Wide receiver Aldrick Robinson finished his career at SMU as one of the most prolific wideouts in school history. The speedster from Waxahachie, Texas finished his career with 3,314 receiving yards, the second-highest total in school history. He also is second in career touchdown catches, with 30, and set a new SMU record with 14 touchdown receptions in his senior season.

Aldrick Robinson finished among the top 10 receivers at the Combine in the 40-yard dash and the 60-yard shuttle (photo by Webmaster).

Now Robinson is trying to move up to the next level: the NFL. Robinson is in Indianapolis for the NFL Combine, the league’s meat market in which players are measured, weighed, timed, tested and interviewed as scouts from every NFL team try to determine which players are worth the draft picks — and the money — required to acquire them.

Before heading to Indianapolis, Robinson signed with an agent (Jordan Woy, who also represents former SMU star and current Pittsburgh Steeler Emmanuel Sanders) and headed to Naples, Fla., to train at Ignition Athletics Performance Group.

“Training there was more about technique than football,” Robinson said. “It was about getting ready for the Combine itself. It was about getting your technique right for the running and lifting and jumps.”

At the Combine, the signature speed event is the 40-yard dash. At Ignition, Robinson and the other athletes working out in preparation for the Combine did a series of sprints: the 40, 20 and even a 10-yard dash. Robinson clocked a 1.47 in the 10, a 2.49 in the 20 and a 4.33 in the 40. On the bench press, he mustered 18 repetitions at the NFL-standard 225 pounds — an increase of five repetitions over his best effort at SMU.

Robinson arrived in Indianapolis Thursday, and checked into a hotel where he met his roommate for the next few days: North Carolina running back Johnny White. He and the other players spent a couple of days doing everything that didn’t involve football-related skills: extensive medical exams and tests, and interviews. Robinson said the doctors “checked on everything” but found nothing about which to be concerned. He also said he interviewed with “about 20” NFL teams, including the Oakland Raiders, Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs.

Robinson measured in at 5-foot-9½-inches tall and weighed 184 pounds. The weight was a six-pound increase over his listed playing weight at SMU, which was by design.

Aldrick Robinson finished second in SMU history with 30 career touchdown receptions, including a single-season record of 14 in his senior season (photo by Travis Johnston).

“I wanted to get a little bigger, as long as I could keep my speed, and I did,” he said. “That was my plan — to gain weight. I worked hard to get ready for this, and the work I did paid off. It’s good weight, so I was able to keep my quickness.”

Robinson said he got a little advice about the Combine from Sanders, who advised him to “just focus,” Robinson said. “He said not to worry about what anyone else was doing — just focus on what you’re doing.”

The work apparently paid off, and Robinson said he was pleased with is performance. His goal was to get close at the Combine to the numbers he put up at Ignition, where he performed under optimal conditions, and he did that, cranking out 17 repetitions on the 225-pound bench press, leaping 10-6 in the broad jump and 40 inches in the vertical jump, and running a 4.43 in the 40, which tied for fourth-fastest among all receivers at the Combine (he also ran a 4.38 earlier in the day, but 4.43 was his “official” time).

He was named to the “Top Performers” list in the 40 and in the 60-yard shuttle, a designation bestowed upon the top 10 performers in each position group.