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Givens excels on bench

40-time adjusted

Penn State defensive lineman Kevin Givens runs a drill at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Sunday, March 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Altoona’s Kevin Givens went to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis rated between 15 and 30 among available defensive tackles.

The three-year starter at Penn State gained some immediate attention Saturday with a strong performance in the bench press, and then at least temporarily wowed the NFL world Sunday morning with his 40-yard time of 4.87 seconds, only to have it adjusted a couple hours later to 5.08.

Givens’ first time in the dash was 5.09. When he followed that up with a 4.87, which included a 10-yard split of 1.59 seconds, the NFL Network gushed, “whoa, whoa, whoa.”

Twitter blew up, and NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said he’d have to re-evaluate his projection of Givens, who to this point has been considered a lower-round pick or a free agent.

Shortly thereafter, though, the second run was adjusted to 5.08, which left Givens from one of the fastest to the middle of the pack.

The 40-times are all unofficial pending confirmation, but the disparity of Givens’ time on his second attempt was particularly unusual.

Of the 30 defensive tackles present, Givens posted numbers in the top 15 in every other category.

He was tied for third with Houston’s Ed Oliver in the bench with 32 repetitions of 225 pounds. His broad jump was 9-7 (ninth), followed by 7.6 in the cones (12th), 31.0 in the vertical leap (14th) and 4.6 in the 20-yard shuttle run (15th).

Fellow PSU defensive lineman Shareef Miller also participated. He benched the 225 a total of 16 times and ran a 4.69 in the 40.

Trace McSorley, Miles Sanders, Connor McGovern and Ryan Bates completed their drills by or on Saturday. Cornerback Amani Oruwariye competes today.

Givens and other draft-eligible Nittany Lions will have another chance to impress the NFL scouts when Penn State holds its pro day on March 19.

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