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With the NFL draft less than a month away, few prospects are hotter than former Florida defensive end Dante Fowler. On the strength of an impressive NFL scouting combine workout, which included a 4.60-second 40-yard dash, Fowler is shooting up many mock draft boards ahead of Florida’s pro day on April 7.
In an interview with The MMQB, Fowler talked about one of his former SEC rivals, LSU left tackle La’el Collins. Like Fowler, Collins is pegged to go in the first round, with draft experts projecting the former Tiger will go in the 20s.
Collins told reporters at last week’s LSU pro day to go watch tape of LSU’s game against Florida from this past fall to see how he handled an NFL-caliber defensive end. When asked about it, Fowler had a lot of positive things to say about Collins’ abilities.
From the interview with Jenny Vrentas:
That’s a bloodbath right there, me and La’el. We are cool with each other; we are good friends. I keep in contact with him. At the end of the day, I feel like that’s going to be my rival for my whole career, because he’s going to make his name for himself and he’s going to be a great offensive tackle. …
My sophomore year, we went to Baton Rouge and played against LSU, and I’m not going to lie, I got my butt whooped. That was one of my worst games just because of how I got tossed around. So I spent the whole last summer getting ready for La’el, I ain’t going to lie to you. I knew I was going to run into some pretty decent tackles, but the main motivation was from him getting after me my sophomore year. I had it marked on my calendar the day after my sophomore game. …
The whole coin toss, when the referees were talking, I was staring him down and he was staring me down. So I already knew what I was getting myself into, and he knew what he was getting himself into. We went at it that game; we went at it like some bulls. I had some wins, and I had some losses.
Check out the rest of the interview to see where Fowler hopes to go in the draft, why he decided to wear a gold watch during his combine workout and what position he thinks he can play at the next level.
A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.
