Florida’s Vernon Hargreaves III is a unanimous All-American, a three-time first-team All-SEC selection and a sure bet to hear his name called early in the upcoming NFL Draft.

And the junior cornerback says he largely has former Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper to thank for it.

The two matched up against each other just once, Sept. 20, 2014 in Tuscaloosa. Cooper, who would later that season win the Biletnikoff Award that annually goes to the nation’s best receiver, had his way with Hargreaves, torching him 10 catches for 201 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Crimson Tide to a 42-21 victory.

The game was the first in which Hargreaves had been specifically tasked to trail a specific receiver for the entire game, no matter which he side on which he lined up.

“He really gave me everything I asked for,” Hargreaves said at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta this week before the Home Depot 25th Annual College Football Awards Show. “He made me such a better player. I obviously couldn’t cover him. He killed us. He absolutely killed us.”

Cooper, who is now tearing up the NFL as rookie receiver for the Oakland Raiders, was at the top of a list of five receivers Hargreaves cited as the best he’d gone against in college.

The others were former LSU star and current New York Giant wide out Odell Beckham, Jr., former LSU star and current Miami Dolphin wide out Jarvis Landry, Ole Miss junior receiver Laquon Treadwell and Alabama freshman Calvin Ridley.

But Cooper was clearly at the top of the pecking order, as much by his sheer talent as his professionalism.

“You know just competing against him and just seeing how focused he was all game,” said Hargreaves, who will play his final college game on New Year’s Day when the Gators play Michigan in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl. “It didn’t matter what part of the game it was. He never said anything to anybody. He was locked in. He was focused. He obviously executed. Every time the ball came his way he caught it. He made me such a better player. He kind of changed the way I looked at how to play the game.”

Hargreaves said he left Bryant-Denny Stadium that day with a newfound respect for Cooper’s deep love for the game.

“I could see that fire in him, that passion in him,” Hargreaves said. “That kind of inspired something in me.”

Hargreaves favorably compared the promising Ridley to Cooper because of his similar size, speed and ability to do just about anything on the field.

Hargreaves was a first-team selection to the Walter Camp All-American team announced on Thursday and one of 16 SEC players recognized on either the first or second teams.