Junior to Watch: Joel Hopwood
Junior to Watch: Joel Hopwood
School: Hannibal, Mo.
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Position: Defensive End/Middle Linebacker
Size and speed: He is 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds. He has a 40-yard dash time of 4.75 seconds or less.
Statistics: His team's backs had 3,600 yards rushing and the line only allowed four quarterback sacks. He did not have his defensive stats available at the time of this interview.
Honors: He was named to the following teams - first team all-conference for offense, second team all-conference for defense, first team all-district offense and defense, first team all-area for offense, second team all-state offense.
Favorite Schools: He is hearing from Kansas and some smaller schools at this time.
If he could pick the schools to which he'd take his official visits today, he named the following two:
Missouri: "Home state school and loyalty to the in-state team."
Kansas: "They are the most interested Div. 1 right now."
Skinny: Right now out of necessity, Joel is playing out of position on what he will be looked to play in college.
Distance will not really be a factor.
"I want to go to as big a school as possible, but I'm also going to be looking at the playing position, and the depth chart of the school."
He said of his strong points: "My quickness on the offensive line."
He described himself as "a physical, get-off-the-ball type player".
On a 10 point scale, he rated his pass blocking at an eight and his run blocking at a 10.
When asked what pro player he most compared his style of play to, he said, "I have no idea. It'd have to be someone smaller, so probably, Bill Romanowski."
Hopwood plans to attend Kansas camp in June and his team's camp, which he attends every year.
"Academics are the most important thing to my parents, so they don't really have a favorite, other than a good academic school."
"My dream would be to go to Miami of Florida."
He's undecided as far as a major and has set his sports goals for next season as "definitely making first team all-state, winning the state championship, and just plain beating arch rival, Webb City High School."
He benches 240 pounds, squats 460 pounds, has a 26 inch vertical leap, a cumulative GPA of 3.3 and plans to take the ACT in April.
His team ended the season at 10 wins and three loses.