D.J. Clark still needs 10 credits to earn his sports management degree at Idaho State, but he already has a full-time job.

The pay is lousy, and there are no benefits. It's the tremendous opportunity for advancement that keeps him going.

While finishing school, the former Bengals standout cornerback is busy training with the dream of making it to the NFL.

"It is a full-time job," Clark said. "You can't really take any days off. If you take any days off, you're losing the battle. I'm trying to work out as much as I can without burning myself out."

Such is the life of a college athlete when his or her eligibility expires. To have any chance at continuing in the sport, the athlete can't get complacent simply because the season is over.

Football players such as Eddie Thompson, Evan Dietrich-Smith and Clark know that, and they will juggle their training with their schooling from now until NFL teams fill out their rosters with April's draft and rookie free agent signings.

Clark's training routine is made up of weight training four times a week with various conditioning work mixed in throughout the week.

While in the weight room, he quickly moves from lift to lift, wasting no time between sets. His conditioning work ranges from distance runs to sprints up and down the Holt Arena stairs.

"Right now, there's not any football work involved," he said in mid-December. "In the next couple weeks, I'll do drills and stuff so I don't get rusty. When it all comes down to it, it's all about football."

That may be, but pro scouts also put a lot of weight on 40-yard dash times, bench press numbers and various other measurable qualities.

Former Idaho State star Jeff Charleston - who just finished up his season with the New Orleans Saints - remembers training for those tests, and it didn't always feel like he was preparing for football.

"It's a little different," said Charleston, who finished the 2008 season with 18 tackles and three sacks while play 10 games at defensive end for the Saints. "Training for your pro day, it feels like you're a track athlete because you're training for 10 events. It's nice, but you get to the stage where it's like, man this is all I'm doing."

Kilee Quigley knows that feeling well.

Since she finished up her soccer career with the Bengals in early November, the three-time All-Big Sky selection and four-year starter has kept up with her training in hopes of playing soccer professionally.

Women's Professional Soccer - the latest domestic professional league in the United States - opens play in April, and Quigley would like nothing more than to catch on with a team at some point.

She knows it likely won't happen immediately, though, and she's prepared to toil in semi-professional leagues in America or pro leagues abroad to gain experience and exposure. For now, though, she's waking up at 6 a.m. to run, lifting four days a week and playing in a men's indoor league in Idaho Falls.

"Some days are harder than others," she said. "The lifting and the running part of it are hard. The soccer part comes naturally. Just thinking about other players out there who are working hard every day keeps me motivated to keep going to work as hard or harder than they are."

In its first season, the WPS will feature only seven teams, so making the league won't be an easy task. While football has the tangible measurements of a 40-yard dash, sorting through soccer talent isn't as easy.

"It takes a good share of luck, to be honest, when there's so many kids around the country and so few scouts," said Idaho State coach Allison Gibson, who played professionally for three seasons in a Japan league that no longer has the financial clout to pay foreign-born players.

While Charleston left school his final semester to focus solely on training, Clark, Thompson, Dietrich-Smith and Quigley all plan to stay on campus to finish up their degrees while continuing to work out.

Idaho State football coach John Zamberlin - who played six seasons in the NFL - pushes hard for his players to stay in school.

"If the football works out for them, that's great," he said. "But you can accomplish those things without going to Arizona to train. If someone does that, I tell them they have to promise themselves that they'll go back and finish their education. (Football's) gonna end. That's why I'm stressing to get their education, so they'll have that degree to fall back on."

Clark hopes football doesn't end anytime soon for him.

With his size - Clark is 6-foot-2, 200 pounds - he has a strong chance of making an NFL training camp, as pro teams are always looking for big, physical cornerbacks to shut down Terrell Owens-sized receivers.

From now until April, Clark will continue his strenuous workout regimen in order to improve. He'd like to shave a 10th of a second off his 40 time, and he knows he could improve his aggressiveness and hitting ability.

"It's different type of stress," Clark said, comparing his in-season work with the Bengals. "Now, it's kind of just a stress of trying to be the best and make sure you're ready and you're body is ready to perform."

That's what all the work is for, and he hopes his new full-time job is only a temporary position.