Current Conditions
32°F - P/SUNNY
(145)
Odrick, a senior Penn State defensive tackle from Lebanon, will play his final college regular-season game Saturday, when Penn State travels to Michigan State.
"I'm definitely not sad or mad about the career I had here," Odrick said by telephone from State College Wednesday.
"But I will be sad about my last game."
His last college game. Odrick has established himself as one of the best defensive tackles in the country and, according to Joe Paterno, one of the best in Penn State history.
"I think he's done a terrific job and I've said before I think that he may be kind of an unknown factor sometimes," Paterno said a couple weeks back.
"He's played really well, he's a great leader on the field, and he reminds me a lot of the good ones we've had, Matt Millen who played defensive tackle for us, is the same kind of guy…
"We had guys like Mike Reid and Steve Smear and people going down through the years; we've had good defensive tackles, and Odrick would be right up there with them."
With a nod to Kerry Collins, Dan Kreider, Frank Reich and a couple others, he's probably be the best defensive player the Lancaster-Lebanon League has ever produced.
He has also established himself as a projected first-round NFL draft pick, which means he's probably a long way from his final football game.
It wasn't talked about much, but Odrick could have turned pro after last season and certainly been an NFL draftee. Probably a second-day pick.
Not that that would have been a good idea.
"I definitely made the right decision," he said. "I got to play another year with teammates that I love, and I'm definitely a better player than I was a year ago.
"I'm using my hands a whole lot better. I'm playing faster, because I know what's coming more. I've learned how to study the game better."
Going into this season and through its first few weeks, the pro-scouting consensus on Odrick seemed to have him somewhere around 8th-to-12th at his position in the class.
Defensive tackle is a deep position in this draft. Projections had him as a third-to-fifth-round pick.
But he has shot up NFL draft boards of late. He's risen to top five at DT and has high as No. 2 at the position according to CBS Sportsline. Overall, he's top 20, the middle of the first round, on many current boards.
Sporting News Today published a mock draft Thursday that had Odrick going 20th overall, to the Houston Texans.
ESPN.com's Kevin Weidl agrees with much of Odrick's self-analysis.
"We had concerns about Odrick's rawness in terms of hand use and ability to create leverage and pressure but he has answered those questions," Weidl said.
"Odrick is showing improved overall strength and his lateral movement and pass-rush skills have taken a big step forward. He is using his hands well in combat, displaying more varied pass-rush moves and playing with a high motor on every snap."
The NFL has become so specialized that, while this is something of an oversimplification, d-linemen largely fall into two categories: super-quick, athletic playmakers (think Dwight Freeney) and huge road-graders who clog the middle of the line.
Odrick is probably a better all-around football player than, for example, Aaron Maybin, who left Penn State early for the NFL last year. But Maybin is very quick and explosive going straight ahead, and was therefore seen as a pass-rushing specialist.
If you watch the NFL, you know how valuable pass-rush is. Maybin was the No. 11 pick in last year's draft and signed a five-year deal with the Buffalo Bills believed to be worth over $20 million.
Odrick was until recently thought of as in-between those two d-line types. Although very athletic for his size (6-5, 296), he's never going to be able to fly around like the Freeneys and Maybins.
Most of the road-graders are something like 6-1, 340 pounds. Odrick is (bizarrely) too small for that stereotype.
With his progress, this year, according to Veidl, that's no longer a problem.
"Odrick's closing burst in pursuit is adequate and he's done a very good job shooting gaps and holding his own against the run, making him a nice fit for a one-gap (a 3-4, or any alignment that uses a tackle playing opposite the offensive center) defense at the next level," he said.
Also, Odrick will graduate in December, in three-and-a-half years, with a degree in sociology. He plans to spend the first few months of 2010 on football only, hiring a trainer and preparing for the draft combine.
Odrick picked Penn State over Florida, Virginia Tech, Georgia and, coming in late, USC.
"I came here to play high-caliber football, and I feel like I've done that," he said.
"I definitely don't have any regrets."
