Go to the Head of the Draft

"Remember, you are being evaluated. Even I'm evaluating you," he tells the players. He tells them that lasting impressions with teams can be made the moment a player walks in the door. For instance, one executive he worked with was instantly turned off by a player who gave a cold fish of a handshake.

Herock, himself, remembers sitting several times as an executive in the makeshift offices that teams create in hotel rooms at the combine and watching with dread as a player he coveted buried himself in the 15-minute interview.

"As soon as the player left the room, the coach would go, 'I don't want that [guy] on my team,' " Herock said. "I think I can help that guy."

Agent Pat Dye Jr. raves about the work Herock did with one of his clients, New York Giants wide receiver Tim Carter, who in 2002 went from being shy and withdrawn to assertive in an afternoon.

"It was a personality transformation," Dye said. "The Giants brought him in for a visit before the draft and they were blown away. He wound up being the second senior wide receiver drafted that year [in the second round]. I think it absolutely helped in Timmy's case."

As word of Herock's class has gotten around, agents have brought him their troubled clients, hoping he can work magic on bad attitudes or long rap sheets. Last year, former Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick walked into the La Quinta, already scarred by a number of college incidents that led to his dismissal from the team. Upon meeting Herock, he did little to change that impression by saying, "Ahhh man."

" 'First of all, I don't like you,' " Herock said he told Vick. " 'I'm emulating an NFL GM now and I don't like you. Now you have to change that.'

"I think that helped him right away," Herock said. Vick eventually got an invitation to try out for the Miami Dolphins and wound up making the team.

Herock does not hold back when talking about the players he hates. None bothers him more than Maurice Clarett, the former star running back from Ohio State who got into academic troubles and never played beyond his freshman year. Clarett, Herock said, sat through the class smiling, arguing that he didn't need the interview preparation because NFL teams were going to be so overwhelmed by his speed and workouts that he would rise through the draft on football alone.

Clarett was drafted by the Broncos in the third round in 2005 but was cut at the end of training camp after a summer of ineffective performances and run-ins with assistant coaches. A year later, he was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery and concealed weapons charges.

To this day, Herock calls him "that little punk."

But the one player who sticks in Herock's mind is not one he trained but one he helped draft in the mid 1990s -- cornerback Ron Davis from Tennessee. Then with the Falcons, Herock loved Davis's ability to cover receivers but was troubled by his college suspensions for marijuana use. Still, Atlanta brought Davis into its hotel room at the combine for an interview.