The NFL Draft begins Thursday night when the nation’s top college football players will officially become professionals. Just a few years ago, these future first-rounders were high school prospects trying to navigate the ever-chaotic process of recruiting.
Some were five-star prospects with their pick of any school in the country. Others were two- or three-stars just hoping to get noticed. It goes to show that not every path to the NFL is linear.
Let’s take a look back at the recruitment of the top 10 prospects in Dane Brugler’s latest mock draft.
Note: All recruiting rankings are from the 247Sports Composite.
1. Fernando Mendoza, Class of 2022
- Two-star prospect, Christopher Columbus High School, Miami
- No. 2,535 overall, No. 191 quarterback
- Signed with Cal, transferred to Indiana
Mendoza, the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner who led Indiana to the national championship, initially committed to Yale. Almost no other school — and zero Power 4 programs — wanted him.
“I would tell people, ‘He’s going to be a great quarterback for you,’” said Dave Dunn, Mendoza’s high school coach. “A couple people would listen, but I had more guys that were defensive guys going, ‘Hey, listen, I don’t know what our offensive staff is thinking. I would take the kid.’”
Mendoza didn’t land a power-conference offer until about a week before signing day, when Cal finally took the plunge after Dunn was able to convince then-offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave of Mendoza’s potential. Mendoza signed with the Golden Bears and was a two-year starter before transferring to Indiana ahead of the 2025 season.
By beating Miami in the national championship, he knocked off his dream school as a kid and will now be the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
“I think a lot of these coaches don’t do enough digging to really get to know the quarterbacks and just really kind of understand the intangibles, understand what makes a quarterback tick,” Dunn said. “You’d know that he’s a team guy. You’d know the way his mind works. You’d know just how relentless a worker that he is, how coachable he is. The makeup and the way he’s wired. If a coach truly took the time to do that — they would know that.”
2. Arvell Reese, Class of 2023
- Four-star prospect, Glenville High School, Cleveland
- No. 212 overall, No. 22 linebacker
- Signed with Ohio State
Unlike Mendoza, Reese had his choice of schools and finished his recruiting process with 20-plus offers, many from the Big Ten. But as an Ohio native, playing for the Buckeyes was always the dream.
Reese got his Ohio State offer in March 2022 and by early August, committed to the Buckeyes over Alabama, Penn State, Michigan, USC and many others. He became a starter for the Buckeyes as a junior in 2025 and finished the season with 69 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks en route to becoming one of the nation’s most explosive pass rushers.
3. Francis Mauigoa, Class of 2023
- Five-star prospect, IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
- No. 10 overall, No. 2 offensive tackle
- Signed with Miami
Miami head coach Mario Cristobal is known for his ability to recruit and produce offensive linemen, and Mauigoa is one of his best. A five-star originally from American Samoa, Mauigoa played high school football both in his hometown and in California before transferring to IMG Academy and becoming one of the most coveted prospects in the country.
Idaho State was the first Division I program to offer Mauigoa in December 2019, and Washington State followed suit shortly after in January 2020. That February, Michigan became the first blue blood to offer and from there, the floodgates opened.
Mauigoa eventually finished with 20-plus offers and trimmed his list to a top six of Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, USC, Miami and Tennessee in June 2022 before committing to the Hurricanes in July. Mauigoa went on to earn consensus All-America honors as a junior in 2025. He’ll always be Cristobal’s first five-star at Miami.
4. David Bailey, Class of 2022
- Four-star prospect, Mater Dei High School, Santa Anna, Calif.
- No. 66 overall, No. 7 edge
- Signed with Stanford, transferred to Texas Tech
If there’s one thing to know about Bailey’s recruitment, it’s this: “It’s not going to be your typical Bryce Young, Matt Leinart story,” said Bruce Rollinson, the former coach at California powerhouse Mater Dei. “It’s a lot different.”
Rollinson knew Bailey was destined for the NFL as early as Bailey’s sophomore year of high school and remembers telling Bailey’s mother, Monica, that every college in the country would be chasing after her son. But Monica was set on David joining his older brother, DJ, at Harvard, where he could earn an Ivy League degree and play football.
At first, Rollinson assumed that Monica would change her mind when the blue bloods came calling and she realized her son was too talented to play at Harvard. But it took time to convince her.
“Literally, I’ve got head coaches calling and going, ‘Come on Bruce, you’ve gotta be kidding me,’” Rollinson remembers of his interactions with prominent Power 4 coaches. “And I go ‘Coach, what do you want me to do?’”
After Bailey’s sensational junior season, Rollinson eventually approached Monica and pleaded his case:
“I said, ‘I understand, and I’m not meddling in your affairs. Harvard is an outstanding university. He’ll graduate and probably make more money than any of us ever imagined immediately after graduation. But David is a Division I player. He could take over and probably start as a freshman at any one of these universities that are so perplexed as to why he’s not interested.’”
Rollinson told Monica he was close with the Stanford staff and asked how she’d feel about her son playing for the Cardinal, where he could play more competitive football while still earning a prestigious degree. Bailey’s mom left the decision up to David, who eventually committed to Stanford.
Bailey spent three seasons at Stanford and starred for the Cardinal. To his mother’s delight, he earned his degree, then entered the transfer portal ahead of the 2025 season. He landed at Texas Tech, where he tied for the national lead with 14.5 sacks for a team that advanced to the College Football Playoff.
“Obviously,” Rollinson said, laughing, “he had a pretty good year.”
5. Caleb Downs, Class of 2023
- Five-star prospect, Mill Creek High School, Hoschton, Ga.
- No. 6 overall, No. 1 safety
- Signed with Alabama, transferred to Ohio State
What’s it like to be one of the most coveted prospects in the country? Welcome to the Caleb Downs experience.
Downs got his first offer from Akron as an eighth grader, started at safety for Georgia powerhouse Mill Creek High as a freshman and grew 3 inches between his freshman and sophomore seasons. After his sophomore spring, nearly every program in the country wanted him — and made that crystal clear.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart arrived on Mill Creek’s football field via a helicopter. Coaches made extra visits to nearby Peachtree Ridge High School, just to talk to Caleb’s mother, Tanya, who was a teacher there. Even Alabama’s Nick Saban pulled out all the stops.
“I think one of the more amazing things was when we went to Alabama on the visit, there’s a day when you always go to Nick Saban’s house,” said Gary Downs, Caleb’s father. “And I remember all the prospects and the families were all shooting hoops on the basketball court outside the house and Nick comes over to Caleb and someone says, ‘All right, you guys are going to be riding with Nick (back) to the facility.’
“We go in the garage and we get in the car. We get in one of (Saban’s), I think it was a silver Mercedes. … It’s Caleb, myself, my wife, and we’re riding in Nick’s car. All the rest of the recruits and families are there on the basketball court, but we rode back to the facility with Nick in the car and that was one of those moments like, ‘OK, I guess he’s important to him.’”
Gary Downs said that Caleb would have considered joining big brother Josh Downs at North Carolina had the Tar Heels had a better third season under Mack Brown. But his heart was set on playing for Saban and Alabama.
“When Caleb initially committed to Alabama, that last night of recruitment, Ohio State was in our living room, and Caleb had to tell them we were gonna go to Bama,” Gary said. “It was a very tense, emotional night. They said, ‘What do we need to do different?’ I said, ‘You can’t do anything different. You’ve done everything. We know what we need to know. We really like you all. But at the same time, he’s going to Bama.’”
Even though Saban retired after Caleb’s freshman season, Gary believes his son would make the same decision to play for Saban and Alabama all over again. When Downs entered the transfer portal, Ohio State tried again. And this time, the Buckeyes won the battle.
“Ohio State came to our house, and they sat in the same living room, and they said, ‘Let’s not sit in the same seats,’” Gary joked. “But I said, ‘The outcome’s going to be different today, though.’”
6. Sonny Styles, Class of 2022
- Five-star prospect, Pickerington Central High School, Pickerington, Ohio
- No. 12 overall, No. 1 safety
- Signed with Ohio State
Styles was among the most coveted prospects in his class. After an injury held him back during his freshman year, it took just one game into his sophomore year for the offers to start pouring in.
“Right after (our season-opening) game, I was coming off the field,” said Jeff Lomonico, the defensive coordinator at Pickerington Central, “and it was really during COVID. So we were lockering underneath the bleachers underneath our stadium, and by the time I got off the field, did my normal interviews and got to my phone, there were five coaches that had reached out to me with offers for Sonny.
“And Ohio State was one of them right away. His recruitment was very easy.”
Styles, whose parents both attended Ohio State, always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, former Ohio State linebacker Lorenzo Styles, who starred for the Buckeyes and went on to win Super Bowl XXXIV with the St. Louis Rams.
But the younger Styles still did his due diligence — visiting several other schools before narrowing his list to Clemson, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Ole Miss and Florida. Also a standout basketball player, Syles had a few mid-major offers on the hardwood, as well.
Those visits allowed him to confirm he wanted to be in Columbus, where his brother, Lorenzo Jr., joined him as a transfer from Notre Dame. Sonny finished his final year at Ohio State as a first-team All-Big Ten selection, solidifying himself as one of the best linebackers in the country.
“He didn’t ever lead anybody on, but everybody was after Sonny,” Lomonico said. “His dad didn’t push Ohio State on him. He made sure he made the decision on his own, and that’s where he wanted to go.”
7. Jeremiyah Love, Class of 2023
- Four-star prospect, Christian Brothers College High School, St. Louis
- No. 80 overall, No. 6 running back
- Signed with Notre Dame
Love, the Heisman Trophy finalist, didn’t really see his recruitment take off until his junior year of high school. He missed his sophomore season — also the year of the COVID-19 pandemic — as he continued to recover from a summer injury.
But he quickly grabbed the attention of college coaches after he popped an 80-plus-yard counter for a touchdown that made the rounds on social media. Oregon, Washington, Tennessee, Michigan, Alabama, LSU, Notre Dame and others all offered early in 2022. By the spring, Georgia, Miami, Texas A&M, Penn State and plenty of others were in on the action, too.
Game 1 vs estl 💜💛
First carry of the game
Btw this video was created by @justlobs @cbcfootball @cbchighschool @cbccadets @scottpingel10 @natelatsch @JPRockMO @powermizzou @gavinconley61 pic.twitter.com/e3u01aKyfK— Jeremiyah Love (@JeremiyahLove) August 29, 2021
Scott Pingel, the coach at Christian Brothers College High School, had a hunch Love’s recruitment would come down to Notre Dame and Michigan.
But Notre Dame had one very specific thing going for it.
“He’s a modest, quiet young man, so I think the smaller setting of Notre Dame fit him perfectly,” Pingel said. “Obviously, it’s a big-time school, but the school itself is kind of tiny so I think that was something that really fit his personality really well.”
Pingel credited the tandem of head coach Marcus Freeman and then-running backs coach Deland McCullough for landing Love, who finished his career as the 2025 Doak Walker Award winner, presented to the nation’s top running back.
“Marcus was more nurturing and fatherly and Deland was kind of more like, ‘OK this is what we’re going to expect, this is what we want from you, can you do this?’” Pingel said. “And I thought it was a good balance.”
8. Carnell Tate, Class of 2023
- Four-star prospect, IMG Academy, Bradenton, Fla.
- No. 60 overall, No. 9 wide receiver
- Signed with Ohio State
One of the best receivers in the nation in the Class of 2023, Tate reported 40 (!) offers and had his pick of essentially any SEC and Big Ten program.
“Coming from Chicago, having the opportunity to play football anywhere is a blessing,” he said in his commitment video.
This one for the city🥂 pic.twitter.com/NUU22zp1sc
— Carnell Tate (@carnelltate) June 20, 2022
Tate took visits to Illinois, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee and LSU and shared several photos on social media in the spring of 2022 at Tennessee, even posting a picture alongside former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava after Iamaleava committed to the Vols.
By March 2022, Tate had a top five that consisted of Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, Notre Dame and Tennessee. He tweaked that slightly by June, with a top four of LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Tennessee before picking the Buckeyes a few days later.
Tate cited the Buckeyes’ development under then-receivers coach Brian Hartline, now the head coach at USF, as a factor in his decision. It paid off, as he finished with nearly 900 receiving yards in 2025 despite missing three games and ending his three-year career with 121 catches for 1,872 yards and 14 touchdowns.
9. Rueben Bain, Class of 2023
- Four-star prospect, Miami Central High School
- No. 64 overall, No. 11 edge
- Signed with Miami
There’s a world in which Bain, who just played for a national championship and earned ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors, ended up at …. Louisville?
“Louisville was definitely in the mix,” said Jube Joseph, Bain’s high school coach. “I really think Louisville had a real, legit shot at him. But then Louisville’s coaching staff all went to Cincinnati late during that process.”
Despite starting at Miami Central as a freshman, Bain was a bit of a late bloomer, Joseph said, because he didn’t have prototypical size. But his recruitment took off during a breakout junior season, especially after he recorded five sacks in a game against North Miami Beach.
Oklahoma, Alabama and Miami all pursued Bain hard, and he narrowed his list down to those three plus Louisville, Florida State and Auburn. After holding his cards close to the vest, he picked the hometown Hurricanes in December 2022, signing with the school he grew up cheering on as a kid.
Since a kid, Go Canes! pic.twitter.com/09hCHF4FVm
— Rueben “Hurricane” Bain Jr. (@ruebenbainjr) August 11, 2023
“To be honest with you, I (only) knew it was Miami when he committed. Because you never knew. He was a very quiet kid. Private,” Joseph said. “But when he decided, everybody just supported him … and I knew if he picked Miami he wasn’t going to flip.”
10. Mansoor Delane, Class of 2022
- Three-star prospect, Archbishop Spalding High School, Severn, Md.
- No. 651 overall, No. 59 cornerback
- Signed with Virginia Tech, transferred to LSU
Perhaps if there’s anyone in the NFL Draft who can relate to Mendoza and his journey, it’s Delane — a fellow under-the-radar prospect who had more mid-major traction than Power 5 attention as a Maryland native ranked in the 600s.
Delane’s first offer came from Temple, and he eventually picked up offers from Louisville, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Minnesota, Vanderbilt and others before arriving at a final two of the Terrapins and Hokies.
He picked the Hokies in August 2021 and stuck with them, despite Michigan State offering a few months later. He transferred to LSU ahead of the 2025 season and became LSU’s first unanimous All-American cornerback since Greedy Williams in 2018. Now, he’s projected to potentially become the first cornerback drafted Thursday night. Not too shabby for a former three-star.