HAMILTON _ If not for its consistency, even dating to his days in a Sidney uniform, Pat Simonds' gait easily could be mistaken for a limp.
As he strolled into Colgate's huddle during last Saturday night's 20-12 Patriot League football victory over Fordham at Andy Kerr Stadium, one would think he's injured or has a 20-pound weight affixed to a left leg that always lags behind his right.
Then the huddle breaks and Simonds jogs lightly on the artificial turf to his assigned spot in the Raiders' four-wide receiver set. Suddenly, his 6-foot-6 frame appears nimble.
Once the ball is snapped, Simonds looks as healthy as a Clydesdale, hurling his 223-pound frame at unsuspecting linebackers or safeties on run plays and dashing past smaller, lighter defenders on pass plays.
The senior wide receiver has drawn plenty of attention this season, and not just from opposing defenses.
Cal McCombs of the Denver Broncos, Jerry Hardaway of the Arizona Cardinals, Greg Seamon of the Cincinnati Bengals, Michael LaFlamme of the Buffalo Bills and Conrad Cardano of the Minnesota Vikings scouted Saturday's game.
None spoke on the record as to why they were there, but two indicated that Simonds was the main reason.
Simonds did not disappoint, with season highs of nine catches and 159 yards. He grabbed a touchdown pass for the seventh consecutive game _ a streak that dates to last season _ as the defending Patriot League champion Raiders improved to 4-0.
According to the website nfldraftscout.com, Simonds is rated 28th out of 313 draft-eligible wide receivers and 242nd overall out of 2,561 players. NFL teams selected 256 players in the 2009 draft.
Dick Biddle, Colgate's 14th-year head coach, referred to Simonds as Colgate's most draft-ready player during his tenure. That includes Oneonta High graduate Geoff Bean, a defensive back who had three-day tryout with the Vikings and a tryout with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in the spring of 2007, and running back Jamaal Branch, who played for the New Orleans Saints in 2006.
When Simonds _ still with the same polite, friendly demeanor he carried as a slender prep star _ picked Colgate, he said playing professionally never figured into his thought process.
"Honestly, it never was," said Simonds, a sociology and anthropology major. "I decided on Colgate because it was a great academic institution and somewhere I could play football at a high level. As time progressed, (getting drafted was) in the back of your head a little bit."
The early days
Though Simonds' emergence as one of the nation's top wideouts seems to have come from nowhere, those who paid close attention to his athletic exploits in high school probably aren't surprised.
One of his earliest eye-catching plays came during his sophomore season with the Warriors. In the 2003 Section Four Class C final against Unatego, current Hartwick College standout running back Tosh DeMulder got free behind the Sidney secondary. DeMulder, The Daily Star's Player of the Year in 2003, was plenty fast and rarely got caught from behind at the high school level.
But Simonds caught DeMulder, pulling him down at Sidney's 14 after a 52-yard run.
"You don't think of Pat as a defensive player, but a lot of his more athletic plays came on defense," Sidney coach Jeff Matthews said. "He always had that never-say-die attitude and always played to the whistle."
The following winter, Simonds won the Slam Dunk Contest on the eve of the 2004 STOP-DWI Holiday Classic, a tournament that annually attracts some of the top high school basketball teams in the nation.
"The coaches recruiting from Colgate went absolutely nuts because some of his best highlights were of him going up for dunks," Matthews said.
That same winter, while double-dipping on the indoor track team, Simonds cleared 6-5 in the high jump.
"And he only minimally developed good jumping form," Sidney assistant track coach Spike Paranya said. "If he could have stayed with it, he could have gone 6-8 or higher. He just had that spring and strength, but the problem was he's so good at all of the other sports."
Fast forward to his senior year, when Simonds led Sidney to the Class C state championship in football. Simonds caught 52 passes for 1,038 yards and 17 touchdowns _ all single-season school records.
"The thing that just puts me in awe is you watch him make great plays with great mismatches in high school and you still see him with a mismatch in college," Matthews said. "It just blows my mind to see him go over the top of guys who have similar athletic skills."
Recruitment process
Matthews said aside from Colgate, Cornell University was the only Division I or Division I-AA school to show real interest in Simonds.
"We got started late in the process," Matthews said. "A lot of the big schools already had their boards set and I think that hurt."
Matthews said the fact that upstate New York is generally disregarded as a hotbed for recruiting by bigger programs also played a role.
"It was tough to get him on the radar," he said.
The first three years
Though Simonds didn't make an immediate impact on the field upon his arrival at Colgate in 2006 _ he appeared in six games as a freshman, mostly on special teams _ at least one teammate noticed his talents.
Bean, an all-Patriot League safety with the Raiders, said of Simonds before the 2006 season started: "I've seen him run some routes. He can definitely go up and get the ball."
Biddle said when Simonds played as a member of Colgate's freshman scout team, the Raiders' defensive coaches told him, "he's hard to cover and has a bright future."
Simonds earned a starting spot as a sophomore and covered 649 yards on 40 catches, including five TDs.
"Obviously, he came in tall," Biddle said, "but he's gotten bigger, stronger and faster."
Last season, Simonds established himself as the go-to guy for quarterback Greg Sullivan. Simonds earned first-team Patriot League honors with 65 receptions for 1,136 yards and nine TDs. He also received Colgate's Andy Kerr Award, which is presented to the Raiders' offensive MVP.
Every summer, Biddle said, Simonds has stayed in Hamilton to work out. Now, that lean kid who graduated from Sidney in 2006 is a chiseled specimen. The 20-or-so pounds he's added since graduating from high school hasn't slowed Simonds any as he has run a sub 4.6-second 40-yard dash.
"He puts a lot of time in and he's one of our strongest kids," Biddle said. "When he's lifting weights, he works with the offensive linemen."
Versus Fordham
Before the season, Simonds earned a spot on the Sports Network Preseason Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) All-America Team.
To look at his numbers over the last three seasons, one might get the idea Colgate runs the FCS' version of Hartwick's offense _ a throw-it-50-times-a-game unit that doesn't feel satisfied until it scores 50 points.
With 128 receptions, Simonds is one catch behind 2002 graduate Joe Parker for fifth in program history. His 2,181 receiving yards rank fifth all-time at Colgate.
But against Fordham, it became clear that these Raiders are a run-heavy squad. Though they often use four wideouts and Sullivan is always in a shotgun formation, their spread offense consisted of 63 runs out of 82 plays from scrimmage.
One scout said Saturday that it was tough to get a read on Simonds in the first half because of Colgate's reliance on its running game.
It became apparent early that Simonds takes his blocking responsibilities seriously.
Midway through the first quarter, Simonds sealed Fordham's Isa Abdul El-Quddus on the left side to help spring Jordan McCord for a 23-yard run to Fordham's 6.
When Simonds lined up as an inside slot to the strong side of Colgate's formation, he almost always headed for the opposition's safety and never shied from contact.
"He's got a little nastiness about him and finishes really strong," said Matthews, who attended Saturday's game. "He's the ultimate team player. If his number is not being called, he tries to get the quarterback or running back sprung to get them the most yards.
"He did an OK job (blocking) in high school," he continued. "We're a small staff, so sometimes we let some of those things go. He's become much better and his increased physique has helped quite a bit."
Though Sullivan threw 19 times Saturday, 13 were directed toward Simonds.
"You've got to make the play when they call your number," said Simonds, who has caught 26 of Sullivan's 44 completions this season for 396 yards. "When they call your number, you've really got to pull through for your teammates and it's not like we pass that much anyway. You get your number called a little bit and you get really excited."
He caught back-to-back passes from Sullivan in the first quarter, the first on a comeback route along the right sideline that went for 8 yards and the second on an out pattern that covered 18 yards.
With 40 seconds left in the first quarter, Simonds broke open on a post pattern for a 46-yard gain. Then, on a timing pattern along the right sideline in the second quarter, Simonds corralled a lofted Sullivan pass for 22 yards.
"Some people want to give me credit, but really, it's all him," Sullivan said of Simonds. "He's just so big and so fast. That's why the NFL is interested in him. He makes my job so much easier."
Size matters
Being 6-6 is one thing; knowing how to use 6-6 is another. Simonds proved twice in the third quarter he knows how to make himself big.
Fordham's Kelvin Colbert had the unenviable task of single coverage on Simonds, who came free again on a post and made a leaping grab for a 32-yard gain to the Fordham 33.
A few plays later, Simonds lined up wide on the left side. He started slightly to the inside before fading toward the left corner of the end zone. The 5-8 Colbert had good position, but Simonds used his body to shield the defender and then jumped to catch the ball at his highest point for an easy 18-yard touchdown.
"I have to do that because I'm not the fastest guy in the world," Simonds said of his seventh TD catch of the season. "I'm 6-6 and I have to use that to my advantage."
With Colgate holding a 13-12 lead in the fourth quarter, the Raiders drove to Fordham's 7.
On a second-down play, Simonds ran a slant from the left side and drew the immediate attention of three Rams defenders. Tight end Nick Cvetic slipped out to the left corner and was at least 15 yards clear of the nearest beating heart. Sullivan could have underhanded the ball to Cvetic, whose touchdown set up Evan Colborne's extra point to cap the scoring.
"He draws so much attention and that opens things up for other guys," Sullivan said.
Two more receptions on Colgate's final drive _ the latter a diving 7-yarder in the left flat that produced a first down and forced Fordham to burn its timeouts _ helped the Raiders seal it.
Intangibles
Biddle said he asks his players to elect captains every season, and the three who earn the most votes are so tagged.
This season, Simonds garnered so many votes that Biddle opted to go with one, marking the first time since 1994 that the Raiders went with a single captain.
"We have so much respect for him and that's why he got so many votes for captain," Sullivan said.
Following Saturday's game, Simonds signed autographs for children and chatted with fans for about 20 minutes.
"He's just a great person," Biddle said of Simonds, who'll lead the Raiders into their homecoming game against Cornell (2-0) at 1 p.m. Saturday. "You want someone like him as a son or a son-in-law. He has a great family, a great personality and loves to have fun."
Matthews said early in the summer, Simonds made it a habit of appearing at open gym workouts in Sidney and playing basketball with kids.
"He just worked extremely hard to be in a position to go to a great school," Matthews said. "As a freshman, he not only made the team but traveled to road games and he continued on to become one of the top receivers to ever go to Colgate. He's spent his life proving doubters wrong and now he's got a chance to have his name called on draft day."
Simonds admitted it's a little nerve-racking to have so many scouts watching him but said he tries block it out.
Still, Simonds said his preparation never changed, even after learning of the NFL's interest in him.
"I've just kept doing what I've always done," Simonds said.
Sort of like that unique walk of his.
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Rob Centorani can be reached at rcentorani@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 209.
