I met D'Antoine Hood, a true freshman corner from Phenix City, for the first time today. For those that don't know, he's the cousin of former Auburn walk-on and current Arizona Cardinals CB Roderick Hood. We talked about going against all-everything WR Julio Jones in all-star game practice and how that helped him gain the attention from places like Auburn. He said working against former Auburn commit Jarmon Fortson, who switched to Florida State on signing day, in the summertime is what prepared him for going against Julio...and I guess you could sort of say, what helped him be good enough and ready enough to do well against Jones and get that offer from Auburn.

Here's what he had to say:

On Tommy Tuberville saying last week that he might be one of the freshmen who plays this year:
It just made me feel good that he sees potential in me to play my freshman year. It showed me that he has faith in me. Obviously him talking about me in the media was a blessing and I thank him for that, but overall I think it’s me … how well I play in practice will determine how much I play. In order to get that playing time, we have six corners so my opportunity to play’s gonna be short, so when the opportunity comes for me to make that play, I have to make that play. Basically I just want to get in there, get the playbook down and get familiar with my surroundings so I can be the best Auburn football player I can be and produce on the field for Auburn.

On how working with Fortson helped him:
Working with Jarmon was good because he’s real physical. He’s kind of like the bull-rush wide receiver. He’s real quick and he’s got good hips. He got me prepared to go down to the all-star game and play with Julio (Jones). So working with him, I loved it. He got me ready, he got my technique right, he got my feet quick, everything. He’s actually one of the best wide receivers I’ve ever had to face besides Julio and I wish him the best of luck. He’s definitely like a top receiver.

On whether Auburn's coaches watched him going against Julio Jones in Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game practices and whether that put him on Auburn's radar:
I don’t really know if they came down and watched me. Coach Willis called me and said they were gonna be watching the game, but I really don’t know what they really watched. I basically started picking up interest after the all-star game. That’s when I started picking up interest and got a lot of offers from everybody else. Working with Julio, he really challenged me. He gave me a mindset of where I’m at and what to get better on. He’s fast, he can jump, he’s also physical. So basically he gave me a mindset of what I need to work on and what I need to take to college. I liked facing Julio. I like top competition and I consider myself as one of the best cornerbacks to come out of this class, so I figured to consider yourself the best, you play against the best and hopefully we’ll meet up and we’ll both compete sometime.

On whether how he fared against Julio Jones got him additional attention:
Yes sir. I think covering him, like when I got to the all-star game, I wasn’t rated. Not many people knew about me. So my mindset was to go against the best because I wasn’t even predicted to start that game. I really wanted to just go down there and prove I’m not just an unrated player. I can play despite what Rivals rated me. I basically wanted to go down there and just show I’m a good corner overall, a good athlete, I’m a good player. Really I just wanted to prove myself, my skills.

On how Rod Hood's example as a player who was kind of under the radar out of high school helped prove to him that he could do it too:
Yes sir. Rod came up under the radar and I was coming up under the radar too. He kinda instilled in me to have the mindset that he might be the No. 1 wide receiver in the nation, but he hasn’t faced me. He kinda instilled that go-get-it attitude in me to be the type of athlete that I am today. Yes, I’m undersized as a corner at 5-9, but I believe my skills, my athletic ability and my speed can make up for it. When I step on the field, I try to take every play like it was my last play. I try to play with ability that nobody’s seen. Obviously when I play top-notch wide receivers, I like to get focused, block out everybody and just play. That’s the best way I feel like I can get good.