Ex-Hog Smith delivers at Indianapolis

Arkansas defensive lineman Chris Smith runs a drill at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

FAYETTEVILLE - Former Arkansas defensive end Chris Smith wanted to run fast in Indianapolis and he did Monday.

Smith was timed at 4.71 seconds in the 40-yard dash, the eighth-fastest time among defensive linemen, in testing at the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium.

South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney led the defensive linemen with a 4.53 time. Smith was three-hundreths of a second out of fifth place, where Pittsburgh’s Aaron Donald and Louisville’s Marcus Smith tied with a 4.68.

Smith, of Mount Ulla, N.C., had one of the top vertical jumps of the day, his best of 37 inches tying for third with Virginia Tech’s James Gayle behind the 40.5 inches posted by Howard Jones of Shepherd University and the 37.5 inches by Clowney.

Smith also finished eighth in the standing broad jump with a leap of 10 feet, 1 inch. He was tied for 10th with 28 repetitions of 225 pounds in the bench press, trailing a couple of other Arkansas-based defensive linemen.

Arkansas State’s Ryan Carrethers and Arkansas’ Robert Thomas tied for third with 32 reps on the bench press, along with Minnesota’s Ra’Shede Hageman, during Sunday’s workouts.

Thomas, who suffered a broken leg Oct. 12, did not participate in the 40-yard dash or the other drills. The Muskogee, Okla., native has set up a private workout in April to run and do other agility drills.

Carrethers, who was a first-team All-Sun Belt Conference selection after making 93 tackles and four sacks for the Red Wolves, followed a good Sunday with a marginal Monday.

After tying with Thomas and Hageman on the bench press Sunday, which was 10th highest of all players, he didn’t rank among the top 15 of defensive lineman in any of Monday’s drills.

The 6-1, 337-pounder who projects as a nose tackle in the NFL, ran a 5.47 second 40-yard dash, had a vertical jump of 26 inches, a broad jump of 88 inches and ran the three-cone drill in 7.89 seconds.

Sports, Pages 20 on 02/25/2014