SMU will hold its annual Pro Day next Monday, April 4. Scouts and coaches from NFL teams will descend upon Gerald J. Ford Stadium to measure, weigh, time, test and generally evaluate the Mustangs’ seniors as they make their cases for consideration to be drafted or signed as free agents by NFL teams.

Moore said he prides himself on his ability to cover outside receivers or slot receivers in the nickel, and has been a capable special teams player at SMU (photo by David Mojica).

For most of the players who will participate, the past several months have followed the same routine: with no college games left to play, players must find the discipline to stay in shape, running and lifting and jumping and training in the events they’ll do for the pro scouts.

They know that their college careers will be digested and analyzed by personnel executives across the NFL. For elite players, Pro Day is a way of determining how high a team will draft a player. But for the next tier of players, a strong showing on Pro Day can mean the difference between getting a shot at a professional career and having to find a new passion to pursue.

For SMU cornerback Sterling Moore, Pro Day remains an uncertainty. He hopes to work out for the scouts, but with a week to go, he is not yet sure his body will allow him to.

Moore had surgery Dec. 10 on his left knee to tighten the tissue around the kneecap after it popped out of place for the third time in two seasons. Since the procedure, he has slowly worked his way back, migrating from crutches to walking to jogging to running. He quickly ditched his crutches, choosing instead to spend hours in the weight room after the swelling subsided, working to regain the strength and the range of motion in his leg.

Whether he works out for scouts, he said, will be a “Pro Day-time decision.”

Moore’s medical condition presents scouts with a challenging decision. On one hand, he has been injured three times. On the other hand, he was one of the Mustangs’ most valuable defensive players over the last couple of years.

Moore isn’t as fast as former teammate and 2010 Dallas Cowboys rookie Bryan McCann, who got his NFL shot in part because of the speed show he put on at last year’s Pro Day. He doesn’t have elite sprinting speed — Moore said he ran between a 4.48 and 4.55 in the 40-yard dash before his surgery, and hopes to run a 4.55 or lower if he runs on Pro Day — but he is stronger (he bench pressed the NFL-standard 225 pounds 22 times a couple of weeks ago) and has a knack for making plays. In eight games, he had 24 tackles, including three tackles-for-loss, and had a pair of interceptions. Some teams started throwing away from his side of the field, and if a receiver did get his hands on the ball, Moore developed a knack for ripping the ball from the receiver’s hands.

If Moore takes part in Pro Day, there remains some question about how many events he will do. Even if he runs the 40, he has yet to decide about whether he’ll jump for scouts — he plans to test himself in the vertical jump this week — and is unsure about whether he’ll take part in the shuttle drills scouts ask players to run.

“I have worked on it, but I’m a little hesitant about the ‘L drill,’” Moore said. “I can run, but part of coming back from an injury is being confident in it, confident that the knee will hold up. I think it will, but if you don’t have that confidence, it’s hard to put up a good time.”

Moore, who has signed with McCann’s agent — former SMU wide receiver John Biggins — said he has had interest from several NFL teams, including the Super Bowl-champion Green Bay Packers, the Chicago Bears, the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts.

But Moore acknowledged that even if he is able to work out for scouts on Pro Day, his injury history means there is a chance that no NFL team brings him in, either as a draft pick or via free agency.

“Playing in Canada or the UFL (United Football League) — that’s a definite possibility,” he said. “I talked to (SMU head) Coach (June) Jones, and he has made some calls. He said Canadian teams are aware of me. They’ll be there on Pro Day, too.

Moore said the strength and range of motion is coming back to his surgically repaired knee, and that the last hurdle now becomes regaining the confidence he has in his leg (photo by Webmaster).

“I just want a chance to show what I can do. I’m confident in what I can do. I’ve got to get my endurance up, so I can run for them. I used to be able to run all day, and I need to get back to that level, and that will help me prove to (teams) that I can stay healthy.”

While most players say they want to be drafted, even if only to say they were, Moore insisted he doesn’t care whether he gets drafted or signs as a free agent.

“I could care less if I get drafted or go free agent,” he said. “It’s more important that I go to the right team, where it’s the right fit. Wherever I go, I’m confident in what I can do.”

Defensive linemen and linebackers often hope to land with specific pro teams based on their defensive schemes, as many players are projected as being a better fit in a 3-4 or 4-3 alignment. In the secondary, and specifically in his case, Moore said there are no such concerns.

“I’m not worried about that,” he said. “If a team brings me in, they’ll be glad they did, because we played everything here at SMU that they’re going to play. I can play in a zone defense, man defense, press, off-man … I can fit any scheme.”

Moore said he has often tried to pattern his game after that of Green Bay Packers star Charles Woodson. That’s not to say they are equals, but like Woodson, Moore prides himself on being able to play physically, as well as covering receivers.

“He can play man, he can go inside and guard the nickel, he blitzes a lot,” Moore said. “I can do those things, too. He’s the kind of guy that teams don’t want to throw at, and that’s what I try to be, too. I want to get to the point where it feels like I have shut down one side of the field.”

Moore said that the decision to take part in Pro Day next week will depend largely on not only the strength of his leg, but how much confidence he has that it won’t buckle while he is testing for scouts.

“It really depends on my mind as much as it does on my knee,” Moore said. “Once I have that confidence to go with the strength I’m getting back, the other stuff — the quickness, the explosiveness — those things will return, too.

“It has been a slow process than I thought it would, but this is the first surgery I have ever had. Now that the knee is fixed — really fixed — I don’t want to mess up what the doctors did. I’m taking it slower, I’m being more cautious, because I expect it to hold up for a long time.”