After Marcus Spears hung around South Carolina WR Deebo Samuel, the SEC Network host was reminded of one of his teammates from his NFL days.

“I love Deebo. I love the way he plays,” Spears told WLTX’s Joe Cook at SEC Media Days. “I played with a guy in Dallas who plays similar to him – Dez Bryant. They play receiver like linebackers. That’s what you have to have, and he has a dog mentality. He could’ve lined up with me any day.”

Samuel’s coach, Will Muschamp, had similar praise for the electric play-maker Thursday in Hoover, Ala.

“Deebo Samuel is with me today. Very explosive player with the ball in his hands, returner, runner, receiver,” Muschamp said. “We need to be able to get him a bunch of touches in every game. He’s also a guy with a very competitive edge. You ask him to be a gunner, he’s going to go do it. We’re really excited about him.”

Samuel was fourth among SEC receivers last season in yards per game (78.3). Samuel only had one receiving touchdown last season, but that didn’t keep him out of the end zone as he logged six rushing touchdowns.

The number of touchdown catches should increase in 2017. Pro Football Focus recently took at SEC wide receiver’s drop rates and found that Samuel had the lowest drop percentage, only 3.28 percent, among returning SEC wideouts. If Bentley is able to get the ball to Samuel, he should be making those Bryant-like plays.