Tommy Blake

While redshirting as a freshman in 2003, Blake was moved by TCU coach Gary Patterson from tailback to defensive end because of his mix of size and speed. As a redshirt freshman in 2004, Blake earned Conference USA All-Freshman honors with five sacks, the most for a TCU freshman since Aaron Schobel in 1997. In 2005, TCU moved to the Mountain West Conference, and Blake earned first-team All-MWC honors with seven sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss. College Football News named Blake their Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year.

Before his junior season in 2006, Blake was named a preseason All-American by The Sporting News. He also appeared on the watch lists for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Lombardi Award, the Ted Hendricks Award, and the Lott Trophy.

Blake bolted the team on August 16, 2007, though, and wound up missing five games with an undisclosed leave of absence that no one at TCU seemed to want to discuss. When he returned to the field for the final four games of the regular season, he did not appear ready to play; he appeared overweight and at times visibly uninterested. His draft stock plummeted. Further, he played slow, collecting only four sacks and eight tackles for a loss among 21 total tackles. Following the regular season, he was invited to the East-West Shrine Game and checked in at 287 pounds. He played as a junior in the 255-260 range.

Heading into his senior year, Blake was named to the watch lists for both the Lombardi and Lott awards once again. [1] He rose into the top five on some early 2008 NFL Draft boards and drew wide comparisons to Dwight Freeney for his burst off the ball and his straight-line speed. Dave Campbell's Texas Football featured Blake on its 2007 cover alongside Texas A&M quarterback Stephen McGee and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy.

After extended speculation during the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Blake's agent Reggie Rouzan revealed in February 2008 that Blake was being treated for depression and social anxiety disorder, which privacy laws had prohibited TCU from disclosing publicly. The daily presence of scouts was reported as what drove Blake off that practice field, but Blake believes what he estimates to be around 300 daily calls from prospective scouts brought about his mental illness.

Instead of attending the NFL Scouting Combine, Blake underwent several psychological tests in a nearby Indianapolis hospital on February 24, 2008. He took his first metaphorical step toward rebuilding his NFL draft stock at TCU's pro day Thursday March 6, 2008, when he showed up weighing 272 pounds and ran a hand-held time of 4.75 in the 40-yard dash, the same time run by top defensive end prospect Chris Long of the University of Virginia. He also had 23 reps in the 225-pound bench press, better than the University of Miami's Calais Campbell's 16 reps or Clemson's Phillip Merling's 17, and logged a 30½-inch vertical jump and a broad jump of 9 ft, 3 in. He was not drafted in the 2008 NFL draft and attended the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' minicamp as a free agent.