Northern Iowa wide receiver Daurice Fountain is still waiting for an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine. He headed into a week of practices for the 2018 East-West Shrine Game with doubts in his head. Fountain didn't doubt his ability or drive but worried about possibly being overlooked by NFL teams.
"Being from a small school, it's easy to get overlooked sometimes," Fountain told Al Sacco on the latest 49ers Webzone "No Huddle" podcast. "I know that if I was to go out here to the East-West Shrine Game that I would have had a chance to display my talents but I just didn't know that it was going to go so well as it did."
How well did it go for Fountain? He caught three passes for a game-high 61 yards and returned two punt returns for 40 yards for the East squad. The performance was enough to earn Fountain offensive MVP honors for the game.
"I felt like I was the underdog this whole week and I just had that chip on my shoulder," Fountain said. "And I think that was one of the reasons I played so well throughout the week."
Scouts were impressed with Fountain during the week of practices leading to the game. The receiver did not catch a ball during his first practice and knew he needed to bounce back during the next day's session. It must have worked because, by the end of the week, there was a lot of talk about him on social media.
"Just to see that I was getting that much buzz, I was just like, 'This is crazy,'" he said.
Fountain would stay up until 1 a.m. studying his squad's plays for the East-West Shrine Game. By the end of the week, NFL scouts bombarded him with so many requests to talk that he considered hiding his name tag just to get some sleep at night.
"It was just a blessing," Fountain continued. "I was just so thankful for the opportunity."
Also on the podcast episode, Al rants about "Patriots fatigue" as he and Zain Naqvi react to the conference championship games and the Super Bowl LII matchup.
You can listen to the entire interview and the rest of the show below, from our dedicated podcast page, on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud.