Iowa football's Lukas Van Ness highlights NFL Combine showing with 4.58 time in the 40

Much of the NFL Network discussion about Lukas Van Ness on Thursday centered on his hockey background and the fact he never started a game at Iowa. Those will certainly become repeated storylines over the next few weeks as Van Ness continues climbing up draft boards.

Van Ness highlighted his NFL Combine showing with a 4.58 time in the 40-yard dash, which tied for sixth among all defensive ends and edge rushers at the Combine. Van Ness delivered that time with a 1.6 10-yard split, which ranked eighth among all defensive ends and edge rushers at the Combine.

The Iowa standout also produced a 31-inch vertical jump and a broad jump of 9 feet, 10 inches. Those figures ranked 23rd and 18th, respectively, among all defensive ends and edge rushers at the Combine.

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Van Ness drew praise from NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah, particularly during the backpedaling drill, which tests movement in coverage and isn't one that's necessarily conducive to defensive linemen.

"Here he is going through linebacker drills," Jeremiah said, "and he doesn't look a whole lot out of place.”

Jack Campbell impresses in linebacker drills

Jack Campbell, meanwhile, had to wait around until the evening session with the linebackers. But he, too, put up impressive numbers that should accelerate his draft stock

Among all linebackers at the Combine, Campbell had the best 20-yard shuttle time (4.24 seconds) and the fastest 3-cone drill time (6.74 seconds) Campbell also produced the second-best broad jump (10 feet, 9 inches) and tied for second-best vertical jump (37.5 inches) among linebackers at the Combine.

His 3-cone drill time, in particular, had NFL personnel impressed.

Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.