Next Stop ... NFL?

Brody Hoying has returned home to Coldwater - the place where his football career began.

The former Cavalier and Eastern Michigan standout is ready to see where the game takes him next.

"I keep running through all the years of playing football and just all the people who have been in my corner: my family, my friends, my coaches, all my trainers, the stuff in the past, just everyone has been there," Hoying said. "It's just kind of been a reminiscing couple of weeks here, thinking about how it's all leading up to this upcoming weekend at the end of April."

Meanwhile, the multiple-time All-Mid-American Conference Defensive Team selection is spending his days golfing and exercising. With no access to a weight room, Hoying's workouts now consist of body weight, sprint and positioned-focused activities.

"This has never happened before," said Hoying, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. "So, leading up to the draft, me and all the other guys are all going through the same thing. We're all slipping a little bit. It's not a handful or half of us that are going through it - it's everybody across the country. I don't know what everybody else is doing, but I'm doing everything I can."

He had an opportunity to make an impression on NFL scouts before he left Ypsilanti, Michigan on March 12 as Eastern Michigan hosted its annual pro day. The program has had players drafted in three of the last four years, including Hoying's friend, Maxx Crosby, a third-round pick of the Raiders who finished runner-up behind Joey Bosa for the 2019 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

"We had 19 scouts there from 17 different NFL teams," Hoying explained. "I talked to a couple of them afterwards. They like me as a safety, obviously a special teams priority for the first couple years or so. But yeah, definitely as a safety. … I want to play offense again, but they won't let me."

A two-time Division V state offensive player of the year in high school, Hoying holds Coldwater career records for rushing yards (3,425) and rushing touchdowns (64). He was also a first team All-Midwest Athletic Conference selection at safety. On Dec. 6, 2014, Hoying rushed for 236 yards and accounted for six total touchdowns as the Cavaliers routed Canton Central Catholic 62-21 at Ohio Stadium. As a high school athlete, he earned four state titles (three in football, one in baseball) and a state runner-up (football).

Starting for Eastern Michigan's defense, Hoying had career totals of 253 tackles, six interceptions, 17 pass deflections, seven forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries. In his senior year, he had career-highs in tackles (81), interceptions (four) and pass deflections (10). Eastern Michigan had its best-ever four-year stretch, too. Not only did the Eagles have a winning season for the first time since 1995, they ended a bowl draught that had dated back to the 1987 season. In fact, the program went to three bowl games over those four years (Popeyes Bahamas Bowl, Camellia Bowl and Quick Lane Bowl).

"Coming from Coldwater, every year you expect to compete for a state championship, verses going to a program that had really been one of the worst in FBS over the last two decades," Hoying said. "I was able to play in three bowl games, which is incredible at that school. The last bowl game we made at Eastern Michigan was 1987. We played in 2016, 2018 and 2019 bowl games. I credit the head coach."

Hoying said it was the people that made the Eastern experience special, though.

"You're going to remember specific plays and specific games, but not all of them," he said. "You're going to remember your relationships with the people. They're the ones who make the college experience. I couldn't have asked for any better. Some of my best friends I made in college. Most of my coaches I'll be in contact with forever."

Although he's been a standout at every stop, Hoying's combine numbers won't stand out to NFL teams. He ran a 4.62-second 40-yard dash, has a 30-inch vertical jump, a 9-foot, 5-inch broad jump, a pro shuttle of 4.1 seconds, a three-cone drill time of 6.8 seconds and did 13 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press. What that doesn't measure, however, a player's ability to make impact plays.

"The biggest strength is just being able to go put a helmet on and just go play football," Hoying said. "You can't teach instinct or film study or heart or anything like that on a pro day, but you can test the 40 and vertical and bench press. I'm below average in all that, but then you turn on the film and I'm right there making the same type of plays that these guys who are running 4.3 and 4.4s are doing."

He could become the second Hoying to be drafted. His cousin and godfather, Bob Hoying, was a star quarterback for St. Henry and later Ohio State before being selected 85th overall (third round) by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1996.

"(Bob) actually helped me a lot with it," Hoying said of his cousin. "The connection to my agent (Eric Metz), and then I was over in Columbus from January through March training for my pro day and actually doing some side work for Bob's company. I've been in close contact with him."

The word from scouts is Hoying could go as high as the sixth round or be undrafted, in which case he'd be able to explore options. The NFL Draft is scheduled to be held April 23-25.

"I expect to be undrafted, but we'll see," he said. "A lot of teams just go off of film, and I feel like I have pretty good college film. It just takes one team to take a chance on an underdog, an undersized kid from small-town Ohio that can play football. But can he do it at the highest level?"

Hoying is confident he can.

"After playing Division I football against some of the best athletes every year and being able to do it at a high level for four years and seeing some of the guys I've played against go on and make an impact in the NFL, I think that, yeah, I could definitely do what some of them are doing, for sure," Hoying said. "I'm not trying to be cocky about that, I just think I have that ability."

Correction:
This story has been corrected that the NFL draft is April 23-25 rather than April 25-27 as was originally stated.