At the scouting combine, players who aren’t nationally known get the chance to prove themselves on the biggest pre-draft stage. Not many people have heard of Colorado State running back Kapri Bibbs, but he’s a player who has the attention of NFL scouts.
He’s a former high school star who only played one year at CSU—and what a year it was! Bibbs finished 2013 with over 1,700 yards rushing and a whopping 31 touchdowns.
Coming out as a redshirt sophomore, Bibbs will use both the combine and his pro day to further impress scouts. He’ll need to really have a strong pro day after running a 4.68 40-yard dash at the combine.
I talked to his agent after the combine, and the reason for the slower-than-expected time was revealed. Bibbs aggravated a turf toe during the broad jump, and that’s what caused his workout to suffer.
Working for ESPN Denver I covered CSU as the radio home of the Rams. I broadcast from the Rams season-opening scrimmage at Infinity Park before the season, and Bibbs was merely a third-string back behind Donnell Alexander and Chris Nwoke.
By the end of the season, Bibbs was the team’s biggest weapon.
Here’s my scouting report on a player not many have heard of, but he could become the next late-round running back (like Alfred Morris) to splash upon the NFL scene.
Kapri Bibbs—RB—Colorado State—5’9”, 212 pounds
Background/Statistics
He was a high school star in Chicago and earned Offensive Player of the Year awards from ESPNChicago.com and ChicagoNow.com after his senior season. Bibbs was a first-team all-state selection as a senior, averaging 8.8 yards per carry (300 attempts, 2,654 yards), with 38 rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns. He received national headlines with his performance in a 49-43 win over Oswego on Oct. 1, 2010, in which he established Illinois single-game records with 520 rushing yards and seven touchdowns; four of which were longer than 50 yards.
Bibbs had several Big 10 schools looking at him coming out of high school. He originally committed to Illinois when Ron Zook was there, but he de-committed so he could go to Colorado State. He failed to qualify academically in 2011, and Bibbs played one year of football at Snow Community College. Bibbs got his grades up at Front Range Community College before enrolling at CSU in January 2013.
During his one and only season with the Rams, Bibbs ranked No. 6 among all FBS players with 1,741 rushing yards and tied for the nation's lead in rushing and total touchdowns (31) and points scored (186). Bibbs scored three or more touchdowns a school-record eight times in 2013 to tie Barry Sanders' NCAA record from 1988, including a streak of five such games in a row through the New Mexico game (Nov. 16).
Scouting Report
Bibbs is not the biggest back, nor is he the fastest. He excels at running the football because of his incredible vision and fantastic balance.
He can find small creases between the tackles, and Bibbs has the speed to get to the outside at the second level. In the open field, he can break off moves without losing much speed. He doesn’t hesitate with the ball in his hands. Instead, Bibbs runs north-and-south as quickly as possible.
He’s a patient runner who will press the hole before making the cut. Bibbs is only going to be 21-years old, and there’s plenty of tread left on his tires after only one season of FBS football.
Compactly built, Bibbs can bounce off would-be tacklers with ease. He does a good job of keeping his feet moving upon contact. This helps him gain positive yards after contact.
Bibbs was bottled up against Alabama, Boise State and Utah State—causing some to question whether or not he can produce against quality opponents. He had six games with 100 or more rushing yards, including three with 200 or more yards (201, 291 and 312) and one with 300 or more (312). However, Bibbs also had eight games with less than 100 yards rushing, although five of those came before he was the starter.
He's not proven as a receiver out of the backfield, and he has limited experience as a pass-protector.
Combine Quotations
Q: Is your 40-yard dash time the key for your draft stock?
A: “Sometimes you try not to look at any media stuff when you’re training, because you look up there and see somebody says you’re gonna run a 4.5 and you can only imagine what your stock is going to look like when you run a 4.3 or 4.4. So I think the 40 was a big thing for me at this combine. And field drills, showing that I can catch the ball and be a three-down back, that’s my goal.”
Q: What about the risk of coming out early? “
A: You see guys that stay in extra years and it’s almost like, I’m not scared of my production if I were to stay in college for another year. But there’s always that play, like Marcus Lattimore had it and other great running backs had it. You have guys that stayed here and then complain about their knees. Luckily I’m in a situation where I’m not banged up at all and I’m perfectly healthy and God blessed me to be in this situation and be able to step on this field here and show everybody what I got at my age.”
Q: Do you feel like you blew off academics a bit early in your college career?
A: “Just at a young age it’s kind of like trial and error. You learn from everything that you do. One of my biggest things is I want to teach kids coming out now that there is an NCAA Clearinghouse, and they will deny you. At one point in time I did not know about that. I was thinking, ‘hey if I play football I’m going to college.’ So when I found out about that Clearinghouse it was a big shock to me. I was in some ceramics class and food classes and they told me I needed two more math classes and I’m in my junior year so a lot of that factored into my recruiting. Then grades, when I found out that’s when I started to step it up.”
Q: Who was the biggest inspiration in your life?
A: “My molding came from my mom—Stacey Griffin, I mean she’s not a football player but her ambition, her determination gave me everything that I needed. We’ve got five kids in our household and she woke up every single morning at 6 o’clock and we’d have breakfast on the table by the time we woke up. She would just be working so hard and as a 6-year-old kid, it’s amazing how you can see somebody work that hard and say, hey, mom’s working hard. You can look at your brother and say hey, look mom’s working hard and everything I do now, she just always told me go out there and make sure you don’t regret anything, leave it all out there.”
Q: What are some of your goals?
A: “I’ve been a goal-setter my whole life. Everything I’ve ever set in my life has been goals. I told myself I was going to come out of college in three years and I came out of college in three years. I told myself when I got to Colorado State, before I left I was going to rush for 1,500 yards and 20 touchdowns before I left. And everything I’ve done has been goals and luckily God has blessed me enough to reach those goals.”
Q: How did you get the name Kapri?
A: “All my brothers have K names—all of them. My mom was like ‘Hey we need a name for my son.’ So she started looking around and everybody’s in the room looking for a name. My grandma’s like, ‘Capri.’ She’s like, the Capri cigarettes that’s with a C. She said, ‘No, flip it around to a K’. So my mom flipped it around to a K and next thing you know.... everybody tells me I have one of the funniest football names. My name sounds more like a cloth or a rag or something like that, like some kitchen utensil.”
Bottom Line
Bibbs is currently seen as a seventh-round pick, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him sneak into the sixth round. There are some concerned about whether or not Bibbs is a one-year wonder, or if he can have the staying power to be an impact player at the pro level. If a team wants an instinctive runner, with a decisive style (and a nose for the end zone), then Bibbs makes for a solid gamble on the last day of the draft.