Dezmon Epps isn’t shy about his speed. The Idaho junior wide receiver carries himself with humility, stays after practice to run extra routes and admits that he’s far from a finished product as a receiver. He’s lauded by coaches for his work ethic and drive. But ask him about his speed and he lights up.
“I ain’t losing that speed probably ever, even if I slow my 40 (yard dash) I want to run a 4.3 (seconds) at least,” Epps said. “I want to maintain a 4.2 and run it over and over and be consistent.”
While he used that speed to run past defenders at City College of San Francisco, he was speeding under the eyes of bigger colleges in a recruiting process that was described as mixed up and confusing.
Schools like Fresno State, Utah State and Bowling Green showed interested in Epps, but clarity in the recruiting process didn’t come until Idaho offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Kris Cinkovich found his film.
Tight ends coach Al Pupunu put on a tape of Epps for him, and it didn’t take long for Cinkovich to say “let’s go find this guy.”
Epps jumped at the opportunity to compete at Idaho, and the Vandals couldn’t be any happier to have him.
It only took Epps a matter of days to immerse himself in the playbook and make an impact on the practice field — becoming the leading receiver the first scrimmage of fall camp.
Eight games into the season, he’s also Idaho’s leading receiver on the field. Epps leads Idaho with 582 receiving yards on 51 catches. He was added to the Biletnikoff Award watch list after a nine-catch, 110-yard effort against Northern Illinois Sept. 14. The Biletnikoff Award honors the nation’s best receiver at the end of the season.
Epps’ last three games have been particularly prolific — 256 yards on 17 catches with three touchdowns, good for 15 yards per catch.
He’s showing no signs of slowing down, even though the schedule ahead remains difficult.
“He’s competitive, he doesn’t think, he’ll line up with a guy who might be bigger, might have a bigger name than him, but he doesn’t care,” receiver Najee Lovett said. “He’s going to go out there and compete with him and go hard and take it to him.”
Still, it’s not good enough for Epps, who has NFL aspirations, or his coaches for that matter. Route running could be crisper, Cinkovich said, and mental mistakes during games need to
be eliminated.
“He’s got to minimize those, he still makes a couple of mental mistakes per game, now we have to get that fixed. At this point in the season, that’s not acceptable. He’ll fix it,” Cinkovich said.
Four games are left on the schedule for Epps. He is working toward his goal of becoming a top 25 receiver in the nation this season, and next season in the Sun Belt. There’s little doubt that Epps will be a big part of Idaho’s offensive plans going forward. There’s also little doubt that Idaho coaching is happy that they convinced Epps to turn down Fresno State, Bowling Green and Utah State.
“That’s a guy that could probably have played at any level he wanted to and got lost in the shuffle and I’m glad we found him,” Petrino said. “We need to find a few more of those players.”
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]