Zach Line capped his career with another bowl victory and by earning the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year award (photo by Travis Johnston).

SMU running back Zach Line was ready for the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. After he and the Mustangs whipped Fresno State in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, he headed to Bradenton, Fla., Jan. 1 (with SMU defensive end Margus Hunt) to train at the IMG Academy, where he trained to get in optimal shape for the Combine. Line and the other players training at IMG ran, lifted and stretched, and did some less traditional work, like vision training.

When he arrived Thursday in Indianapolis, Line, who won the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year award in his senior season on the Hilltop, went through a couple of days of medical exams and interviews before running in to an obstacle for which he could not train: he got sick — very sick. Hours before competing with the other running backs in the bench press, Line suffered from nausea and felt chills. His body ached … after which he bench pressed the NFL-standard 225 pounds 26 times, the sixth-highest total among running backs and fullbacks. Line said he had hoped to do more, but considering his illness, he was not too disappointed with his results on the bench.

“I was hoping to get 30 reps,” he said. “That night, I saw the doctors, and they gave me stuff to treat my symptoms, but I don’t really think it did much. The next day on the field, I felt dizzy and light-headed from being sick. I had chills and felt like I had to throw up.” (Line was able to find an off-field bathroom.)

Line ran the 40-yard dash, posting an official time of 4.77 seconds, and position drills with the other running backs in attendance. After the position drills, his agent recommended that Line bow out of the shuttle drills.

“Looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have run the 40, either,” Line said. “In the weeks leading up to the Combine, all of my numbers were better. It was a tough time to get sick, but I tried to push through. I wanted to do the position drills to show the coaches and scouts that I’m a competitor. But even some of the coaches who were running the drills told me, ‘if you don’t feel good, don’t do (the drills).’

Zach Line ended his SMU career ranked second in school history with 4,187 rushing yards and 47 rushing touchdowns (photo by SMU athletics).

That Line performed while not feeling his best is no shock to anyone who watched him at SMU, where he regularly played through injuries while establishing himself as one of the elite running backs in SMU history by piling up 4,185 rushing yards and 47 rushing touchdowns.

“At IMG, we worked hard on strength, speed, everything,” Line said. “I was hoping to get 30 reps (in the bench press), get a 32-inch vertical (he jumped 30.5 inches) and go maybe 9-4 or 9-5 in the broad jump (Line leaped 9-feet-3-inches). In the 40, I was going in the high 4.5s at IMG, and I was hoping to do that at the Combine, but I just couldn’t get any push. I knew, once I ran it, that my time wasn’t very good. But I’ll have another chance to improve everything on Pro Day (in March).”

Armed with a degree in sports management, Line has spent the early part of 2013 preparing for his NFL future, interrupting his time at IMG only long enough to play in the East-West Shrine Game in St. Petersburg, Fla., where his coach, former NFL and college coach Leeman Bennett, named Line the special teams captain of his team.

“It was really good,” Line said of the East-West Shrine Game experience. I think the biggest thing might have been the fact that got to try out a new system and show that I could adjust to a new system. At SMU, a lot of times I was going laterally before cutting (upfield), but at the East-West game, it was more of a downhill running game, where I’d go upfield first and make a cut at the line. So I had to readjust my footwork. A lot of the guys there had been doing that throughout college, so I think it was pretty important to show that I could do that, too.”

At the Combine, in addition to the speed and strength tests, line talked with a lot of NFL teams. He said he didn’t have any formal interviews, but talked with the running backs coach for just about every team in the league, and felt like he received considerable interest from the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys. Some of the coaches with whom he spoke were curious about a running back playing in SMU coach June Jones’s offense, which has earned a reputation to many over the years as a pass-only system.

“Some teams asked about that — they asked me to explain the system,” Line said. “We’re known, I guess, as a passing team, but they were kind of surprised that we ran the ball so well. I told them that after the first couple of years, teams (that faced SMU) knew we were going to run the ball 25 times a game, and we still were able to do it pretty well.”

Zach Line was named special teams captain for the West team at the East-West Shrine Game (photo by SMU athletics).

In the months leading up to the draft, experts across the country rank players and their draft prospects. Many have Line listed as a fullback prospect — in some cases the No. 1 fullback prospect in the country. Others have called him a running back. Still more have labeled him as a ’tweener — not quite fast enough to be a traditional tailback, and not quite big enough to be a traditional fullback.

“I never really cared about those rankings,” he said. “My dad reads those things and then he gets all huffy and puffy about them when they say things like that. I don’t care.

“Some coaches said that if they end up with me, they’re going to ask me to play fullback, and some said they’re going to ask me to play running back. I just told them that I see myself as a running back, but first and foremost, I’m a football player. I’ll play whatever they want me to play. I can run the ball, I can catch the ball and I can block, and if they want me to play special teams, I’ll be the first to step up.”

For the immediate future, Line is focused first on regaining his health, and then resuming his training for Pro Day.

“Right now, I’m just laying on the couch, trying to get healthy again,” he said. “I was upset about (getting sick at) the Combine, even though I did some good interviews, but that happens. I thought I represented myself.

“I have the program from IMG, and I’m going to stick to that, stay on that schedule. I’m going to get back to training for Pro Day, where I’ll lift a little more, jump a little higher and run a little faster. I’ll be ready.”