For college football athletes, the Scouting Combine and Pro Days are their final chance to make a statement in front of NFL Scouts and GMs before the Draft day. Buffs Wide Receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. did just that at Colorado’s Pro Day on April 4, posting an impressive 4.4 seconds 40-yard dash.
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Impressively enough, these numbers marked a clear improvement over Horn Jr.’s Combine performance, where he clocked a respectable 4.46-second 40-yard dash. But he wasn’t satisfied with it, telling NFL Network analysts Mike Garafolo and Steve Wyche that he was “way faster than that.”
He clearly was. Horn Jr.’s 4.4 was the fastest time by any player from Boulder. Naturally, one would expect Jimmy to be all fired up about this. But as we saw in CU Buffs star Ben Finneseth’s latest YouTube video, Horn Jr. was cool as a cucumber — even rooting for his Combine-snubbed teammate, Shilo Sanders.
In Finneseth’s video, the safety is seen asking Horn Jr. a joking, yet pointed question: “Is Shilo faster than you, bro?”
The CU wide receiver showed that he is ready for the big stage — and the media attention that comes with it — with his cool response: “Just to boost up his ego, yes, he’s faster than me.”
Disappointment for Shilo
Shilo’s ego may have been boosted by this, but not his speed. The Sanders scion clocked his forty at 4.52 seconds, despite the incentive of a new car promised by his father for a 4.4-second finish. Sanders’ second attempt was even worse, coming in at 4.59 seconds. Although some scouts reportedly timed it at 4.47, it was still slower than Horn Jr.’s and not fast enough to earn the car.
As expected, the Colorado safety wasn’t too happy with his time. “The 40 is all about technique. I ended up with a 4.52. I really wanted to get that 4.4 so I could get this whip from my dad,” Shilo said.
Considering how long Shilo trained for the Pro Day — and the fact that he actually had the NFL Combine’s official equipment manufacturer assisting him — his disappointment is understandable. Deion Sanders, however, was proud of his son and backed him to have a bright future in the NFL.
“Shilo’s got several years of film that are impeccable,” Deion said. “He had one negative game (against Kansas State in 2024) that we can denote. Shilo’s been a pillar of consistency. Shilo’s an old-school player playing under these new-school guidelines. Shilo is a dawg.”
Coming back to the two Buffs stars, it was truly wholesome to see Jimmy Horn Jr. and Sanders share some playful banter before what was possibly the most pivotal moment of their careers so far. Their exchange showed us what Coach Prime has been building at Boulder — a team where competitiveness does not elbow out camaraderie.
