More: Lovett's mixed method approach about performance, health ($)

Justin Lovett didn’t simulate an NFL Draft Combine every year he was in charge of the football strength staff at Western Kentucky, but it seemed an important exercise in Year 1 of his new gig at Purdue.

With first-year head coach Jeff Brohm still in evaluation mode after the spring, even though he’d had 15 practices’ worth of data, Lovett put the Boilermakers through the paces of a combine after spring ball wrapped in mid-April. He took five days, just like the NFL, because he didn’t want all the performance tests in a day. So after doing movement screens to prepare the players’ bodies, he paired broad jump with bench press on one day. On another, he had the vertical jump with “agilities.” On the final day, he and assistant strength coach Domenic Reno headed out to the outdoor field with stop watches and clocked players in the 40.

The event was fruitful.