Glenn Foster had trouble sleeping Wednesday night, but it didn’t affect him much Thursday morning when he took to Irwin Indoor Practice Facility for Illinois’ Pro Timing Day. Foster impressed scouts and media alike with his 29 reps bench-pressing 225 pounds and unofficially running the 40-yard dash in 4.79 seconds. 

Foster was among some two-dozen NFL hopefuls who participated in Pro Day, the majority of whom were former Illini. Players took part in strength and agility drills, including the bench press and 40-yard dash, along with position drills. Every drill was performed under the watchful eyes of 39 NFL scouts representing 18 teams.

But the evaluation didn’t end on the field. Many of the scouts conducted one-on-one interviews with players after workouts. Foster spent more than an hour taking a psychological and personality exam for one scout after workouts were complete and the building had emptied.

“I was prepared mentally before this,” Foster said. “I was very focused and calm and confident with what I was able to do. I turned some heads. So I think I made a statement today.”

The former defensive end-turned-defensive tackle was not among the four Illini invited to February’s NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. But as fellow defensive tackle Akeem Spence pointed out, the draft boards and mock drafts don’t matter much on draft day.

“Tavon (Wilson) didn’t get invited to the combine, but he was picked in the second round,” Spence said. “So you can’t really pay attention to it.”

Wilson, a former Illini defensive back, was selected by the Patriots with the 48th overall pick in last year’s draft and went on to see significant playing time for Bill Belichick’s defense. Another former Illini, Jack Cornell, was in attendance. He went undrafted last year and signed as a free agent offensive lineman with the Ravens. Cornell didn’t see much time on the field in 2012, but his Ravens defeated Wilson’s Patriots en route to a Super Bowl championship.

Cornell said the best advice he could give his former Illini teammates aspiring to succeed at the next level is to keep working hard because the life of an NFL player is a never-ending process.

“This is just the beginning for all of these guys,” Cornell said. “The guys who want to take a little break after (Pro Day) and take some time off, it’s going to come back and bite them in the future. There’s no rest for the wicked, and there’s a lot of wicked dudes in the NFL.”

The four Illini who were invited to the Combine — Spence, defensive end Michael Buchanan, defensive back Terry Hawthorne and offensive lineman Hugh Thornton — did not participate in all of the strength and agility drills. Each participated in his respective position drills. 

Draft preparation is grueling both physically and mentally for players, and Thornton said he thinks the process is 95 percent mental.

“Physically, we’ve been doing this stuff since we’ve been playing football,” he said. “So it’s really not that different from an everyday workout. It’s just, now there’s a lot more on the line.”

Thornton went as far as to liken the interview process to poking cattle with a prod. He did acknowledge that having the previous three months to focus on working out and eating right was a welcomed treat.

Foster wasn’t the only Illini who had scouts and media buzzing. Former Illinois cornerback Justin Green turned heads, running an unofficial 4.40 40-yard dash. Foster and defensive backs Ashante Williams and Justin Green highlighted the vertical jump, leaping 39.5, 38.5 and 36.5 inches, respectively.

Foster was pleasantly surprised by his 10.9-foot long jump but considered the rest of his results average compared with what he had been attaining in workouts. After training in Florida for the last few months, he now hopes to hear from NFL teams about personal workouts. Until then, he will remain in Champaign and, hopefully, get a little more sleep.

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @sean_hammond.