Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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yards and seven touchdowns for Winter Park as a junior. As a safety, he had 29 tackles, an interception and five passes broken up. The newspaper ranks him as the No. 6 prospect in Central Florida. P o u n c e y s p e n t t h e f i r s t t w o years of his high school career at Montverde Academy, a private school just northwest of Orlando that was disbanded after three years in 2014. He then enrolled at Winter Park for his junior season and made a strong impression. "Jordan gets the ball and makes stuff happen," Hill said. "We had a ballgame last year when he had, I think, five touches and four touchdowns, and all of them were passes. One of them was a slant, one of them was a stop-and-go, and the other two were on wide receiver screens. "We do our best just to get him the ball and let him do something with it. We try and get him the ball in a little space." Notre Dame's tradition appeals to Pouncey and was a big factor in his decision. " J u s t t h e w h o l e ' P l a y L i k e A C h a m p i o n To d a y ' s i g n a n d everything about Notre Dame is very traditional," he explained. "When you wake up on Saturday mornings, you're waiting for the Notre Dame game to come on NBC." P o u n c e y s a i d h e p l a n s o n majoring in sports broadcasting and journalism at Notre Dame, a career path he said he can see himself pursuing after football. Hill accompanied Pouncey on his visit to the Irish Invasion, he said. "Our coaches have talked about this, if we had one kid on our team that we would want our daughters to bring home it would be Jordan Pouncey," Hill said. "As a dad talking about your little girl, that's quite a statement." ✦ "JORDAN GETS THE BALL AND MAKES STUFF HAPPEN." WINTER PARK (FLA.) HIGH OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR KIT HILL ON POUNCEY FILM ANALYSIS Strengths Notre Dame covets versatility, and Jordan Pouncey is that type of player … He is a standout at wide receiver and safety for Winter Park, and has good size at 6-3, 182 pounds with the frame to get well over 200 pounds … Athletically, he has very good balance and body control to go along with a second gear that allows him to be a deep threat … He is a savvy football player with a good feel for how to get open and instincts to make plays in the secondary. Areas For Improvement He lacks explosiveness off the ball, but that should improve as he matures … Shows good change of direction on defense, but that does not show up as well on offense … He has a tendency to body catch too much, and his focus is inconsistent when the ball is in the air … He is a quality route runner, but he tends to get a bit too choppy at the top end of his routes. — Bryan Driskell