Making the case for WR Daurice Fountain.
Before we even get to the pro day let's get it out there that he's been the leader of the receiving corp at UNI for three years. They don't throw the football a whole lot at UNI but when they do, he's been the big receiving target there since he was relatively young. He actually became the team's #1 WR partway through his freshman year in 2014. Going back to how UNI doesn't throw much, they hadn't had a receiver catch 3 TDs in a single game in over a decade. Daurice Fountain has done it twice.
Now you get to what he's like as a member of the team. To that end I like to look at interviews done by coaches and teammates throughout the years, to sort of see the evolution. But very early in his career, you're seeing comments like, "Man, he works hard." and then as you go through the years they keep piling up, "Worked his tail off", and "Big personality, loud, always practices hard, everyone always knows where Daurice is, challenges everyone around him all day long."
Fast forward some more and you have him attending East-West Shrine practices. It was universally agreed that he was one of the biggest standouts during practice week. He got the game MVP (which is saying something for a wide receiver and return man to get that) because he stood out just as much during the game itself.
I always like to say about All Star practices and game that they don't hurt you, can really only help you, I realize that in effect yes they can hurt you because if other guys at your position help themselves then they could leap-frog you on the rankings and that will hurt you. But that's very indirect and I'm not sure it's even useful to consider it. The point of the matter is All Star practices are a strange enough setting that I don't like to ding a guy if it doesn't work out there, because the setting as a pro (where you have months or even years to 'get it' as opposed to mere days) will be so much different. On the other hand, if you can show up to that odd setting and separate yourself CLEARLY (not just narratively, but with real, undeniable, consistent and significant performance), then that really does bode well for your NFL career. There are really only a handful of guys I find that separate in this manner at All Star practices and the game. The rest of the guys you hear about are mostly subject to jawboning. Daurice Fountain was one of those guys that really did separate himself at Shrine practice and in the game.
Now you get to the athleticism. I'm just trying to stress that the story was already there before you got to the athleticism. The tape was really good. The character was really good. The production (if you take account of their tendencies) was really good. He nailed his Shrine practices and game more than perhaps any other player at the All Star setting.
Smart kid, great communicator in interviews, bible study guy, teammates gush about him personally, wants to be a football coach when he's done.
And now he measures 6014 & 204 lbs, runs between a 4.46 and 4.53, does a 42.5" vertical leap and 11'2" broad jump, with 14 bench reps. Both the vertical and broad jump numbers would've been the best at the Combine among WRs.
That's a beautiful prospect. That's an under-followed guy that nails it every step of the way, and that's what you love to see, and it really does bode well for his NFL career.
As for the tape, listen I can describe to you what I see, but I just don't know that I find it has a ton of value in this setting. People are going to see whatever they're going to see. I'd rather just give you the opportunity to see for yourself.
If there's something I would just point out and emphasize, it's to pay attention to the speed with which he takes the ball from the point it makes contact with his hands, to bringing it into his body and/or away from the defender's reach. It's consistent. That can be really important at the position, and it bodes well for his future.
He reminds me of Nuk Hopkins. I don't mean to be hyperbolic with that comparison. I obviously have no idea if his career will take him that far. I'm just saying stylistically. Although to be fair, the dreads and the #10 probably do a lot to re--enforce that comparison subliminally.
I happen to have a contact at UNI that came to me months ago offering to get a hard drive full of UNI tape and cut up any prospect I wanted to see, and I gave him Fountain's name. That's not on YouTube yet. But in the mean time, here is some stuff you can find out there:
2017 full game vs NDSU
Interview at the Pro Day
Some highlights from the Shrine Game
Career highlights from UNI
