Last week, we used this space to introduce New Mexico OL Lamar Bratton, a young man who, despite plenty of on-field success, had received little to no attention from agents, mainly because he played at a remote school that had experienced limited success. A week later, he still hasn’t signed with an agent . . . but that’s because, as of Wednesday, he had spoken to three and had a couple more who wanted to meet. He had gone from a lack of agents to a glut, which is really gratifying, because all I did was to give him a small amount of recognition. So today, we’ll try the same approach with Rice FS Julius White III.

First, the negatives.

• Julius plays a position where a major part of his draft status will depend solely on the 40 time he records at his pro day in March.
• Julius doesn’t have freakish size (he lists at 5-11) or speed (he wasn’t a member of Rice’s track team), so he doesn’t have the kind of tools that make scouts drool.
• He doesn’t come from a football factory and plays a position where it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. Safeties are more of a commodity than a rarity.
• So far, Julius isn’t headed to any all-star games, which is a drawback because it hurts his ability to showcase himself for scouts.

Now for the positives.

• Julius is a producer. He’s a three-year starter at an FBS school who’s Rice’s active career leader in tackles (with 175). He was a preseason second-team All-CUSA pick by Phil Steele. He was Honorable Mention All-CUSA this year. He’s a legitimate prospect.
• He’s coming off a big game. In Rice’s 30-6 demolition of Fresno State in the Hawaii Bowl, Julius tied for the team lead with eight tackles and two tackles for loss against the Bulldogs. As our own Ken Moll has detailed in this space, big performances in big games matter when it comes to evaluating players. For what it’s worth, he comes up big in big games, as he had an interception in the CUSA Championship game last year against Marshall.
• He was a high school quarterback, so athleticism isn’t a problem. Scouts always love ex-quarterbacks.
• Though he doesn’t have an all-star invite yet, he should have an opportunity to get into a game. It will take an aggressive approach by his agent, but there’s still time to lobby one of the five games to take him.
• As a member of an FBS team, he’ll have a pro day. This isn’t always a given when it comes to draft-eligible players, believe it or not. But you don’t have to worry about that with Julius.
• He’s a good kid from a good family and has a future. It goes without saying that a Rice student cares about education, but Julius was Academic All-State during his high school days. His father, an ITL client, is an engineer. It will be a pleasure to work with Julius and his entire family. That’s not always something you can take for granted.
• He’s received interest from major agents. One such agent, who represented a third-rounder in the ’14 draft, has pulled off due to a lack of resources, but the bottom line is that Julius is no secret to people in the game.

Interested in working with him? If you’re an ITL client, contact me and let’s get y’all together. Interested, but not an ITL client? Let’s get started.