The former Bison All-American’s next step is the NFL

Bison football’s own Derrek Tuszka showed out at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis last week. The defensive lineman from Warner, South Dakota represented NDSU last Saturday in the NFL’s largest recruiting event just before the draft next month.

The former first-team All-American ran an impressive 4.79, 40-yard dash and ranked number one in defensive lineman in the three-cone drill, coming in at 6.87 seconds. Tuszka also ranked third in the 20-yard shuttle. In fact, he ranked in the top ten in each event with the exception of the bench press.

With Tuszka not coming from a Power-5, let alone FBS school, the combine was a big opportunity for him to garner some attention heading into next month’s draft.

Tukzka proved himself to be a solid prospect both at the combine and during his college career. He has a career 29 sacks and 42 tackles for losses and has three national championships under his belt.

“I think that’s one thing that I have an advantage at is my versatility, my knowledge for the game,” Tuszka told reporters, “I can play at both edge with the hand in the dirt, stand up, play a little outside backer in a 3-4-style defense and then all the special teams.”

Tuszka’s current prospect grade is 5.52/8.00, though still has a chance to be seen by NFL recruiters later this month for Pro Day at Dacotah Field.

Attending NDSU’s Pro Day on March 28 will, of course, be Tuszka along with TE Ben Ellefson, who have been training together in Denver since late January.

Also in attendance representing the Bison will be CB Marquise Bridges, OL Zack Johnson, FS James Hendricks, RB Ty Brooks, RB Dimitri Williams, WR Jimmy Kepouros and DL Cole Karcz.

The Bison continue to have a growing imprint on NFL rosters. This should only continue to grow has NDSU maintains its success at the FCS level.