09-04-2025
Making the Team: How a couple minutes changed Chris Villarrial's life
LORETTO (WTAJ) — For the last 15 years, Chris Villarrial has led St. Francis Football. Like many coaches, this is a second chapter for him after playing 11 years in the NFL.
But how he got to the league is quite the story.
In 1996 he was a college senior at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a small Division II program. He was a special education major whose main concern was finding a teaching job after graduation. But one day Chris received an invitation that inevitably changed his life. Chris was one of the 300 college football players invited that year to the NFL Combine.
'I remember receiving that letter, and I remember showing it to my parents, and I think the whole family was in shock at that time, I really do,' Villarial laughed.
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The NFL Combine has been around since the 1970s. It's a tryout of sorts where players entering that season's draft workout and interview with teams. Today the event is held in Lucas Oil Stadium, but in 1996 it was inside the RCA Dome.
'Being in that room with all these guys that you read about, you know, the Nebraska players, the Notre Dame players, and, you just in awe because you start to pinch yourself, like, do I really belong here?' he said.
When Chris arrived in Indianapolis, he wasn't exactly the prized draft pick like some of his counterparts, but rather a diamond waiting in the rough.
That year, six Hall of Famers would be selected, guys like Marvin Harrison, Ray Lewis and Jonathan Ogden, an offensive lineman out of UCLA who was the Baltimore Ravens' first-ever draft pick.
'Jonathan Ogden was talked about this premier, you know, first rounder,' Villarial remembers.
Running through drills with the other offensive linemen Chris watched Ogden, the fourth overall pick, do the bench press drill and complete 30-reps.
'I never did the 225 lbs test. 'When we were at IUP, we did one-rep maxes,' Villarial said, referencing the bench press workout. 'I remember just getting on the bench and saying, let's just do this.'
Jonathan Ogden would eventually make it to the Hall of Fame, his 30-reps were good, but Chris's 36 set a new combine record.
'It was dead quiet in the room,' he recalled. 'I started walking out of the room, and there was Jimmy Johnson, and Dave Wannstedt sitting there, and I'll never forget it, that as I'm walking out, they both looked at me and they said, 'Hey, great job.''
Those few minutes at the bench press changed everything for Villarrial who's stock jumped instantaneously.
'Everything changed for me at that point,' Villarial said. 'You went from just being a regular college student, thinking about just where am I going to get a teaching job at, to all of a sudden, you know, you're getting teams flying, you here are flying and you there.'
That spring the Chicago Bears selected him 152nd overall in the fifth round. The small-school kid from Hummelstown, PA was heading to the NFL.
During ESPN's coverage, legendary draft analyst Mel Kiper was very high on the pick. 'This kid did a great job at IUP, a dominant drive blocker at center or guard,' he said on the ESPN broadcast. 'I think at this point in the draft, you're getting a small college kid with a lot of desire and a lot of raw strength.'
'I grew up right behind a creek, Swatara Creek,' Villarrial said. 'We were walking down to go fishing and my mom started screaming, hey, there's someone on the phone!'
After making the active roster in 1996, the Bears told Villarrial that he was a project piece, but by midseason he was in the starting lineup, making his first start in a week five matchup against the then-Oakland Raiders.
'I just remember closing my eyes,' he recalled. 'I remember coming off the ball as hard as I could and when I looked down, I had pancaked Chester McGlockton, and we had gained five yards. And I just remember all my teammates picked me up, and [said] 'There you go, rook. Good job.''
Villarrial spent 11 seasons in the NFL with the Bears, and Buffalo Bills. He was named All-Pro twice. He retired in 2006.
After the NFL he went into coaching. He'd serve as an assistant at Central Cambria High School, before joining Saint Francis's staff in 2009. The following year Villarrial was named head coach and has been with the Red Flash since.
It's an incredible story arc, and it all started with a few good minutes at the NFL Combine.
'I think it's very fair,' he said when asked if the bench press changed his life. 'And I hope my story can inspire others, that if you have that opportunity, take full advantage of it. Because you never know what can happen. I didn't know what was going to happen. I never even thought I'd get invited to the combine, let alone go out there and and do something that. [It] changed my life forever.'
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