Farmer Disappointed by Fourth-Round Status

Life as an underdog began anew Sunday for Danny Farmer, who went to UCLA as a walk-on and left as a record-holding receiver, only to find that readied him for the NFL in ways he did not expect.

A weekend that was supposed to be the latest chapter in a success story instead turned into another proving ground when Farmer lasted until the second day of the draft before being taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the ninth pick in the fourth round, No. 103 overall.

He heard all about the he’s-too-slow rap, but Farmer had no idea that would also apply to the start of his pro career. But there he was Saturday evening when the draft temporarily ended, waiting with 30 or 40 friends and family for the call that never came and then dealing with the empty night that did.

The only salvation was that he didn’t have to wait long when Day 2 began Sunday morning with the fourth round. That that ranked as one of the highlights is about all you need to know about his weekend.

“It’s good to finally be picked, obviously,” Farmer said. “It was obviously difficult [Saturday]. A lot of teams had high hopes for me, or so they said. To have 15 receivers picked ahead of me is definitely not a good day. Trying to sleep last night was difficult. I spent a lot of time trying to think what could have happened.

“I spent almost every minute of it trying to figure it out. I don’t know. There were a lot of receivers picked ahead of me. The thing I kept asking myself was, ‘What did I do wrong?’ Sort of going over the whole process and thinking of everything you did.”

The cause was more likely what he didn’t do: blow NFL teams away with speed, a bigger negative than the senior season hampered by injuries and inexperienced quarterbacks. The result wasn’t quite the drop Bruin Kris Farris had a year earlier--the Outland Trophy winner was picked, coincidentally, by the Steelers in the third round. But it wasn’t what Farmer imagined either.

Not only that, he was the only Bruin picked either day, not a huge surprise given their small Bruin senior class, but a disappointment. Fullback Durell Price was considered a good bet to go and defensive back and linebacker Ali Abdul Azziz had drawn interest, but they will now try the free-agent route.

USC, meanwhile, had three additional players selected, after the first-day contribution of R. Jay Soward to Jacksonville and Travis Claridge to Atlanta.

Receiver Windrell Hayes, with more consistency and better hands than Soward but without Soward’s game-breaking potential, was taken by the New York Jets in the fifth round, No. 143 overall. He will try to help fill the void created when another former Trojan, Keyshawn Johnson, was traded to Tampa Bay on Wednesday.

USC defensive back David Gibson gets to be Johnson’s teammate instead. The Buccaneers picked Gibson, at No. 193, in the sixth round. In between Hayes and Gibson, the New Orleans Saints used a compensatory selection in the fifth round, No. 166 overall, to take tailback Chad Morton, listed at 5 foot 8 but possessing good speed.

The Detroit Lions went into the junior college ranks for their seventh-round pick, taking Alfonso Boone, a defensive lineman from Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. Boone, 6-4, 290, the 253rd player selected, was a first-team J.C. All-American last season.