Alex Bachman entered college with one year of wide receiver experience. He was told by many that he was too small to play receiver. That he’d be better suited at a position like safety. The naysayers and doubters didn’t discourage him, though. Despite the disadvantage of only having one year of experience, he was able to show out at a Wake Forest recruiting camp and earn himself a scholarship.
Since being at Wake Forest, he’s been apart of a class that has helped change the culture of the program. He’s been apart of three straight winning seasons and three straight bowl wins. The 2018 Birmingham Bowl ended up being the biggest game of Bachman’s career with the Demon Deacons. He lead the way with seven receptions for 171 yards.
Four years later, Bachman is preparing for the NFL Draft and is seen by many as a sleeper. His Wake Forest bio lists him at 6’0″ tall and 190 pounds. But, he says that since training for the draft, he’s put on 15 pounds of muscle. His pro day was a massive success. A lot of people have said that he was the star of the show. Even outperforming teammate Greg Dortch, who is projected to be a draft selection in his own right.
I was fortunate enough to sit down with Bachman and talk to him about his pre-draft experience, pro day, the Birmingham Bowl, life as a student athlete, and even some NBA news. The full interview will be available at the end of the article.
What happened in the Birmingham Bowl that allowed you to have so much success?
It wasn’t anything that I did, and I just did what I always do. The receiver position gets a lot of bad rep, with recent incidents with Odell (Beckham Jr) and Antonio Brown. I don’t think people understand that receiver is a position where you can do your job every single play and nothing comes from it.
As a receiver, you’re only as good as your quarterback. You’re only as good as your offensive line. And you’re only as good as your offensive coordinator. It’s a position that’s all about opportunities, and in that game I just happened to get more opportunities than I usually do. I just did everything I usually do, had more balls come my way, got in a rhythm, and coach kept calling my number. Jaime (Newman) kept looking my way, and we were on the same page several times and was able to make plays in order to help us win.
What was your Pro Day experience like? A lot of people are saying you outperformed everyone there. How would you describe your performance?
My Pro Day was just a fantastic opportunity and one that I’ve been hoping for my whole life. The opportunity to perform in front of NFL scouts and have my name involved in the NFL process. For me, it was solid. I think a lot of people were impressed with how I performed. I think even my coaches and teammates were surprised to see me perform as well as I did. But for me, I was actually disappointed. I’ve always been a perfectionist, I’ve always been a guy who tries to hit the highest marks that he can. I know what I’m capable of and there were some marks that I have hit before that I didn’t hit at my pro day. So I was a little bit disappointed in that, but at the end of the day, just to be there was a blessing.
To perform the way that I did and have all these scouts come up and talk to me afterwards. To hear around the football program people saying this and that about how well I did was extremely satisfying because of the two and a half months of work I’ve put in. Waking up really early everyday, trying to be the first one to the facility and being the last one to leave. Coming home, eating right, getting 10 hours of sleep. Every single decision I’ve made for the past two and a half months was directed towards the pro day. So to be able to go in and be able to perform well and put my name up on a few teams draft boards was a satisfying experience.
The rest of the interview can be found below.