Texas A&M’s McCollum has an NFL mentality. Now he wants to show the physical tools too.

Ryan McCollum knows NFL executives question whether he has the power and strength to play at the next level. He hopes to answer that and more with an impressive showing at Texas A&M’s pro day on Tuesday in College Station.

The question NFL teams won’t be asking themselves afterward is whether McCollum loves the game and is willing to do what is necessary to make it as a pro. Just listen to how he responded when asked if he played the game with an edge.

“Absolutely,” McCollum said. “You’re not going to be successful if you don’t. You have to be nasty, you have to be ready to beat some [butt] and bury a guy.”

McCollum paused briefly and added: “There’s nothing better than moving a man against his will and burying him in the ground. There’s not a better feeling in the world.”

McCollum accomplished that feat at times in the SEC, playing for an A&M program that has turned into a College Football Playoff contender under Jimbo Fisher.

This is a guy who started at center every game last season for an A&M offensive line that was a finalist for the Joe Moore Award and allowed only seven sacks on the season. McCollum was named the SEC’s offensive lineman of the week following A&M’s victory at Auburn in December.

McCollum started at least seven games for the Aggies in each of the previous three seasons too.

Now he’s focused on continuing the trend of A&M producing O-linemen in the NFL. McCollum isn’t as highly rated as his friend and mentor Erik McCoy coming out of college, but would like to make a similar impact in the league.

McCoy, a 2019 second-round pick, has been a Day 1 starter at center for the New Orleans Saints the past two seasons. McCollum, meanwhile, is projected as a late-round pick.

“Erik’s a great player, a great dude,” said McCollum, who was a three-star prospect coming out of Spring Klein Oak. “I still talk to him all the time. I watch his film and I try to do things he does the best that I can. I remember when I first got to A&M, I’d sit in meetings with Erik and [former O-line coach Jim Turner] and just be a fly on the wall. I give a lot of credit to Coach Turner and Erik for my football IQ. They basically planted the roots.”

Strengths and weaknesses

McCollum has received positive feedback from NFL teams about his football IQ and how he approaches the game. He would like to use pro day to showcase his agility whether it’s in the short shuttle or running drills.

McCollum also wants to limit concerns as far as his power and strength. He was nursing a back injury much of the past two seasons, which restricted what would have been his normal weight-lifting routine.

The good news from it is teams know McCollum is willing to fight through and make himself available despite possible ailments. The better news is that McCollum has been 100% throughout the offseason and has been pushing himself to maximize his pro day numbers by training at EXOS in Frisco.

“My No. 1 strength across the board is my football IQ,” McCollum said. “My weakness that everyone talks about is my power and strength. I’m aware of that. We’ve been focusing on that. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s been our focus and it’s getting better. I’m feeling great. My back is not hurting me, so I’ve just been ready to go and dive into the squat rack and start lifting heavy.

“I’m really fired up for pro day. I think I’ll put up numbers that are better than what they’re expecting.”

At the end of the day, it’s another opportunity for McCollum to get in front of NFL executives and scouts. He participated in this year’s College Gridiron Showcase in Fort Worth and was the only player requested for interviews by all 30 teams at the event.

For whatever reason, though, an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine didn’t follow. Even though the event happened in a virtual setting this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the snub didn’t sit well with McCollum.

“I’m a little [mad] to be honest with you,” McCollum said. “It’s frustrating, but it is what it is. There’s nothing I can do about it, so I’m focused on what I can do. That’s going out there on pro day and showcasing how hard I’ve been working these last three months.”

Revisiting arrest

McCollum has told the story to every NFL team he’s met with because it’s an inevitable topic to come up given how much background teams do on prospects these days.

McCollum was arrested during his sophomore season in 2018 by a police officer on a bicycle following A&M’s victory over Louisiana-Monroe. According to the police report, the officer said McCollum narrowly avoided hitting another vehicle and sped off. McCollum said he simply didn’t know the bike officer was trying to pull him over until he went through a couple of stoplights.

The initial charges of evading arrest or detention with a vehicle and reckless driving were dropped and not accepted by the district attorney’s office. McCollum played the following week at Alabama after briefly being suspended by Fisher, who has a policy to suspend any player following an arrest.

“Every team has asked about that whole ordeal, it’s not a secret, but I just use it as some adversity because it happened right before we played Alabama,” McCollum said. “It was rough to have that happen, but it is what it is. When I’ve told the teams what happened, a lot of them are like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”

That incident is certainly not representative of McCollum’s character. This is a guy who was a team captain for the Aggies in seven games last season and was the “unselfish leadership award” winner for the offense as a junior in 2019.

McCollum was part of the group that helped the Aggies become a top-five program and will leave a positive impact.

“We went through a culture change and I feel like what was left of my class and the class below me were really the ones that did the full culture change,” McCollum said. “It kind of changed with the 2018 team. It was still changing with the 2019 team. And I feel like last year was a complete culture change and that’s why we were so successful.

“Everybody bought in. We were great teammates to each other. We worked well as a team and found ways to win ballgames.”

McCollum is eager to do the same with an NFL team next season.

This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM.

Drew Davison

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Drew Davison was a TCU and Big 12 sports writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram until 2022. He covered everything in DFW from Rangers to Cowboys to motor sports.