At Wisconsin’s March 3 Pro Timing Day, Jim Sorgi had some
catching up to do. Left out of the Indianapolis scouting combine,
the Badger quarterback had to make up for lost time. He did just
that, surprising NFL scouts and onlookers with his athleticism. Now
he is in a position to join his predecessor, Brooks Bollinger, in
the NFL.

“I saw Brooks this weekend, and I was like ‘What do I have to
expect?'” Sorgi told reporters at Timing Day. “He said, ‘Man, just
throw the ball well, run well and you’ll be fine, you’ll get
drafted.'”

At Pro Day, he did just that. Inside the McClain Center, Sorgi
wowed observers with a 4.63-second 40-yard-dash time. He also
recorded a 32 and one-half-inch vertical leap and
standing-broad-jump distances of 9-foot-8 and 10-feet even. In the
passing drills, he was equally impressive, thanks in part to the
presence of Lee Evans.

“I talked to some of the scouts and they said ‘don’t be
disappointed you weren’t invited to the combine.’ There’s been
quarterbacks in the past drafted and not invited to the combine,”
Sorgi said. “I heard it from four or five different scouts. It
always weighs in the back of my mind: well, I’m not going to get
drafted, I didn’t go to the combine. But, the performance I had
here today I think gives me a better shot to be drafted.”

A late-round pick at best, Sorgi is well aware of the possible
advantages to becoming an undrafted free agent and choosing his
professional destination.

“There’s a lot to be said about being a free agent,” he said.
“You can pick where you want to go, put yourself in a better
situation. Obviously everyone wants to say they got drafted by a
certain team. That’s always been a dream — I want to be drafted —
but if I have to go the free-agent route, then that’s what I’ll
do.”

Sorgi has received guarantees from several NFL clubs that if he
goes undrafted, a free-agent contract will be awaiting him.

“I already know I’m going to be in a camp somewhere in the NFL,”
he said. “The goal is to be drafted. Free agency is there, I know
it, they’ve told me. Then I can pick a team with the best situation
to make the team, then I go from there.”

Throughout his collegiate career, the knock on Sorgi had always
been his wiry frame and durability. When he stepped onto the scales
at Timing Day, he weighed in at 208 pounds, nearly 20 pounds above
his 2003 listed playing weight of 190.

“I stopped chewing tobacco and when you stop that, you start
eating,” Sorgi explained. “I stopped doing that and started putting
the weight on. I should have done that three years ago, huh? I’d be
230 by now. At 230 I probably wouldn’t have run my 4.6, but 210,
I’ll take it.”

While his 40-yard-dash time at Pro Day surpasses that of
Bollinger, Sorgi is well aware that his ticket to the NFL is his
throwing arm, not his running ability.

“The scouts say, ‘take it easy on the agility drills — the
three-cone drills — because we’re not really interested in how you
do those drills,'” he said, “and I said, ‘okay.'”

When healthy, Sorgi’s passing skills were on display in 2003. He
finished the campaign with 2,251 yards and 17 touchdowns, all the
while completing 56.5 percent of his passes.

In the postseason Gridiron Classic all-star game, he completed
nine of 11 attempts for 131 yards and a touchdown.

“Jim, I think he really played well down the stretch last year,”
Wisconsin quarterbacks coach Jeff Horton said. “He played his best
football in some big games. He really threw the ball around well. A
lot of people like him and the things he brings. Obviously he had
to get bigger and stronger, and he’s done that. The last time I saw
him he was 215 pounds. Durability is a question, and those are
questions he has to answer, but as far as being able to throw the
ball and do some of those things, he’s as good as there is out
there — probably better than most.”

Sorgi plans on returning home to Fraser, Mich., this weekend to
await his NFL fate. One thing he will not be doing, however, is
watching the two-day ordeal on television.

“I told my dad I don’t want to sit there and watch the draft,”
Sorgi said. “You sit there and watch it, hold my cell phone and I’m
going to go play 18 holes of golf. If I get the phone call, you
call me on my brother-in-law’s cell phone.”

Now all Sorgi can do is wait and hope for that Sunday phone
call.

“I’m not going to say what my status is going to be,” Sorgi said
with a grin. “If I get drafted — trust me, that night I get
drafted, you might not want to call and talk to me because I’m not
going to be able to talk too well.”