For the past two months, DeVier Posey trained in Florida, getting his body and mind fit for this week’s NFL combine in Indianapolis.

The combine is largely measured in statistics. Prospects are tested in weightlifting reps. They run the 40-yard dash, in which tenths of seconds can be worth millions.

Posey is confident he will do well in such tests. But the former Ohio State receiver is most eager to show what can’t be summarized in numbers.

Posey missed all but the final three games of his senior season because of consecutive five-game NCAA suspensions. The first stemmed from Posey selling his 2008 Big Ten championship ring, one of the violations in a memorabilia scandal that eventually brought coach Jim Tressel’s forced resignation and left the Buckeyes with a bowl ban in 2012.

Just as that suspension was to expire, in early October, the NCAA again ruled out Posey after it deemed he received excessive pay while working for the company of a now-banned booster.

The suspensions frustrated and tested Posey. It also gave him time to reflect. The regrets about the consequences of his punishment remain raw, but he now considers his 2011 season to be a sort of a blessing in disguise.

If NFL teams wonder if his senior season was mostly wasted, Posey has a heartfelt answer.

“I’ll just tell them where I’ve grown this year is my intangibles,” he told The Dispatch this week in his first lengthy interview since his original suspension 14 months ago. “Things you can’t measure, things that won’t be measured at the combine. That’s where I feel my greatest improvement in 2011 was — off the field.”

Plenty of support

Playing football at Ohio State can be a heady experience. Posey remembers walking into a campus bookstore his freshman year and seeing his No. 8 jersey for sale. It’s easy to become intoxicated, particularly as an 18-year-old. The Posey who sold his championship ring was a kid. Now, he believes, he is a man. He understands that football is a big piece of the puzzle of his life, but it is not all-important.

“All through college, I leaned on football,” Posey said. “Football was everything. Practice, practice, practice. Football, football, football.

“Then somebody snatches it away from me. It’s like, whoa, let me find my ground. Let me get back to who I am, the person I grew up as. Just because people are talking bad about DeVier, don’t start thinking that you’re a bad person, because you’re not.”

To be sure, Posey had a strong support system to help him cope with the suspensions. He credits his girlfriend, Kierra Scott, his family, his teammates and coaches for bucking him up in low moments.

“I was angry and I didn’t know who I was angry at,” Posey said. “I was mad at myself, mad at the system, mad at how things went. If it wasn’t for them keeping me calm on a daily basis, I don’t know how things would have ended up.”

It hasn’t always been an easy life for Posey. He was born in northern California, with two older brothers and a sister. But his father, Baxter, had a drug problem, so his mother, Julie, moved back to her native Cincinnati to raise her children when DeVier was 2.

“When he could stay clean, he was a great dad,” DeVier said.

But it was mostly a long-distance relationship. Baxter died when DeVier was 9.

“I know he always wanted to have his dad,” Julie Posey said. “It was difficult for him. It was difficult for me as a single mom.”

Julie became a grant writer for a nonprofit agency. Money was tight — still is — but she managed to send all of her children to Catholic school with the help of scholarships.

When it became clear that Baxter was going to die, the Poseys visited him in California. Julie remembers DeVier’s final words to his father.

“He said, ‘I’m not quite sure what I’m going to be when I grow up, but I’ll tell you this: Every time you look down from heaven, you’re going to be proud of me. I’m going to be everything that you were not.’ ”

DeVier was always a good child, Julie said. He never got in trouble, was respectful and caring, stayed away from drugs, kept his grades up.

Last week, Julie ordered DeVier’s graduation announcements. He is scheduled to graduate on March 18 with a degree in communications. His siblings also are college graduates, including brother Julian, who now is with the New York Jets after playing at Ohio University.

Doing the right thing

Julie has been outspoken about what she believes is the NCAA’s overreach regarding her son’s and Ohio State’s penalties for the tattoo-and-memorabilia scandal.

But DeVier kept quiet. In his last meeting with Tressel, Posey remembered Tressel hitting the table with his hand for emphasis when he urged Posey to take the high road and do his best from that point on.

“I feel like through 2011, that’s what I was trying to do,” Posey said. “It was hard. I knew the right thing to do was stay around, be on scout team, not complain, do what I could do (when I got to play), and graduate.”

On the scout team, he sometimes served as the opposing quarterback, trying to emulate Nebraska’s Taylor Martinez and Illinois’ Nathan Scheelhaase.

“He played every role, whoever their best player was,” said Luke Fickell, Ohio State’s head coach last year and now its defensive coordinator under Urban Meyer.

“I don’t think you could have expected a guy to handle his situation in front of us and in front of the team any better than he did — maturity-wise, work-wise, what he showed us every day in practice.”

Posey understood that despite the injustice he felt the NCAA had imposed on him, things could be worse.

For the past three years, he has lived with linebacker Etienne Sabino, who redshirted as a junior in 2010 after losing a bid for a starting job. After the second suspension, Posey was bemoaning his fate when Sabino brought him back to reality.

“I said, ‘Man, I’ve got to miss five games. Now I’ve got to miss 10 games,’ ” Posey said. “He said, ‘Man, try missing a season.’ ”

Draft questions

Character is one of those imprecise, catch-all words tossed around whenever a prospect has faced off-field issues. It is bound to be a topic as Posey’s draft status is discussed. But those who have studied his background believe it is a nonissue. Fickell said NFL teams haven’t asked him yet about Posey but knows they will.

“I would say I don’t have any reservations about his character. I love him,” Fickell said. “To be honest with you, I’ve learned a lot from him in how you handle things.”

ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay said he has received favorable reports from those who know Posey.

“The more I dig, the more people I talk to, it doesn’t appear that he has bad character or is a bad kid,” he said. “Everyone I’ve talked to around that program says he made mistakes like others have made and learned from his mistakes. (He) kind of got a bad rap in terms of what some of the other guys’ punishments were and the fact he got two consecutive five-game suspensions.”

McShay projects Posey as a fourth-round pick, with the possibility of dropping slightly because of the abbreviated 2011 season. He describes Posey as a smooth athlete who sometimes struggles to separate from defenders and needs to do a better job catching with his hands instead of absorbing the ball into his pads.

Posey, who is 6 feet 2, 210 pounds and has been working out under former Ohio State receiver Cris Carter, expects to run the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds.

“DeVier has unbelievable attributes,” Fickell said. “He is a big guy, he is a physical guy and has unbelievable body control.”

Posey said he isn’t that concerned about when he’s drafted. He just knows that he is more than ready for the next chapter in his life.

“This situation God put me through allowed me to get in touch with myself, understand who I was and the values I have and allowed me to refocus myself for this next level,” he said. “Because it’s not going to be easy in the NFL. Everything is a lot more amplified — the media, the play, off-the-field issues.

“It was important I had this refocusing period as far as the 10 weeks I missed to get in touch with myself. When I get to the next level, I’ll know what I want. I know football is important, but at the same time my life is as well.”

brabinowitz@dispatch.com