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While there was the occasional moments of doubt, Silas Redd knew exactly what he wanted to do when his college career ended — keep playing the game that he loves so much.

But with a injury sidelining him for the second half of his senior season at USC,  he understood that he needed to put in extra work before the next NFL season started if his phone was going to ring with a team on the other end.

As told to USCTrojans.com as part of their "Retro Diary" series, Redd only took a few days off at the end of the college season, instead opting to get his injuries healed up quickly and then go straight into NFL Combine training.

From early January to late February, Redd was in Florida, running through drills that would best prepare him for the combine.

I'd go through two workouts a day, a morning and a late afternoon session. You do testing when you first get there to set the bar and see where you need to be. From there on it's just beating your initial times, reps and everything like that. The trainers prepare you with meals and give you a schedule and it's honestly just that for six weeks straight. They have workouts for each performance thing (the 40 yard dash, vertical, shuttle, etc.) and then just workouts to get your body ready. You do a lot of 40 starts, a lot of 10-yard sprints, and just gradually build up to that full distance. It got real, real tedious and annoying after awhile, but you've got to remember it's all for a purpose.

When the combine finally did come, Redd said the days were the longest of the year for him, as he'd have to get up at 4 a.m. every day to go through interviews and tests.

At one point in one of his interviews, Redd was asked just how much he could do with a paper clip in his possession.

Interviews are one of the first things you do. Some players interview with every team, I only formally interviewed with one. The informal interviews are kind of like speed dating; you talk to position coaches from each team for about five or 10 minutes until the horn sounds. Some teams ask you some weird things. I remember one team gave me a minute to name as many things that I could do with a paper clip that I could think of. Other teams want you to draw up plays from your college team or they teach you something and then in the last minute or so they test you on what you went over. Some just want to get to know you.

In the end, while the combine was surely a blast, it taught him one thing in particular.

A big thing to realize is that the combine is definitely not the be-all end-all. God-willing you get drafted or signed or picked up. There are a lot of different opportunities you have to make your presence known and fortunately, I was able to do that. I didn't do so great at the combine but I picked it up on the back end. It's a lot more about where you finish than where you start.

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