Bellore ‘anxious’ for NFL Scouting Combine

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Forget his name, Central Michigan’s Nick Bellore simply is linebacker No. 2 starting Friday night at the NFL Scouting Combine.

He is just a number to the hundreds of NFL scouts and executives taking in the annual prospect prodding at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, which started Thursday. Not to mention the estimated total of media members present, which is expected to exceed 400.

He will be the second linebacker to do every drill during group work, as he is the second to UCLA’s Akeem Ayers alphabetically in the group.

Bellore picked up the phone Wednesday night and sternly said he is “anxious” for the weekend to begin before a question was even posed.

“I can’t say I’m super nervous,” said the native of Whitefish Bay, Wis., who expects to measure in at 6-foot-1, 250 pounds. “I’m sure I’ll have some butterflies.”

Still at his apartment in Bradenton, Fla., on Wednesday — a place he compared to The Village at Bluegrass in Mount Pleasant — the CMU senior linebacker left early today for Indianapolis, as all linebackers will report tonight.

He carries a different 250 pounds than when he left CMU in December, though. That, he said, can be credited to the work he put in at IMG Academy.

“I look different at the same weight, so that’s a good thing,” said Bellore, who boastfully said he has pretty good size for the position. He is one of just four linebackers that are projected to weight in heavier than 250 pounds, according to NFL.com.

Bellore said he will have dinner upon arriving Friday night, with weigh in, a drug screening and other medical screenings scheduled for Saturday.

“The biggest chunk of time that you’re there for, you’re doing medical stuff,” he said. “You could be at the hospital getting checked out for up to eight hours.”

He has taken advice from a former CMU player that endured the same situation last year.

“I’ve talked to Dan LeFevour a lot, and he said that the days are long, and try to get naps whenever you can, because it’s definitely not a comfy environment,” Bellore said. “ You’re always getting pulled one way or another.”

Team interviews and psychological testing, like the famed Wonderlic test, will dominate the schedule today and Saturday. Bellore will meet with between 20 and 30 teams for 15 minutes so they can prod into his character, past and ability to dissect a playbook. He will work out Monday, when he hopes for a 40-yard dash between 4.6 seconds and 4.7, and a bench press total of between 25 and 30 reps of 225 pounds.

But maybe more important than the 40-yard dash is the agility drills.

“They want to see how you really move,” said Bellore, who thinks he will excel in the short shuttle and the L-cone drill. “If you can’t do that as a linebacker, you can’t play.”

Bellore will arrive on Tuesday at CMU, where he will begin to train for the Chippewas’ Pro Day on March 14.