There was a time earlier in Deantre Prince’s life he would have opted away from the uncomfortable. But after going through everything he has, there’s no other way he’d do things. Consider the NFL Combine just another one to check off the list.
Prince is one of three former Ole Miss players invited to the scouting event, which begins Thursday and runs through Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. He will be joined by former Rebels defensive end/outside linebacker Cedric Johnson and defensive back Daijahn Anthony.
Prince has been working out in Frisco, Texas, since January at Exos. He will be speaking with the Daily Journal over the next few months to profile his NFL Draft experience and his journey.
“I see the light at the end of the tunnel. So, I’m going for everything,” Prince said. “Everything that I can do, to the best of my ability, I’m going for it, and I’m willing to take sacrifices to be the player that I want to be and do the things that I want to do for my family. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s about the people that I feel like I have to take care of.”
Prince began playing cornerback for the Rebels in 2019 as an ESPN four-star prospect from Charleston, Mississippi, a town about an hour southwest of Oxford with a population of less than 2,000 people, per 2020 Census data. Prince played in every game with three starts as a true freshman and excelled, intercepting two passes, deflecting two more and racking up 25 total tackles.
At the time, though, Prince was struggling internally in ways he was uncomfortable communicating. He was shy and wasn’t particularly adept at expressing his emotions or what he was going through. Shortly after his senior season at Charleston High, one of Prince’s close friends went to jail for three years, he said. He also said he was “losing family members.”
Bottling all of those emotions up took a toll, Prince said. He needed a reset. So he spent a season at Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville.
“I’m the type of person as well who doesn’t talk a lot, like communicate. That’s something I learned growing up in college and being at Ole Miss,” Prince said. “ … Mentally, I was just holding all that in, and I honestly couldn’t shake it, just because I’ve never really communicated my pain or the struggle that I was having.
“ … So I kind of just took those steps back so I could find myself as a man and find out who I wanted to be and find out the athlete I wanted to be, the man I wanted to be, the father I wanted to be.”
Prince played a year at Northeast Mississippi Community College, a place unfamiliar and “in the middle of nowhere.” But it’s exactly what he needed.
“We have to be uncomfortable,” Prince said. “ … Because the more uncomfortable you are, the more you will develop as a man and as an athlete.”
After a successful 2020 campaign with the Tigers, Prince was ready for major college football again. It likely would have been easier for Prince to go anywhere other than Ole Miss, somewhere he wouldn’t have to answer questions about what happened in the last year.
But Prince said he wanted to earn his spot back with the Rebels. He wanted to prove people wrong. So, he rejoined Ole Miss as a non-scholarship player in 2021 and went on to start 33 games over the next three seasons.
Prince knew it would be strange being a walk-on and having to start over. But he needed to experience those things to move past them.
“That was very important, just because, when all the odds are against me, I still came out on top,” Prince said. “So, I feel like I did that just because I wanted to earn everything back and I wanted to finish the journey that I started.”
Prince thought he was turning pro following his standout 2022 season, where he broke up a career-best 12 passes. But he suffered a groin injury that required surgery and would have prevented him from working out before the draft, he said. So he decided to give it one more go with the Rebels in 2023. And what a go it was.
Prince started 13 games and helped lead the Rebels to their first 11-win season in program history, capped off by a Peach Bowl win over Penn State. Ole Miss finished the season ranked No. 9 in the AP poll. Following the season, Prince played in the East-West Shrine Bowl, one of the preeminent all-star games for NFL Draft prospects.
Among Prince’s focuses while training at Exos has been perfecting his 40-yard dash technique. Prince is naturally fast, but he’s never had to use sprinter form and start so low to the ground, not even when he ran the 100-meter dash in high school. But this whole experience has been about breaking habits.
Prince said that, on a typical day, he will wake up at around 5:30 a.m. and stretch/prep his body until about 7 a.m. when he then heads to the workout facilities. He will do different running exercises, stretches and lift weights until the middle of the afternoon. If he has free time, he likes to take his mind off things by playing Fortnite or Madden. He also enjoys meditation.
Prince’s desire to make it to the NFL is a lot bigger than him. Included are his nearly 2-year-old daughter and his mother, Jackie, whom he refers to as his “ride-or-die.” Jackie had Prince’s older brother when she was 16, he said. She missed out on a lot of opportunities — including college — Prince said. She is, and will always be, his “Superwoman.”
The opportunity to provide for his loved ones is all the motivation Prince needs.
“I kind of just take the time to do the things that she didn’t have the opportunity to do, just to make her even more proud,” Prince said.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.