Ex-Spider Sidbury best non-Division I-A player in NFL draft?

Is University of Richmond defensive end Lawrence Sidbury the finest non-Division I-A prospect in this weekend's NFL draft?

Mel Kiper, Jr., the Deity of Draftniks, believes that may be the case. Kiper projects Sidbury, who collected 11½ sacks for the Spiders' 2008 Football Championship Subdivision title team, as a second-round pick in this weekend's NFL draft.

"If not, at the start of the third round, he's going to be one of those guys sitting there when we say 'Who are the best five players still on the board?' Sidbury would probably be the first or second guy we put up there," Kiper said. "Interesting guy, and really helped his stock throughout the process. And like I said, second round for a kid from Richmond is pretty doggone good."

And doggone surprising to Sidbury as he looked back five years ago to his arrival at UR from Cheltenham, Md. He was a 6-2 235-pounder, part of the last class brought to Richmond by coach Jim Reid and his staff.

"[Becoming a pro], it's always conceivable, but no, that wasn't in my mindset when I first got here," said Sidbury, now 6-2 and 266 pounds. "Number one, I was just trying to become the best I could be here in college. Without doing that first, going to the next level is not an option."

The NFL success of former UR running back Tim Hightower, who came to UR in the same class as Sidbury but did not redshirt, leads NFL personnel evaluators to believe that Colonial Athletic Association star status can translate into an NFL job, Kiper suggested. Hightower was selected in the fifth round last year and became a Cardinals starter.

"When I got to [the University of] Tennessee, I said the first week I thought [Sidbury] would be an impact guy there," said former UR coach Dave Clawson, UT's offensive coordinator in 2008 and now Bowling Green's head coach. "I've had [NFL] people since I've come here, to Bowling Green, ask me about him. And he's so easy to recommend, like Tim Hightower was."

The process to which Kiper referred as a stock-booster for Sidbury began after UR won its national championship in mid-December. Sidbury participated in the East-West Shrine Game on Jan. 17 and the Senior Bowl on Jan. 24. He spent a few weeks at the Parisi Speed School in New Jersey preparing for February's NFL combine in Indianapolis. There, he ran the fastest 40-yard dash time among 47 defensive linemen (4.64 seconds). Also, Sidbury stood out at UR's pro day when scouts visited the Richmond campus for evaluations.

Scouts marvel at Sidbury's 35-inch arms and his 10½-inch hands, valuable tools for keeping away blockers.

Sidbury wasn't viewed as a potential NFL player when he signed with UR. According to Sidbury, seeing former UR quarterback Stacy Tutt train for an NFL opportunity after the 2005 season, then be part of the New York Jets organization for two years, provided motivation. And that time frame roughly corresponds to Clawson's recollection of when he felt "the light switch came on" for Sidbury.

"He always could run. He always had strength. He always had athletic ability. He was always talented. He was always a hard worker. He was always a responsible kid," Clawson said of Sidbury, who graduated with a computer-science degree, minored in math and has worked with a local firm as a math tutor for high school students.

"I just thought his junior year, he was starting to understand what it took to become a good football player, a more physical, tougher football player. For him, it was just a matter of learning how to play the game."

Contact John O'Connor at (804) 649-6233

Staff writer Michael Phillips contributed to this report.