An hour after the Senior Bowl ended, Ladd-Peebles Field was empty, save for a smattering of people braving the cold, rainy Mobile, Ala., night. One of the few signs that a football game had been played recently was the sight of Heath Benedict, the lone NCAA Division II player featured in the January game that kicks off the offseason NFL draft scouting frenzy. Benedict simply wouldn't leave the field. The Newberry (S.C.) College star was having too much fun. About 45 of Benedict's family and friends from throughout the country had converged on the Gulf Coast to celebrate a new beginning for the 6-foot-6, 335-pound Benedict. As soon as the game ended, many players and coaches headed to a ceremony at the other end of the field to hear the announcement of the postgame awards. Not Benedict. He headed to the stands. After he coaxed a security guard to let his posse join him, an hour-long love fest ensued. Pictures, hugs, autographs, reunions. Heath Benedict could have slipped through the cracks as another Division I washout. But after an unfocused stint at Tennessee, Benedict emerged as a student and NFL prospect at tiny Newberry (S.C.) College. "Heath didn't care what was going on at the other end of the field," his father, Ed Benedict, recalled recently. "He was all about his friends and his family. There was no one else left in that stadium but us after a while. Heath was soaking it all in." After what would be his final football game, Heath Benedict didn't want to leave the field. No one wanted it to end. There was so much life running through Benedict, and it was supposed to be just the first quarter. There was supposed to be so much time left on the clock. His Senior Bowl performance was followed by an equally impressive NFL combine showing. In March, pro scouts swarmed the Newberry College campus to see Benedict, who was widely considered to be one of the top sleeper picks for this past weekend's NFL draft. link to rest of story http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft08/columns/story?columnist=williamson_bill&id=3376486
