Eric Sutton
	Height	5-10.5
	Weight	165
	40-yard Dash	4.49 ("I haven't run it since last year"
	Bench Press	225 (twice)
	Squat	315
	Vertical Leap	34 inches

First-team All-District 8-6A
47sports: ***
Scout: ***
ESPN: **
Rivals: **
ESPN: No. 120 cornerback in nation
247sports: No. 186 cornerback in nation
ESPN: No. 288 player in Midlands Region
ESPN: No. 222 player in Texas
247sports: No. 224 player in Texas

Strengths as a Player

Eric Sutton is a lean, fast cornerback who relies on his exceptional speed and quickness to run with receivers all over the field. But his lean build is a little deceiving, as he plays with more physicality than might be assumed, which is why he sometimes has drawn comparisons to Miami Dolphins cornerback Brent Grimes, another lanky DB who can deliver a deliver punishing hits. He also is an exceptionally smart, versatile player who can play on the outside, in the slot or at either safety position.

Interviews

Cedar Hill head coach Joey McGuire on Eric Sutton:

Eric is one of the smartest players I’ve ever coached. He’s a tough kid with an incredibly high football IQ. In fact, as a junior last year, he would come in to my office and ask, “where am I playing this week?” because we can play him at corner, at nickel or at either safety spot. He knows so much about our defensive system, he could play anywhere in the secondary.

This year, we don’t really have a field cornerback and a boundary cornerback. If the other team has a great receiver, on the outside or in the slot, that’s where you’ll find Eric. He gets the best receiver every week.

He has incredible feet and great quickness and speed. Darrell Green, the old Washington Redskin, is a guy he reminds me of — everyone said he was too small, but he played bigger than he was and was the quickest, fastest player out there. That’s what Eric is. When I look at Eric … I’ve had some big, long corners, but when I look at Eric, he’s as good as any of them. He can backpedal and then recover. As a wide receiver gets in and out of his breaks, Eric has got the speed and acceleration that he can get in and out of his backpedal and stay with the receiver. He’s just in everybody’s hip pocket every week.

One thing I really like about Eric is that he has a corner’s mentality: “you beat me, but I’m fixin’ to come back at you and it’s going to be a dogfight on every snap.” He wants to line up against the best of the best, he’s going to talk crap to them, and if he gets beat, he’ll line up and go again … but he doesn’t get beat very often.

Coaches (from other schools) didn’t really go after Eric very much after he committed. I think they were almost more after me, to see how committed Eric is to SMU, and if I could help them change his mind. From Day One, I had people asking me, “is Eric open?” I quickly, throughout the entire practice, said he’s completely committed to SMU. Once he committed, he came back with such a spirit — he had fallen in love with SMU. When he got on that bandwagon, he showed absolutely no interest in other schools. In fact, I think he helped recruit some of the other guys in SMU’s class.

I like everybody redshirting, but I could see him helping right away, if they need it. The impact he can make, he could make it on special teams or at nickel (cornerback).

You have to remember, Eric’s very young — I think he’s still 16 years old. He’s a year younger than the majority of seniors, so I assume he still has some growing room. His biggest thing is just going to be adding weight.

Eric Sutton on why he chose SMU:

What really caught my eye was playing Southlake in a playoff game, seeing (Gerald J. Ford) Stadium. Then I did my research and saw that SMU has one of the top business schools.

No. 1 was education. The business school is one of the top 10 in the country. No. 2, I could see the family they’re trying to build (at SMU). They’re trying to get a lot of Dallas players — that’s the main thing I kept hearing when I first got there. It’s the whole energy. They’re really trying to change the face of SMU. I want to help change SMU. We’re putting together a great recruiting class, and now we have to start winning games.

(The SMU coaches) haven’t really told me anything about gaining weight, but I’m self-motivated. I hope to be 185 by the time I get to SMU.

Coach Loepp is going to be my cornerbacks coach, and he’s really cool. He reminds me a lot of our coaches at Cedar Hill — we just had a connection right away.