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- Mar 19, 2019
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INDIANAPOLIS — The pressure of being highly touted and performing on the big stage is nothing new for Neville Gallimore.
Straight out of Ottawa, Ontario, Gallimore was a prep star coming from our neighbors to the north, ranking as the top high school football player in Canada before choosing the Oklahoma Sooners over more than 30 other offers, including Ohio State, Auburn, Florida State and USC.
He was even the first Canadian to compete in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, according to the Oklahoma athletics website.
"It was cool. It was a really good experience. It didn't really hit me until I've got a lot of people coming up to me telling me I was just that (the top Canadian recruit)," Gallimore told Colts.com on Thursday at the NFL Scouting Combine. "The biggest thing for me was getting a scholarship and getting an opportunity to play Division I football because that was always a dream of mine."
Gallimore has a desire to continue learning, as he has already earned a bachelor's degree and is pursuing a master's. Studying his team's playbook and gameplans shouldn't be an issue there.
The redshirt senior sat out 2015 before becoming a starter in the second half of his debut season in 2016. From there, he started 38-of-52 career games (including four bowl games), missing three combined contests due to injury in 2017 and 2018.
The defensive tackle totaled 148 tackles (18 for loss), 9.0 sacks, five forced fumbles and two pass breakups. In his final season in 2019, Gallimore earned permanent Team Captain status and was named First-Team All-Big 12. He also earned an invitation to the Senior Bowl, where he impressed throughout the week of practice.
"It was a blessing. It was awesome," Gallimore said of being a team captain for the Sooners. "To go to your dream school, compete and be able to start and contribute, but then to have your teammates and coaches believe that you're one of the guys that they want to lead the team. It just goes back to the amount of work and the love that I have for this game and the love I have for this school. Again, you can't take that stuff for granted because I know there's a lot of guys that were worthy of being in that position. I was just blessed to be one of them."
This week at the NFL Scouting Combine, Gallimore measured in at 6-2 and 304 pounds with a wingspan of just over 6-5. It was an outstanding weigh-in for him considering what he already shows on tape.
Although he's 300 pounds, he can move like he's only 270 pounds, covering ground very quickly and moving with twitchy quickness unlike other men his size.