After four years as a starting cornerback for Northwestern, Jordan Mabin’s career came to a sudden end last fall when he went down with a shoulder injury against Michigan State in the Wildcats’ final regular season game. Surgery forced him to sit out for NU’s bowl game, too, taking away his chance to help his team gain an elusive bowl win.

“It didn’t even hit me until a little bit after when I got hurt; I didn’t know how serious it was,” Mabin said. “For sure, I thought I’d be back for bowl game, but they said, “‘You know what, you need surgery right away.’ It hurt for a really long time going out there for my last game and not being able to play, not helping our team win my last bowl game.”

Not only did the injury force Mabin to miss the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, it also put him behind in his preparations for the NFL Draft.

“I started a month late to the whole training, pro day training and training for all the camps and combines because of my shoulder,” he said.

Mabin participated in NU’s pro day, but because of his injury, he was unable to run the 40-yard dash. He held his own pro day on March 28 and ran a 4.53-second 40-yard dash, which he called “decent just coming off of injury and not running for four months.” Now, five months after his injury, Mabin said he feels like he has caught up.

“I’m right back, pretty much full go right where I would have been if didn’t get hurt,” he said.

The cornerback worked out at TC Boost, a training center in Northbrook, Ill., with fellow NU graduates Brian Peters, Jeremy Ebert and Jack DiNardo in preparation for pro day. He said it has been nice to share the draft experience with them.

“It’s been good to have those guys along for the ride, just to compete with as well,” he said. “We were teammates once, we’re teammates for the rest of our lives.”

Since draft preparations have began, Mabin said he has spoken with a number of teams and has also worked out for the Chicago Bears and the Cleveland Browns – his favorite team growing up – in person.

“I met with the Bears last week and worked out for them, which went pretty well,” he said. “Then I went out to the Browns, as well, last week. But those are the two teams that I went out to. Other teams have been contacting me, those are just the teams within proximity that sent out an invite to people in the local areas.”

Mabin is not projected to go very high in the draft by national media outlets. Sports Illustrated projects him as an undrafted free agent, while ESPN.com ranks him as the No. 63 cornerback available and NFLDraftScout.com ranks him No. 76 at his position. Mabin said he doesn’t care what others are saying about his potential, although he hears the criticism.

“I try to control what I can control and that’s getting better day by day, ” he said. “A lot of people are saying, me personally, I’m not big enough, not fast enough. I hear it, (but) I try not to pay attention to it.”

With draft day approaching, Mabin is making plans for the day.

“It’s such a good feeling to know you had a goal since you were little, now to make it to the NFL and that (day) is finally hear,” he said. “I’m just going to go home back to Ohio, just with family. (I have) no big plans, just being in front of everyone I love.”

Regardless of whether he hears his name called on draft day, Mabin said he will continue working toward his dream of trying to make an NFL roster.

“If I get drafted that would be awesome; if not, I’ll keep going from there and try to make the team,” he said.

Kevin Trahan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @k_trahan.