Darren Pama is no stranger to pressure, or to performing under it. During the Iowa Hawkeyes championship season last year, he was perhaps their best performer all year, and turned it up to another level during the playoffs, where he caught 4 TDs and gained 413 yards as the Hawkeyes defeated Alabama, USC, and Penn State in turn to win the title. However, something that Pama has not faced is something that will no doubt trouble him greatly going into the upcoming DSFL draft: high expectations.
"I didn't play tackle football until Junior Year of high school, so when I performed great it was a pleasant surprise rather than something I had to do just to justify my position on the team. Besides, in High School you don't need to perform amazingly to still get social benefits. Going into College, I was somewhere between a 1 and 2 star prospect I think? Don't remember it off the top of my head, but I came onto Iowa's team as the WR5. Barely produced at all, was kind of disappointed in myself but I was hopeful for the future when I was no longer a Freshman. When I moved to the tight end position for my Sophomore year, being a decent blocking tight end and catching the occasional ball was enough to justify my position on the team, and if I had done that for Junior and Senior year, then I would have probably satisfied the expectations set up for me in College. Obviously, I outperformed that by just a little bit."
"A little bit" is an understatement for the two time All American.
However, going to the DSFL, things are about to change for the young Tight End prospect. A performance like his Sophomore year is not going to be enough to satisfy the expectations of whichever team drafts him, and perhaps more importantly, it will be nowhere near enough to satisfy the expectations he has of himself.
"I can't be satisfied with just blocking well. I need to contribute to team success in more than just that, I need to do something in the pass game as well. I will not allow myself to do that poorly, hopefully in any season I play football professionally."
When asked how he felt about his draft and his likely position, Pama was much, much more specific with his expectations and predictions.
"I've been to a number of DSFL interviews and workouts at this point in time, at this point I think half the league has contacted me in some fashion or another! I don't know who's going to draft me, nor do I specifically care all that much, but I'm pretty sure it should happen in the first couple rounds."
When asked to go into further detail about which teams have contacted him so far, Pama chuckled and declined. "Now that would be telling, wouldn't it. Would that be considered tampering? I don't know and I don't care to pull a Magic Johnson and find out."
As for his draft position, Darren Pama said his opinion came from looking around at workouts and seeing how he compared to his fellow tight end prospects.
"I'm going to be honest, I was originally worried seeing how many Tight Ends decided to Red Shirt for this season. Then two things happened pretty much at the same time: I noticed how many defenders of basically all positions declared for the draft, so this isn't going to be unique to the Tight End position, and the first workouts occurred. Most of these guys don't appear to be anywhere in my league, I can run circles around all but two. Dan Foster and Stephon Trummer are the only guys who appear to know what they were doing."
The next question we were going to ask was obvious: How does he separate himself from the two of those? Pama told us he had given a lot of thought to it, as it was important both to where he would get drafted and how he could improve further.
"Well, Trummer can run fast enough to leave me behind, and Foster is stronger than I am, but I'm a much, much better run blocker. I'm also faster than Foster, and stronger than Trummer. So I'm going to hope to set myself aside with my skill at blocking."
Pama had more to say about those two specifically, and what he felt their likely draft position was compared to him.
"I'm almost certain I'm the best Tight End in the class, but Foster could be drafted before me. He's been performing about as well in training camp, while also reportedly putting himself out there in interviews all over the place. I could SEE Trummer being above me too, but I doubt I'm dropping below TE3, and I think I am much more likely to be TE 2 or 1. Of course, those two probably also think they're the best tight end in the class. Heck, there's probably at least two or three guys out there who think they're the best tight end in the class that won't get drafted until the back half of the draft! I just hope I'm not one of those."
"I'm hoping, similar to the Tight Ends, only about 20 to 30 percent of the guys hoping to be drafted are actually top tier prospects this year. From that group, I'm hoping to set myself apart with my work ethic and ability to improve quickly. I suppose another Tight End who's about as good as that group could declare for the draft but hopefully that doesn't happen."
"So yeah, in a 10 team draft process, I hope I'm drafted in the first 20 or so players, and I believe I'm more than good enough to justify that spot right here in this moment."
Darren Pama, however, is not under any notion that he doesn't need to improve anything in order to get drafted.
"My main things to improve are my speed and strength, yeah. I still need to improve those. I'm better with those than most of this class and I'm confident I can improve those and my catching ability before preseason. I'm going to train on those, and I think I've got some budget available for getting some equipment to help me train harder."
When asked how sure he was about all of his more predictive answers, Pama had an extremely quick response. "I'm not sure of those, that's why they're called predictions! I don't have any clue how many people are good in this draft, I don't have the time to work out, attend interviews, read scouting reports on the other people declared for the draft at Tight End, and then also reading all one hundred plus players declared for the draft, their scouting reports, and how they're improving so far."
There was one final question for Pama that caused him to struggle a bit for an answer. What gave him the drive to succeed? What made him do all that he could to get better at football?
"I...um...I didn't have an answer to that question prepared...I suppose it's just because I enjoy it and I want to do the best I can. Do I really need another reason other than that?"
(1214 words)
"I didn't play tackle football until Junior Year of high school, so when I performed great it was a pleasant surprise rather than something I had to do just to justify my position on the team. Besides, in High School you don't need to perform amazingly to still get social benefits. Going into College, I was somewhere between a 1 and 2 star prospect I think? Don't remember it off the top of my head, but I came onto Iowa's team as the WR5. Barely produced at all, was kind of disappointed in myself but I was hopeful for the future when I was no longer a Freshman. When I moved to the tight end position for my Sophomore year, being a decent blocking tight end and catching the occasional ball was enough to justify my position on the team, and if I had done that for Junior and Senior year, then I would have probably satisfied the expectations set up for me in College. Obviously, I outperformed that by just a little bit."
"A little bit" is an understatement for the two time All American.
However, going to the DSFL, things are about to change for the young Tight End prospect. A performance like his Sophomore year is not going to be enough to satisfy the expectations of whichever team drafts him, and perhaps more importantly, it will be nowhere near enough to satisfy the expectations he has of himself.
"I can't be satisfied with just blocking well. I need to contribute to team success in more than just that, I need to do something in the pass game as well. I will not allow myself to do that poorly, hopefully in any season I play football professionally."
When asked how he felt about his draft and his likely position, Pama was much, much more specific with his expectations and predictions.
"I've been to a number of DSFL interviews and workouts at this point in time, at this point I think half the league has contacted me in some fashion or another! I don't know who's going to draft me, nor do I specifically care all that much, but I'm pretty sure it should happen in the first couple rounds."
When asked to go into further detail about which teams have contacted him so far, Pama chuckled and declined. "Now that would be telling, wouldn't it. Would that be considered tampering? I don't know and I don't care to pull a Magic Johnson and find out."
As for his draft position, Darren Pama said his opinion came from looking around at workouts and seeing how he compared to his fellow tight end prospects.
"I'm going to be honest, I was originally worried seeing how many Tight Ends decided to Red Shirt for this season. Then two things happened pretty much at the same time: I noticed how many defenders of basically all positions declared for the draft, so this isn't going to be unique to the Tight End position, and the first workouts occurred. Most of these guys don't appear to be anywhere in my league, I can run circles around all but two. Dan Foster and Stephon Trummer are the only guys who appear to know what they were doing."
The next question we were going to ask was obvious: How does he separate himself from the two of those? Pama told us he had given a lot of thought to it, as it was important both to where he would get drafted and how he could improve further.
"Well, Trummer can run fast enough to leave me behind, and Foster is stronger than I am, but I'm a much, much better run blocker. I'm also faster than Foster, and stronger than Trummer. So I'm going to hope to set myself aside with my skill at blocking."
Pama had more to say about those two specifically, and what he felt their likely draft position was compared to him.
"I'm almost certain I'm the best Tight End in the class, but Foster could be drafted before me. He's been performing about as well in training camp, while also reportedly putting himself out there in interviews all over the place. I could SEE Trummer being above me too, but I doubt I'm dropping below TE3, and I think I am much more likely to be TE 2 or 1. Of course, those two probably also think they're the best tight end in the class. Heck, there's probably at least two or three guys out there who think they're the best tight end in the class that won't get drafted until the back half of the draft! I just hope I'm not one of those."
"I'm hoping, similar to the Tight Ends, only about 20 to 30 percent of the guys hoping to be drafted are actually top tier prospects this year. From that group, I'm hoping to set myself apart with my work ethic and ability to improve quickly. I suppose another Tight End who's about as good as that group could declare for the draft but hopefully that doesn't happen."
"So yeah, in a 10 team draft process, I hope I'm drafted in the first 20 or so players, and I believe I'm more than good enough to justify that spot right here in this moment."
Darren Pama, however, is not under any notion that he doesn't need to improve anything in order to get drafted.
"My main things to improve are my speed and strength, yeah. I still need to improve those. I'm better with those than most of this class and I'm confident I can improve those and my catching ability before preseason. I'm going to train on those, and I think I've got some budget available for getting some equipment to help me train harder."
When asked how sure he was about all of his more predictive answers, Pama had an extremely quick response. "I'm not sure of those, that's why they're called predictions! I don't have any clue how many people are good in this draft, I don't have the time to work out, attend interviews, read scouting reports on the other people declared for the draft at Tight End, and then also reading all one hundred plus players declared for the draft, their scouting reports, and how they're improving so far."
There was one final question for Pama that caused him to struggle a bit for an answer. What gave him the drive to succeed? What made him do all that he could to get better at football?
"I...um...I didn't have an answer to that question prepared...I suppose it's just because I enjoy it and I want to do the best I can. Do I really need another reason other than that?"
(1214 words)
