Redding Expected to Lead the Way Again for Titans

One more time, just for old times’ sake, Reggie Redding will be out in front of Mike Pringle today.

That was the Titan way for 11 Saturdays last fall--Redding, the gargantuan offensive tackle, clearing a route for Pringle, the compact tailback who didn’t break Rueben Mayes’ single-game rushing record, then did, then lost it six days later to Anthony Thompson.

And that will be the way of the 1990 NFL draft--Redding going in first again, followed by Pringle a few yards behind.

Redding, 6-4, 280 pounds and still growing at age 21, is expected to be selected in the third or fourth round, with an outside shot of cracking the second. Pringle, 5-10 and 185, is projected to last until the seventh or eighth round, unless his involvement in last week’s Carnivale Club fracas drags him down further.

Police arrests generally have the same effect as lead weights when slipped into the file of a borderline prospect.

Redding, however, has a chance to become the third Cal State Fullerton player chosen in the second round, joining New Orleans offensive tackle Daren Gilbert (1985) and New York Giants cornerback Mark Collins (1986). It’s a down year for offensive linemen, and Redding’s stock is up after his unexpectedly strong showings at the NFL scouting combines.

“From an athletic standpoint, an age standpoint and a temperamental standpoint, Reggie is very similar to Daren Gilbert,” Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy says. “If there’s a difference, Reggie might be a little more aggressive than Daren was at the same point in his development.”

Football Digest has Redding ranked third among offensive tackle prospects, listed behind probable top-five pick Richmond Webb of Texas A & M and 300-pound Glenn Parker of Arizona. Redding hasn’t seen Football Digest, but he has a feeling he might go high, judging from the number of recent visitors he has received on the Fullerton practice field.

“It started to dawn on me when all the guys came around,” Redding says. “I worked out for 16 different teams and eight offensive line coaches. And all the scouts that come around tell me stuff.

“I told the Indianapolis scout that I heard I might go on the fourth or fifth round. But he said, ‘Oh, you’re gonna go higher than that.’ ”

Don Morel, Fullerton’s offensive line coach, says Redding also has worked out in front of “a number of player personnel directors, which is usually a sign that you’re going to be drafted high.

“Obviously, they have to like a player like Reggie. He’s very athletic, he’s never been injured and, most importantly, he’s only 21. The team that drafts him can let him learn behind the starter for two years and then have a 23-year-old starting in the NFL.

“That means you won’t have to worry about that position for eight or nine years. You have a full-decade offensive lineman like the Rams have had with all those guys who’ve been playing forever.”

Arizona’s Parker, by contrast, is already 25. Redding has youth and the experience of blocking for both Pringle and record-setting quarterback Dan Speltz going for him.

“He’s played for an offense that both runs the ball and throws the ball,” Morel says. “Obviously, we’re not an Oklahoma, where they run the ball every snap. And we’re not a BYU, where they throw it every snap.

“Tony Mandarich was the most publicized offensive lineman ever, but he was a wash his first year (in the NFL) because he played for Michigan State, and in the Big Ten, they run the ball so much there. There were so many pass-blocking techniques he still needed to learn.”

Redding acknowledges that he’s about to cash in simply by being at the right place at the right time.

“This year is not a good year for offensive linemen,” he says. “I’m not saying I’m not good, but there just aren’t that many offensive linemen out there.

“There are eight or nine running backs who could go in the first round. And there’s a lot of linebackers, too. They’re going to be drafted lower and they’re going to see all this money whizzing by them.

“I just happen to be coming out at the right time.”

But Redding also picked his spot at the scouting combines, where sleepers can become keepers and sure things can leave as yesterday’s news.

For every Redding, for instance, there’s a Keith McCants, the Alabama linebacker who was a lock as the No. 1 pick until the combines learned he could bench-press 225 pounds only nine times--or seven times less than Redding and 16 times less than Kentucky offensive tackle Mike Pfiefer.

“That was kinda funny,” Redding says. “He also shrunk at the combines. The media guide had him at 6-5 1/2. I heard (the scouts) measured him at 6-2.”

Redding is ready for draft day. Today, he’ll camp out on the couch in his Fullerton apartment, click on ESPN and root.

Yes, root for New England to draft him.

That’s right, New England.

“I kinda like that team,” he says. “I want to go to a team that’s on the rise, not a team that’s already there.”

Think about that for a moment, Reggie.

“No, I take that back, I take that back,” he says, laughing. “This was my first winning year in college football, 6-4-1. I wouldn’t mind going to a winner.

“But I like New England. It’s a quiet place. You don’t get into as much trouble there as you would in Miami. The fast life is cool, sometimes, but not all the time. And, I could see the Celtics.”

Redding also has strong opinions about how high he should be drafted, but for the next few hours, he’s keeping them to himself.

“There’s 28 different teams and 28 different flavors. Everybody has different tastes,” Redding says. “Right now, I’m trying to be modest. After the draft comes around, that’s when I can talk some mess .”

The world, along with Redding, awaits.