2012 NFL Scouting Combine: Players Who Need to Fight the Good Fight in Indy

On Feb. 22, the annual meat market known as the NFL Scouting Combine will begin, as hundreds of college players, NFL scouts and coaches and sports media descend on Indianapolis to watch college football's best run, jump and try to figure out what the hell a Wonderlic is.

The 327 players invited to this year's combine are all trying to put their best foot forward, whether it's to get their name on the proverbial map, improve their flagging draft stock or answer questions about a particular facet of their respective games.

Of this group, there are a pair of standouts from big-name schools that each badly needs a strong showing at the combine, albeit for different reasons, but this pair differs from the other kids attending the big show in that they are linked in a very unique way.

Back on Jan. 2, the University of Nebraska met the University of South Carolina in the Capital One Bowl, and the competition between Gamecocks wide receiver Alshon Jeffery and Cornhuskers cornerback Alfonzo Dennard got a little heated.

Jeffery got the better of Dennard that day, reeling in four passes for 148 yards and a score, and things haven't gotten one bit better for Dennard since.

The 5'10" 205-pound Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year had a horrible week of practice at last month's Senior Bowl before pulling out before the game with a hip injury.

Dennard must now travel to Indianapolis and try to convince scouts and coaches that it was that injury that made him get beaten repeatedly in coverage and off the line in practice against lower-echelon receivers, and that he's the first-round cornerback prospect many pundits believed he was before the Senior Bowl and not the potential safety that some posted he might be after.

Dennard won't be the only player in Indiana trying to allay concerns about his speed, however, as South Carolina wide receiver Alshon Jeffery's main goal at the combine (other than not punching Dennard in the head) will be to do that very same thing.

Jeffery's stats dipped badly in 2011 from 2010, when he topped 1,500 receiving yards, but so did the quarterback play for the Gamecocks, and Jeffery has the sort of 6'4" 233-pound frame with soft hands that NFL teams drool over.

However, there are questions about Jeffery's straight-line speed, making his 40-yard dash time at the combine critical, as the difference between running a 5.4 and a 4.4 could be the difference between being drafted in the second round or in the top 15.

That's millions of dollars.

So, while the last meeting between these players was far from what could be called "productive," it's essential for the futures of Alshon Jeffery and Alfonzo Dennard that when they meet again in Indianapolis, it is.