Michigan’s David Molk is still recovering from a foot injury that will prevent him from going through most of the workouts at the NFL Scouting Combine. But he plans to make the most of the one thing he can do.
Molk, who won the Rimington Trophy as college football’s best center, told the Detroit Free Press that he thinks he can break the bench press record at the Combine. Molk said he doesn’t emphasize high-repetition training in his workouts, but he recently did 39 reps of 225 pounds at the end of a strenuous workout in which he had already done 10 sets on the bench, topping out at 495 pounds.
“I was totally exhausted,” Molk said. “I’ve never done it fresh, but I think after doing that many sets of bench prior to testing it and still getting 39, I’ll be right there.”
A Combine bench press record would be nice, but it’s Molk’s performance on the field as a two-time All-Big Ten center that really has teams taking notice. The reality is that the difference between a guy who can “only” bench press 225 pounds 30 times and a guy who can bench press 225 pounds 50 times doesn’t mean a lot on the football field.
NFL scouts know that, which is why, when Justin Ernest of Eastern Kentucky set a Combine bench press record with 51 reps in 1999, he wasn’t drafted. And Ernest’s achievement has been forgotten to such an extent that when Oregon State’s Stephen Paea hit 49 reps last year, it was widely reported as an all-time record.
So if Molk breaks the bench press record, that would be swell. But it probably won’t do much to affect his draft stock.