though the game took place on Saturday, Feb. 1, it’s a weeklong event in Mobile for players at Hancock Whitney Stadium at the University of South Alabama.
Tuten arrived the Sunday before, on Jan. 26, flying in from his training facility in Miami. Players register the first day and go through a bit of orientation, with Monday devoted to measurements (the running back checked in at 5-foot-8½, and 211 pounds) and meet-and-greets. New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka led Tuten’s National Team, with Green Bay pass game coordinator Jason Vrable handling the offense and Broncos offensive quality control coach Favian Upshaw in charge of the running backs.
Three days of practices — perhaps the most important part of Senior Bowl week — got underway Tuesday, with Tuten having four goals in mind.
“Show those scouts that I could run routes, that could catch the ball and that I could pass block were my three main goals,” he said. “Then showing them that I was healthy.”
Two months of rehab work and training put Tuten in top physical shape, fully recovered from the ankle injury that pestered him in the second half of the Hokies’ season. The rest he put on display in a series of drills.Tuten’s skills with the ball in his hands were evident in his time in Blacksburg, but pass protection is an even bigger part of the pro game. He showed off that tool in drills, standing up Oregon’s Jeffrey Bassa on one rep.
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He was his usual elusive self, nimbly dancing around a few defenders in a different rep and showing a burst as he reached the second level on another.
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Everything is measured at the Senior Bowl, with scouts and game officials touting some superlatives throughout the event. On the second day, Tuten topped the speed leaderboard at 19.75 mph.
“I thought, oh, that’s cool, but it wasn’t my focus,” he said. “I was just coming out there trying to work. I wasn’t surprised.”
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Practices felt more intense than just a normal workout from the fall, with so many top-end players showing out for what amounts to a job interview.
“It’s more high-caliber players,” Tuten said. I think the biggest difference was they were just faster, guys getting to the hole. They did a pretty good job of practice, only tagging off and not tacking or anything like that. No one’s on the ground. So trying to practice like a professional is kind of what we were doing.”
Everything was geared toward giving players a taste of the pros, from the practice style to the coaching staffs to the playbooks, which weren’t overbearing in their complexity, to give the teams a fighting chance to put together something that looked cohesive after just a week’s worth of practice. They were spoken in an NFL language, though, with lengthy, position-specific terminology.
“Our coaches just did a good job of harping on the details of the plays and what they mean,” said Tuten, who picked it up quickly. “Just helping us mentally understand it better, more than physically.”
Days went long, from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., so downtime was sparse. Still, Tuten got to hang out at lunch with the Virginia Tech crew and especially enjoyed some of the team activities.
Friday was more of a fun day, with a morning Topgolf outing. Tuten played in a pod that included Peebles, Felton and Illinois wideout Pat Bryant. Back at the field that afternoon, the players swapped sides so they could get to know the other coaching staff, before they participated in a Mardi Gras parade that night, throwing out beads, shakers and candy to onlookers on a five- or six-block route.
“I’ve been in parades before, but not like that,” Tuten said. “That was at like a different level.”
‘Making your plays count’
No Senior Bowl takes place without the traditional sticker swap, with players trading helmet decals with whoever they can, livening up their lids with some unusual logo pairings.Tuten bonded during practices with Syracuse running back LeQuint Allen, who he discovered was a fellow New Jersey native. A few players wanted to keep their collection to the ACC, so Tuten wound up with two new but familiar logos on his helmet — a Wolfpack emblem from NC State offensive lineman Anthony Belton and a Syracuse one courtesy of his new buddy Allen.
“He asked for my sticker, so I said, why not?” Tuten said. “Two Jersey guys, two ACC guys that dominated.”
When game time arrived, everybody knew opportunities were going to be limited. It was an all-star game, after all, and each team had six running backs, with Tuten’s National squad also featuring Allen, Miami’s Damien Martinez, Michigan’s Donovan Edwards, Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon and USC’s Jo’quavious “Woody” Marks. (Though Martinez and Edwards didn’t play.)
Tuten got his first opportunity late in the first quarter — and it was abrupt. LSU defensive end Sai’vion Jones darted past his blocker off the edge and met the tailback as soon as he got the handoff for a 2-yard loss.
“Guys are on that level for a reason,” Tuten said.
He didn’t get another shot with the ball in his hands until the second quarter, when he was greeted by Peebles, who’d been on the National team all week but flipped to the American side for the game because it was short on defensive tackles.
Tuten finally got some positive yards on the next play on a swing pass to the left with Lane as his leading blocker. The throw was a bit ahead of him, but the tailback caught it — about four or five times. He tipped it up to himself, eventually reeling it in and ripping off a 5-yard gain.
Even though he caught 50 passes for 320 yards and four touchdowns in two seasons with the Hokies, Tuten still felt like he needed to show off his pass-catching chops on this stage.
“There were a couple question marks on if I could catch the ball out of the backfield really well,” he said. “But not dropping a ball all practice and in the game, I think they saw that I can catch and that question mark is no longer there.”
Tuten’s best carries came in the second half. He powered through a defender at the line on a third-quarter run, churning out four yards. He added a 3-yard run with a broken tackle in the fourth and caught a pass that went seven yards.
In all, he had five carries for a net of minus 1 yard (thanks to those pesky defensive linemen blowing up plays) and two catches for 12 yards. It was a limited day of work, as it was for everyone, but concluded a week he felt was productive.
“Nobody was coming out really thinking they were going to get a ton of plays,” Tuten said. “It was just going in there and making your plays count.”
Back in the lab
There was no time to dawdle after the game concluded around 4:30 p.m. Tuten headed straight to the Mobile airport for a 6:30 p.m. flight back to his training site in Miami. After getting back at midnight, he chilled out all day Sunday, then got back in the facility Monday, de-loading after the week of practices by getting treatment and massages and doing stretching and pool work to get his body back in tip-top shape.
There’s no rest for the weary, though, and little time to waste, with Tuten being one of six Hokies who grabbed invitations to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis in late February and early March.
“It’s pretty much just locking in, pure training,” Tuten said. “Critiquing some stuff within the combine. That’s the next thing that’s coming up, so that’s what we’re focused on full throttle here: lifting, running, 40s, shuttle, broad jump, all that stuff."
It’s work — this is going after a job, after all — but Tuten’s loving every minute of it.
“Working out is something that I’ve been doing since I was young, so it’s second nature,” he said. “I’m always happy working out. Football is another thing that I just love to do.
“So I don’t really see it as a work or job. I really see it as I’m going out there doing something that I love to do and I get the opportunity to do it. It’s kind of a positive light in my eyes.”