Las Vegan Will Hernandez makes most of chance, awaits NFL draft
Bill Froman saw something in offensive lineman Will Hernandez that others didn’t, but now with the advantage of hindsight concedes it was largely because he was searching for anyone who might resemble a decent football player.
Froman didn’t have many of those when he took over in 2011 as the coach at Chaparral High School, and Hernandez at least had the look of someone who could be pretty good. And that was before Hernandez showed his toughness by playing with a broken arm.
“He wasn’t big yet, but his frame was there and he was really athletic,” said Froman, now the coach at Coronado.
At that point, even Hernandez didn’t see his potential. He hadn’t even thought about playing college football, forget the pros, so getting good grades wasn’t a priority. Hernandez, who grew up loving soccer and knew little about football, even considered leaving high school early to join his dad in construction work.
Froman helped convinced Hernandez to stick with football, that he might have a future in it.
So Hernandez worked hard in the classroom and on the field, and despite not being heavily recruited and winding up at Texas-El Paso, he now is in position to possibly be selected in Thursday’s first round of the NFL draft.
He would be the second Las Vegan in three years to go in the first round. Notre Dame offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley, who went to Bishop Gorman, was drafted No. 6 overall by the Baltimore Ravens in 2016, the highest local draft pick ever taken.
Hernandez (6 feet 2 inches, 327 pounds) won’t go that high, but he is expected to be chosen in the latter part of the first round or slip into the second.
“At the end, it will fall where it needs to fall,” Hernandez said. “I need an opportunity to play, so wherever I go, I’ll go. I’ll be fine with it. I just want to go to a team that believes in me and wants me on their team, so I’m ready to get to work for whatever team that is.”
Hernandez could play guard or center in the NFL, and he was a standout left guard at UTEP.
It’s not a school that typically produces first-round talent, and Froman believed strongly that he had a major college prospect in Hernandez. Froman said he found out later that a school counselor mistakenly misinformed college coaches that Hernandez wasn’t academically qualified.
“Or he would’ve gone to USC,” Froman said. “Arizona wanted him.”
By the time the error was discovered, Froman struggled to find a college home because it was well after the signing period and roster spots were scarce. Froman finally found a place for Hernandez at UTEP.
Hernandez redshirted his first season with the Miners, and though he was about 725 miles from Las Vegas, it felt like more than 7,000 miles. He wanted to return home and play for UNLV, and Froman went to then-Rebels coach Bobby Hauck, who wasn’t interested.
“Just like the other 125 colleges that passed on him,” Hauck, now Montana’s coach, said in a text message. “We didn’t think his high school film was great, glad he developed into a player. Good for him.”
Hernandez wound up making the most of his time at UTEP, going on to start all 49 games of his Miners career. He earned second-team Associated Press All-America honors his final two seasons, the first UTEP player to ever pull that off. Considering the Miners went 0-12 last season, repeating that honor was especially impressive.
UTEP had played some notable power-conference schools, such as Oklahoma last season and Texas in 2016, but Hernandez knew he still would have to prove himself at the Senior Bowl and NFL scouting combine. He stood out at both, putting up 37 repetitions in the 225-pound bench press at the combine, tops among offensive linemen.
“Ever since I got the opportunity to play college football, I told myself I wasn’t going to let it go to waste,” Hernandez said. “I was going to go all out, and I was going to do my best in everything I did. So I did that all four years of college, and something I always felt I needed was media attention, exposure, the opportunity to go with the big guys.
“When I got the invite to the Senior Bowl, I said, ‘This is it. This is my chance to actually prove myself in front of everybody and with the best of the best.’ So I went there with that intention to prove myself, and I felt like I did that. When I got the invite to the combine, it was exactly the same thing. I was real happy, and I wanted to seize the opportunity.”
He did, and now Hernandez waits.
If the draft projections are correct, he won’t have to wait long.
Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.