ALBUQUERQUE -- The trainer for former New Mexico All-American linebacker Brian Urlacher has some advice for National Football League scouts -- grab Urlacher or live to regret it.

	Brian Urlacher's athleticism should make him a first-round pick.

"I know if I was in the hunt for a defensive player, he would be my first pick," says Chip Smith, who is training Urlacher and about 40 other NFL draft day prospects.

Urlacher has been in Atlanta since December working with Smith and getting ready for April 15, the first day of the NFL draft. All indications are that the former Lovington High School and New Mexico star will go high in the first round.

"I'm confident that once they (NFL personnel) see him perform, they're going to say, `There's no way we can't take this kid.' If they don't, it will come back to haunt them -- that's my gut feeling," Smith told the Albuquerque Tribune in a telephone interview.

Urlacher, who has bulked up his 6-foot-4 frame to 262 pounds, said he's ready for the NFL scouts.

"I want to be No. 1 (among linebackers) in everything I do," he said.

Urlacher played safety at New Mexico, but is expected to move to linebacker in the pros. He's been timed at anywhere from 4.49 seconds to 4.52 seconds in the 40-yard dash. Smith says the average 40-time for prospective NFL linebackers last year was 4.8 seconds.

Players also are timed in the first 10 and 20 yards of the 40. Smith said Urlacher has been timed at 1.4 seconds in the first in the first 10 yards.

"That's phenomenal for a man his size," said Smith, adding that the average time for prospective outside linebackers last year was 1.68.

Smith has been working with NFL prospects for 10 years. Thirty-five players he trained last year were drafted, including Champ Bailey, the first defensive player taken in the first round. Bailey went to the Washington Redskins as the seventh pick.

Smith is so high on Urlacher that he considers him a better linebacker than Penn State's LaVar Arrington, who some publications have said could be the No. 1 pick overall.

"If he's (Arrington) as athletic as Brian, I'll be amazed," Smith said. "But he's the only person I think can even come close."