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For a day at least, the stress was in the rearview mirror. Jeremiah Sirles had an open road in front of him, the big man's vehicle barreling toward the family home in Colorado.

The former Husker offensive lineman had just finished an eight-day trip to St. Petersburg, Fla., for the East-West Shrine Game.

It was ... fun? Let's go with another description.

“It was one of the most stressful weeks of my life," Sirles said this week as he headed for home.

Stressful. Also, satisfying. It's a necessary part of the journey Sirles hopes will lead to his name being called at the NFL Draft in May.

It's a journey that comes with plenty of uncertainty, exhausting workouts, and interviews with NFL scouts that make a guy feel like ... well, Sirles will tell you in a moment.

It's a journey that he's agreed to chronicle for us, sharing his thoughts with the Journal Star in the months ahead as he tries to realize his dream of playing professional football.

As Sirles found out last week in St. Petersburg, it's a journey not for the faint of heart.

"Right when you get there to right when the game ends, you’re constantly being evaluated in everything you do. We did psychological tests until, like, 11:30 at night that first day.”

How do you get yourself in the right mindset for the biggest job interviews of your life?

“I’ve always been a big believer in being prepared for what you’re going into. And I talked to my agent, talked to some of the guys that have been a part of other all-star games, and they told me the practices are the most important thing. So I got a West roster and went up to Mike Nobler, our Husker video guy, and I asked if he could do cut-ups of the guys for me. So I got cut-ups of the Colorado defensive end I was going to be going against (in practices), the UCLA defensive end, the USC linebacker, the Notre Dame linebacker, so I could kind of be prepared for what was going on footballwise.”

“I’m so thankful my agent prepared me for what was going to go on scoutwise. Because, it was a madhouse. The lobby of the hotel, it was like speed dating, is the best analogy I can think of to describe it. You sit down with one scout for 10 or 15 minutes, then you stand up and another scout grabs you. By the end of it, you just kind of want to have a tape recorder to repeat things for you. But it was great exposure. I got exposed to almost all 32 teams down there. GMs were down there, coaches were down there. They were at every practice, watching every rep, individuals, one-on-ones. So I got some really good exposure against the top talent in the country.”

What do the scouts ask you in the lobby?

“It’s more personal stuff, like, ‘What was your family stuff growing up? You have any brothers, sisters? A girlfriend? Any off-the-field incidents? What was your GPA? Did you graduate? And then, ‘Why should we draft you? What makes you special?’ Four or five questions along those lines so they can go back and report to their head scouts, ‘I like this guy, I don’t like this guy.’ They get your social security number and everything, because they could potentially be investing millions of dollars in you."

Still hope for an NFL Combine invite?

"I didn’t get initially invited, which kind of stinks. It puts a little chip on my shoulder when I go out there. I thought I performed pretty well last week. The good thing is, I got to do a lot of psychological interviews that take place at the combine, so even though I’m not going to the combine, I got to do some of that stuff. There’s still a chance that guys drop out and things happen and I might get a late invite, but as of now I don’t have one.

“The thing that kind of messes with it is how many juniors declare. There’s a record number of juniors. I’m still hopeful, but Nebraska is one of those places where we’ll have plenty of scouts watching our Pro Day, so I’m not too concerned about it."

When you're at a college all-star game, that has to be kind of a special fraternity of guys all chasing the same thing, right?

"Our O-line clicked really fast. I made really good friends with the Oklahoma center and the Wisconsin guard. Me and him played next to each other all week, which was kind of cool. You talk about rivals becoming friends? We’re all out there trying to do the same thing. You carry none of that over.

The mission ahead?

“When you really get into it, if you’re not drafted in those first three rounds, you just have to get your foot in the door. Once you get your foot in the door, it doesn’t matter if you’re a free agent or second-round pick, you have to earn it between the white lines. So that’s what I’m going to try to do: I’m going to try to get my foot in the door and after that it’s all up to your football play.”