AVON, Ohio -- More than 300 players were invited to the NFL Scouting Combine.
One four-year starter at center who never missed a game for a mid-major school in Ohio was not.
“Fuel for the fire,” Chris Anzevino of Kent State said this week as he paused between workouts at the LeCharles Bentley O-Line Academy, where he has been working for two years.
That fuel drove Anzevino, a Youngstown native, at Kent State’s Pro Day. There his test marks would have placed him in the top five of almost every category at the combine. This relative unknown from the middling Golden Flashes started to get noticed.
Really, though, all teams and scouts had to do was turn on the tape of one game from his senior season.
That was the season opener when Kent State traveled to Tuscaloosa to play Alabama, the eventual national champion. Anzevino’s assignment? Nose tackle Josh Chapman, considered the strongest player in the country and an NFL prospect.
The result: A Kent State loss, which was to be expected.
Chapman’s numbers: One tackle.
Anzevino, who stands 6-1 and 298 pounds, handled Chapman’s 316 pounds -- and handled him well. Chapman would prove his ability as the season went on, playing through a torn ACL and finishing the season with it. He was noticed. Anzevino went unnoticed.
“I remember in December a year ago, I heard we’d be playing Alabama,” Anzevino said. “I watched them in a bowl game and they played Michigan State and destroyed them (49-7). I was like, ‘Wow, these guys can play.’
“So I watched film every day, all year, learning everything I could. I had to.”
Yet he wasn’t invited to the Combine and only a handful of teams showed for Kent State’s Pro Day -- because it was the same day as Alabama’s and Wisconsin’s.
Once his numbers came in, the 49ers sent folks across the country to give Anzevino a private workout. Green Bay, New England and Cincinnati also had or will have private workouts. Three of those teams are among the best organizations in football, the fourth is an improving team that appears intent on getting its act together better than it has in years.
“Being from Kent State, we’re not the winning tradition that gets all the looks,” Anzevino said. “But once I get my opportunity I just feel like I’m going to take full advantage of it.”
And he doesn’t care where the opportunity is, or whether it’s via the draft or as an undrafted free agent.
“It only takes one team to give me the opportunity,” he said. “Whoever it is, I could care less, but whoever it is they’re going to get Chris Anzevino. He’s going to be the hardest worker. I love the game so much that I’m just going to be that guy everybody loves being around.”
Anzevino represents the other side of the draft, the one rarely studied. He’s done everything he can to make himself better, including working with Bentley for two years, where he receives position-specific training. That helped him, he said, make a “180-degree turn in my career.” He’s been durable, dependable and successful at his level.
Now he figures to be a guy who would benefit from landing with a team where he could “redshirt” and learn and study for a year -- where his development could continue.
He approaches things the same way he approached facing Alabama: Do something every single day that matters.
“I wouldn’t be disappointed if I’m not drafted, but obviously I’d be excited if I did get picked,” he said. “Whoever wants to give me an opportunity, I’ll be blessed.
“I just want that chance. Every single day, no matter what I’m doing, I’m always going to be giving 150 percent.”
