Name: Leonard Fournette
Leonard Fournette scouting report: Otherwordly 2014 running back
The New Orleans product may be the best running back to emerge from high school in recent years.
School and hometown: St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, Louisiana
Position: Running back
Height and weight: 6’1 and 225 pounds
Ratings: A consensus five-star prospect, Fournette is also the top player in the country by the 247Sports Composite rankings, which also makes him the top running back in the country and the top player in the state of Louisiana.
Offers: The St. Augustine product reports over 100 offers, including Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, LSU, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas, USC, and West Virginia.
Highlights:
Leonard Fournette (#5 Running Back) : Junior Highlights 2012 (via staugpurpleknights)
Scouting Report:
Considered one of the top running back prospects to emerge from the high school ranks in the last several years, the most distinguishing feature of Fournette’s game is his combination of size and speed. At nearly 6’1, Fournette is on the tall side for a running back and is a lean but powerful 225 pounds.
And the speed? During a recent track meet, the St. Augustine star posted a 100m time of 10.68, absolutely elite for a running back of his size, which gives him the speed to break long runs to the outside -- he’s not just a downhill, between-the-tackles runner.
As a result, arm tackle attempts are not nearly enough at the high school level to bring down Fournette, in part because he does a good job in traffic of getting low and behind his pads to present the smallest possible tackling surface, a key trait to possess for a tall running back. Whether low of high, it’s extremely difficult to bring him down, a big part of the reason why he scored a touchdown roughly once every six touches as a junior.
Fournette is also a decisive back because of his vision, which allows him to work almost entirely north and south as a runner. He’s not a jump cutter, choosing instead to slide cut or make often subtle changes of direction to find the open field, at which point he can pull away from defenders because of his strong top-end speed.
He’s also versatile, a good enough route runner to line up outside occasionally as a wide receiver, and is effective in the screen game, as evidenced by over 300 yards in catches as a junior.
Sometimes compared to Adrian Peterson, Fournette isn’t a high-effort runner like AD -- everything looks like it comes much too easily for him on the football field. He’s just that good, and could walk on to any college campus and immediately contribute right now, months away from National Signing Day for the 2014 class.
A fact that was true last fall, too. In fact, it’s too bad Fournette has to spend another year in high school, because scoring all those touchdowns with so much ease is probably getting a little bit boring for him.
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