HD: Landry Jones comfortable during his pro day

It was cold outside at 8:50 a.m. Wednesday when Reggie Smith was walking across Jenkins Avenue from the Barry Switzer Center on OU's campus. He was making his way to the Everest Training Center for Oklahoma's Pro Day.

He'd been working all winter for this day after being cut by the Carolina Panthers last September. He'd made the most of coming back home to Edmond, Okla. while watching his little brother play his senior season of high school football.

"I know it's going to work out some way or another," Smith said. "I just don't know when."

SCOOPHD: LANDRY JONES AND GEORGE WHITFIELD TALK OU PRO DAY

It was cold outside at 8:50 a.m. Wednesday when Reggie Smith was walking across Jenkins Avenue from the Barry Switzer Center on OU's campus. He was making his way to the Everest Training Center for Oklahoma's Pro Day.

He'd been working all winter for this day after being cut by the Carolina Panthers last September. He'd made the most of coming back home to Edmond, Okla. while watching his little brother play his senior season of high school football.

"I know it's going to work out some way or another," Smith said. "I just don't know when."

By 9:05 a.m., Smith had already begun warming up in the training center at the southern endzone. His Edmond Santa Fe hoodie was pulled tightly around his head where the bill of his Sooners cap protruded while hiding his face.

You almost couldn't tell that he was in there from afar, but he'd show himself soon enough.

Slowly but surely 25 former and current Sooner players filed into the center and warmed up by themselves. All had come with high expectations for themselves for the coming weeks and months.

Some, like Justin Brown, Dominique Whaley and Jesse Paulsen, were mentally preparing themselves for the closest simulation to the combine they'd see all year. It was a job fair for them, an interview.

Others, like Landry Jones, Lane Johnson and Kenny Stills, could breathe easily. Coming into today's showcase, they're all virtually assured to become NFL draft picks next month.

Jones has been in Norman working out with his two best receivers last year in Brown and Stills, and Jones' his quarterback coach, George Whitfield, was even on hand to run the passing drills.

Jones' surroundings couldn't have been more comfortable than if he was lying in his own bed.

"It was really comfortable," Jones said. "I've thrown in this place -- goodness -- I don't know how many balls I've thrown, how many hours I've thrown in this place."

He threw well though he missed a couple receivers and threw ball that floated and fell like a winged duck, but showed nothing that would give teams that liked him already pause.

Jones said he doesn't know where he might go in the draft but has spoken to some teams over the last few weeks. Jones was the man most scouts came to see, but Brown hoped they saw him, too.

"You train so hard for all these months and go out there and just leave it on the field," Brown said. "That's was good, and it was fun to come back and go at it with your teams."

He walked into Oklahoma's fall practices last season without any knowledge of the offense he was going to run, the offense he would become a linchpin in, and proved he's not only has the tools of an NFL wide receiver but he's smart enough to play professional football as well.

After transferring from Penn State, he picked up Sooner co-offensive coordinator Josh Heupel's offense in less than a month and in his only season at Oklahoma recorded 73 catches, 873 yards receiving and five touchdowns. He also became the team's best punt return, but he's not going to solicit those facts to interested NFL teams.

"I'm not going to try to do anything out of my regular self," Brown said. "I'm just going to be who I am and try to work hard and go get it."

Smith watched all of this, having gone through Pro Day for the first time three years ago. He was destined for the league then; working to get invited to a team's camp now as a free agent.

At least he knows this time he was better prepared for the football job fair. At least he knows he has what it takes to play at the sport's pinnacle.

Perhaps he showed enough to the scouts who showed up today when he outran the field with a 4.31 in the 40-yard dash; when he out-jumped it with a 41-inch vertical. Perhaps.

"I can't ever call it, so you never know," Smith said. "It's just how the league is. I'm hoping for the best. If things don't work out, I'll go back to school and finish my degree."