Getty Keenan Allen catches against Cobie Durant of the Rams on January 1, 2023 in Inglewood.
Zane Pope was labeled a “Keenan Allen type” long before he caught his first college football pass, plus before a future member of the Los Angeles Rams in 2022 rookie Ronnie Rivers came via the same recruiting class with him at Fresno State. And it wasn’t a fan who compared him to the five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, it was Pope’s future head coach Jeff Tedford — who coached a young Allen at Cal.
Six years later, Pope not only hopes for an NFL opportunity as he prepares for the NFL Draft by training at Exos Sports near Phoenix, he tells Heavy he would love to reunite with his former roommate on the Rams Rivers.
“Yeah, that’d be awesome because we were roommates. I’m really close friends with him. I love that dude,” Pope told Heavy.
The Allen Comparisons
Pope was once a growing 6-foot-2 wide receiver who was capturing the attention of Mountain West Conference teams at Moorpark High School in Ventura County. And he was the elder standout wideout at MHS as the Musketeers had an explosive underclassman coming up named Drake London.
But when Tedford returned to head coaching at his college alma mater, Pope caught his attention by displaying the same body control, foot speed and concentration that his young WR pupil Allen once possessed.
“Oh yeah, he said it coming out of high school,” Pope said when thinking back to when Tedford called him another Allen. “And then I didn’t really see it at first, but as I started to mature as a college athlete, I think towards the last two years, I really saw a lot of myself in him.”
Fittingly, Pope began to channel his own inner Allen.
“I began trying to model my game after him, having similar size, similar speed. So that’s someone I modeled my game after for sure,” Pope said.
The end result at FS was Pope becoming a 40-50 catch season threat for a high-powered Bulldogs offense. He snatched 50 passes for 623 yards and scored four touchdowns in his final season playing for the MWC’s best offense. In all four of Pope’s CFB seasons, he always averaged more than 11.3 yards per catch. For his career, Pope averaged 14.9 yards per catch — more than Allen’s average of 12.5 under Tedford.
On an offense featuring the more heralded prospect Jalen Moreno-Cropper and dangerous return ace from Cal Nikko Remigio, plus highly-touted quarterback Jake Haener distributing the ball, Pope still showed his knack for creating separation and accelerating past cornerbacks. But he also busted the “China” route that has become a staple move from Rams All-Pro Cooper Kupp inside the red zone that led to six points. Finally, Pope earned another nickname at FS: “Mr. Reliable.”
Zane Pope Would Love College Reunion Inside the ‘Rams House’
Rivers isn’t the lone reason why Pope would love to play for the team that practices 12 minutes south of his high school alma mater.
The Rams’ offense under Sean McVay, Pope says, has a similar structure to the offense Tedford ran in California’s Central Valley.
“I definitely think there are a lot of similarities. We have a lot of play-action and a lot of option routes. And he’s got Cooper Kupp on the option routes and stuff like that. We do that in our offense at Fresno State,” Pope said.
He’s preparing for his March 30 Pro Day at FS by using the same state-of-the-art facility that helped get Odell Beckham to overcome his first ACL tear before Super Bowl 56. Exos is also the place that trained Drake Jackson before becoming a 2022 second-rounder and also has highly-coveted 2023 WR draft prospect Parker Washington from Penn State.
And along with the hope of playing in a similar system with his Ex-roommate, Pope would also love to see Haener in a Rams uniform as well.
“Over the years we’ve got a pretty close bond. That’d be awesome to reunite the connection over there,” Pope said.