Quick Hits

POSITION: Wide receiver

HEIGHT: 6-foot-4.5

WEIGHT: 206 pounds

HOMETOWN: Houston, Texas

HIGH SCHOOL: St. John’s

247 COMPOSITE SCORE: .8793

NATIONAL RANKING: 515

POSITION RANKING: 66

STATE RANKING: 64

OTHER OFFERS: Notre Dame, Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Cal, Duke, Florida, Iowa State, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, SMU, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia

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Background

Hooper-Price is the kind of physical specimen Northwestern doesn’t get that often. At over 6-foot-4 and 206 pounds, Hooper-Price runs a 4.51 40-yard dash, and has a vertical leap of 38 inches. His long jump is nearly 23 feet!

For as much of a freak of nature Hooper-Price is, his route-running will need to improve for him to become dominant at Northwestern. In his highlights, he’s often running past defenders on deep throws. He had 466 yards and six touchdowns as a junior and has 333 yards and four touchdowns this season.

Outlook

Hooper-Price has rare physical tools, which makes him unique among Northwestern’s receivers. Because of that, he might be able to provide a dominant red zone target on jump balls and fades that Northwestern hasn’t had in recent seasons. Hooper-Price is still relatively raw, though, so he’ll need to improve his route-running to become a consistent force. In his highlights, he’s often running past slower defenders; in college, he’ll still be able to run past a lot of defenders, but not quite as many as in high school.

Still, Hooper-Price is an exciting pick-up for Pat Fitzgerald & Co. He might be one of the best athletes at receiver in the country, and that could provide an explosive new element to Northwestern’s offense. Charlie Fessler is now gone, which should provide even more opportunities for Hooper-Price. With Hunter Johnson likely taking the reigns at quarterback, Hooper-Price could team with JJ Jefferson to give Mick McCall more deep-threat wideouts than he’s had in a while.