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Barely six months after his college football career at N.C. State ended, DeMario Pressley's pro career is about to begin. The former Dudley standout will be selected in the 2008 NFL draft this weekend. The only question is when?

"I'm excited, man," Pressley said this week. "I can't wait. I think about it all day, every day."

That's probably because, ever since he played his last game for the Wolfpack, Pressley has been preparing for the draft -- all day, nearly every single day.

The first step for Pressley, a 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive tackle, was selecting an agent. He consulted with two trusted sources, former teammates John McCargo and Leroy Harris, and eventually selected their agent, Hadley Engelhard. That ended a process that had Pressley flashing back to his days as a highly touted recruit, when he was fielding offers from colleges across the country.

"The agents, they were sending me stuff almost every day," Pressley said.

What separated Engelhard from the rest were his connections with Pressley's former teammates and his connections with former Atlanta Falcons All-Pro defensive lineman Chuck Smith, who trains defensive linemen at the Wellness Performance Institute in Suwanee, Ga.

That's where Pressley headed the day after Christmas, to begin preparations for the East-West Shrine Game, the NFL combine and his pro day at N.C. State. A typical day consisted of two workouts and a weighlifting session.

The centerpiece of the day was Pressley's work with Smith, a four-time All-Pro with the Falcons who has built a reputation as a guru of pass-rushing techniques.

A few of his past clients include New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora and Tennessee Titans defensive end Albert Haynesworth.

"He didn't know how to rush the passer," Smith said of Pressley. "He didn't understand the skill that it takes to be a great pass rusher."

So Pressley began a cram session with Smith, working on a myriad of techniques: how Pressley came out of his defensive stance to engage a lineman; the chop, the bull rush, the spin move, etc.; when to use each move and how to set it up. Smith also threw in a few lectures on being nasty.

"You can't be a nice guy," Smith said. "No, no, no. You've got to punish the guy across from you every play."

That every-play mentality was something scouts have found lacking in Pressley. Like everyone else they love his combination of size and speed. But they wonder about his "motor."

"When you watch the tape of him, he's real up-and-down," said Matt Williamson a member of Scouts, Inc., and a former scout for the Cleveland Browns. "He turns it off and on."

Part of that, Williamson said, might be explained by the rash of injuries Pressley suffered and played through during his senior season.

But even that turned into a red flag in the eyes of some scouts, who have questioned Pressley's durability.

"I think I'm a pretty tough guy," Pressley said. "I can endure pain very well. Accidents, they happen. I broke my wrist and stuff, but I came back strong."

Pressley got his chance to make his case to NFL teams during interviews at the East-West Shrine Game and at the NFL combine. The experience was eye-opening and a little weird as well.

Eye-opening because Pressley sat across the table from a who's who of the NFL, all of whom were grilling him, looking for any potential problems.

"It was so nerve-racking," Pressley said. "It was nothing for me to sit down and talk with Bill Parcells or something. It was so crazy."

Not as crazy as the idea of walking through a crowded room, wearing only a pair of compression shorts, while a person calls out your various body measurements to dozens of scouts and general managers. Pressley had to do that at the East-West game and at the combine. Pressley and some fellow potential draftees took to calling it the "cattle walk."

Those sort of indignities, as well as a few strange questions ("for some odd reason, one guy asked me if I had any pets," Pressley recalled) are necessary parts of the pre-draft process. Pressley has gone through all of them and has graduated from Smith's pass-rushing boot camp with flying colors.

"He can do everything in the book," Smith said. "I believe DeMario Pressley is going to be one of the biggest steals in the draft."

What NFL team will feel the same way? And when will that team select Pressley? The answer will come soon and the thing he's been thinking about all day, every day, will finally become a reality.

"This is my dream coming true right now," Pressley said. "I still kind of can't believe it."

Contact Jim Young at 373-7016 or jim. young@news-record.com