As expected, the seven rounds of the 2008 NFL draft came and went without a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga player’s name being called. But several former Mocs are still hoping to sign as undrafted free agents, or at least to get tryouts with NFL teams.

Cornerback Brandon Golder, who graduated in December and is back home in Indianapolis, said Monday that if he doesn’t have anything lined up in the next week or two he will participate in a pro football combine for free agents in the Chicago area next month.

“I’m hoping to maybe have something done by Friday, but if not then I’ll go to the free-agent combine and see if I can’t get some attention there,” Golder said. “I still have my hopes up and I’ll be on somebody’s team pretty soon, I think.”

If he can’t get a shot at the NFL right away, Golder said he will try to sign with a team in the Canadian Football League or an arena league and then maybe get another shot at the NFL in a year or two.

“It’ll take me a little while to get there, but I’m going to get there,” he said.

Golder, who spent his freshman year at Purdue, started eight games for the Mocs in 2007 and finished with 39 tackles and three interceptions. He returned 16 kicks for an average of 19.5 yards, with a long of 50.

Last Friday, safety Chris Camacho said he felt confident that he would receive an invitation to an NFL training camp, but that didn’t make the waiting any easier. To channel his nervous energy into something constructive, Camacho said he was trying to teach himself to play the guitar.

“That’s why I picked up the guitar, because I’ve got to do something,” he said from his home in Los Angeles. “It’s the waiting that’s killing me.”

Camacho, voted first-team All-Southern Conference by the league’s coaches and second-team All-America by The Sports Network, led the SoCon with 135 tackles and was sixth in the nation (among Football Championship Subdivision players) with an average of 12.27 per game.

Three SoCon players were selected in the draft, led by Appalachian State wide receiver Dexter Jackson, who went in the second round to Tampa Bay. Furman fullback Jerome Felton from Madisonville, Tenn., was picked in the fifth round by Detroit, and Appalachian State safety Corey Lynch was drafted by Cincinnati in the sixth round.

Numerous SoCon players have signed free-agent contracts since the end of the draft. The most notable was Georgia Southern quarterback Jayson Foster, the 2007 Walter Payton Award winner, who signed with the Miami Dolphins and likely will be moved to receiver.