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EVERY SO OFTEN, North Dakota State offensive tackle Cody Mauch will hear from Kendrick Lenzen, his childhood friend and former grade school teammate, via FaceTime.

“He’ll be like, ‘Hey, give me a smile,'” Mauch said. “It’s like he’s admiring his work.”

Lenzen is responsible for what might become the most recognizable gap-tooth grin in the NFL since Michael Strahan. Mauch hasn’t had his two front teeth since colliding with Lenzen while chasing a loose ball in a middle school basketball game. After several dental stopgaps, Mauch decided that he wouldn’t repair his teeth until he finished playing football.

He could be waiting a while to fix that smile.

Mauch (pronounced “Mouck”) enters the NFL draft later this month as one of the top offensive tackles on the board and Todd McShay’s No. 52 overall prospect. ESPN’s Matt Miller lists Mauch as his No. 5 tackle and there’s a chance the North Dakota State standout hears his name called on the draft’s first night in Kansas City, Missouri.

“I can say I knocked out an NFL player’s teeth,” Lenzen said.

Mauch’s path to the doorstep of the NFL stands out, given where his journey began and what he looked like when he left home. He grew up in Hankinson, North Dakota, a town of 922 in the southeast corner of the state, where he played nine-man football and graduated in a class of 18. Mauch arrived at North Dakota State as a 220-pound walk-on tight end and left 82 pounds heavier as an All-America tackle.

The physical transformation makes the 6-foot-5, 302-pound Mauch hard to miss, especially with his long red hair and missing teeth. His personality matches the look. At NDSU, he became known for creative first-down celebrations, having in-game conversations with opposing linemen and playing the air fiddle (and even a real one) after FCS semifinal victories.

“His nickname is ‘Tud,'” said North Dakota State defensive lineman Jake Kava, Mauch’s friend and housemate. “When you think of a guy with the nickname Tud, that’s Cody. No front teeth, big smile, long, flowing red hair.”

Beneath the friendly exterior is a talent who can play all five offensive line spots and has an intriguing combination of skills and power. He just approaches football with a smile.

MAUCH WALKED ON at North Dakota State after receiving mostly Division II offers out of Hankinson High School, where he played tight end, quarterback and defensive end in the nine-man game. When Bison offensive lineman Nash Jensen first saw Mauch, he thought: “Who’s this scrawny little redhead?”

During a practice in the spring of 2018, North Dakota State coach Chris Klieman called over Jim Kramer, the team’s longtime strength coach. Klieman gestured toward Mauch, who had redshirted the previous season and was working with the tight ends.

“That kid’s going to be a big kid,” Klieman told Kramer.

But Klieman, who is now the head coach at defending Big 12 champion Kansas State, saw Mauch at a new position, where he could ultimately reach a much higher level.

“He was the first person who ever told me I might have a shot at the NFL,” Mauch recalled. “That was before I really even started playing offensive line. I’m like, ‘Man, this guy’s crazy. How’s he know?'”

North Dakota State doesn’t treat its players as finished products. Kramer works with a nutritionist to take measurements and predicts the mass that players can add without compromising their effectiveness. Linebackers become defensive ends, tight ends become tackles and so on. The approach has helped NDSU become the nation’s premier FCS program, winning nine national titles since 2011 and playing for another in January. Since 2014, North Dakota State has had 10 players drafted, including two first-round quarterbacks (Trey Lance and Carson Wentz) and four offensive linemen.

At first, Kramer didn’t fully buy Klieman’s vision for Mauch.

“I don’t know if I saw that he was going to be a 300-pounder,” Kramer said. “But Coach Klieman saw it. Then Cody started working.”

Mauch spent the next months in the weight room and dining halls or other eateries in and around campus. NDSU has an all-you-can-eat program for freshmen and “Cody took full advantage,” said Matt Entz, who replaced Klieman as coach in December 2018.

Kramer outlined a more aggressive in-season training plan for Mauch, since he wasn’t on the depth chart. Mauch also spent much of his free offseason time eating and lifting.

“It made such a difference,” said Joe Mauch, Cody’s father. “Small-town kid, we don’t really have too much of a weight program. At school, the weight room is in a corner on the stage. Not a lot, aside from a squat rack and a bench press.”

When the 2018 season kicked off, NDSU listed Cody at 269 pounds, a 35-pound increase from his 2017 weight. By the fall of 2019, he was up to 290 pounds. Mauch also didn’t stop growing vertically, measuring 6-foot-5 at the combine, an inch taller than when he arrived in Fargo.

“He’s a kid with big hips, big hands, big features,” Entz said. “We knew that at some point, he was going to gain some weight. I don’t know if anyone really knew what he was going to be, or that he was going to turn out to be potentially a Day 1, Day 2 type of draft pick.”

Mauch began playing the ogre position, an extra offensive lineman who occasionally wears a tight end’s number. In 2019, he suited up as both No. 70 (offensive line) and No. 88 (tight end), catching a 2-point conversion in an FCS playoff semifinal win.

By the COVID-delayed spring season of 2021, his positional path became clear. North Dakota State initially moved all-conference tackle Cordell Volson from right tackle to left, while placing Mauch on the right side. After two games, the two switched. Volson earned first-team All-America honors that season and in the fall, before becoming a fourth-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals. Mauch remained the team’s starter at left tackle.

“He’s such a hardworking kid,” said Jensen, who started multiple seasons next to Mauch at left guard. “Just to see his progression from being a tight end/defensive end to an All-American, top NFL prospect [for] offensive line, is absolutely crazy.

“I couldn’t be more proud.”

Mauch occasionally gets Facebook or Snapchat memories that show what he looked like when he arrived at North Dakota State. The before-and-after graphic of his measurables appeared on TV during the 2023 FCS playoffs and at pre-draft events like the Senior Bowl.

“It’s like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that’s the way I looked,'” Mauch said. “It makes you happy for the way things have gone and how different life is now.”

WHEN STACEY MAUCH saw her son walk in the door, she started to cry.

Cody was back home from Fargo, where he had visited the E.R. and a dentist, following the collision with Lenzen in the basketball game. His front teeth couldn’t be salvaged, and his lips and face had swelled like a balloon.

Stacey didn’t want to see Cody in pain. As a schoolteacher in Hankinson, she also worried about the impact of such a noticeable facial injury for a seventh-grader.

“You just want your kids to grow up confident and happy,” Stacey Mauch said. “‘Get your teeth fixed, you’ll be confident and be ready to smile and take on the world.’ But this guy doesn’t need teeth to do that. He’s shown that over and over, the way he flashes the smile and the confidence he has.”

Since Cody’s mouth was still growing, the plan called for him to wait for implants. He went through several sets of braces to widen his mouth and used a retainer and a “flipper” with false teeth. But the retainers kept breaking. After several years, Mauch stopped wearing anything.

“I’m sure my mom and dad were probably a little upset, just because of how much money they paid in braces and all the different dentist appointments, all the broken retainers,” he said. “But everyone who knows me knows that no teeth kind of fits my personality. I’m an easygoing, goofy guy. I don’t really care how I look.”

Cody is the second of eight children, spanning ages 25 to 7, and comes from a large family that goes back generations around Hankinson.

As a boy, he spent summer days at the family crops farm alongside Joe. Tasks ranged from maintenance on tractors and other equipment to clearing fields. When Cody got his driver’s license, he began driving a truck.

“You learn the way to work,” Joe said. “Our kids have been working on a farm since they were 8 years old.”

Hankinson’s school had about 300 students in one building, kindergarten through 12th grade, and only offered a handful of sports. Mauch competed in everything: football, basketball, baseball and track, earning all-region honors in both basketball and track, while setting school records for touchdown receptions and sacks.

His older brother, Carter, was a multisport standout, and his younger siblings also competed.

“Whatever was going on for sports in the world, that’s what was going on in our front yard, too,” Stacey Mauch said. “If it was football season, they would mow a football field out there. If it was baseball season, they would mow a baseball field.”

Cody knew everyone around town, and he and his friends found ways to entertain themselves. Once they began driving, they started to do “Main-ers.”

“Just rip it up and down Main Street,” said Cody, who started with a 2000 Grand Am before buying one of his dad’s F-150 trucks. “There’s no stop lights or anything, so it takes you probably 45 seconds to get from one side of town to the other.”

Cody recently looked at a picture of his kindergarten class and realized almost everyone had graduated high school together. In November, Hankinson honored Cody with a celebration at the school.

His NFL draft plans aren’t firmly set, but Joe expects a party at the VFW or the American Legion in Hankinson, where family and friends will gather.

“I’m definitely going to pay a lot more attention to the draft this year,” Lenzen said. “I’m excited, kind of in disbelief. Cody’s put a lot of work in, but it’s a dream that a lot of people don’t get to have.”

DURING MAUCH’S FRESHMAN year at North Dakota State, Hank Jacobs, the team’s director of football operations, looked at the clean-cut walk-on and made a suggestion: Grow out the red hair.

Mauch wasn’t convinced, but he stopped going to the barber.

“I’m like, ‘Eh, I’ll just do it, why not?'” Mauch said. “I’ve been growing it out for probably four years now. Saved a lot of money on haircuts.”

The long red hair, a trait Mauch shares with two of his sisters, is part of his signature look. He added a red beard while at NDSU. There’s only one drawback.

“There was hair everywhere,” said Kava, who shared a house with Mauch. “I was the vacuum guy, so I had to clean it out and I was like, ‘Cody, could you please cut your hair, for my sake?’ It’s annoying to clean up, but it’s here to stay. It’s definitely part of the thing he has going.”

Mauch incorporated his locks into a first-down signal: the hair point. Other celebrations after NDSU moved the chains included a slide, a somersault and several that were rehearsed but too difficult to perform in games, like the Maucharena (his spin on the ’90s dance) and the conga line.

Naturally, Mauch named one celebration “A-gap power,” where he smiles after first downs. His missing teeth actually became a conversation topic during games with opposing players.

“The D-ends and D-tackles, they’re asking him, ‘Why don’t you have two front teeth?'” Jensen said. “As each play went along, the story got longer and longer. He probably changed it from time to time, just to mess with them.”

Mauch didn’t make the conversations all about himself. By his third year as a starter, he had built relationships with opposing linemen, and tried to get to know new ones.

“You’re kicking these guys’ butts and then talking to them about their uncle and farming,” Kava said. “I think we were playing [Northern Iowa] and he’s talking about egg science with their D-tackle. We’d get home and he would tell me, ‘We were talking about the new combine from John Deere.’

“I’m like, ‘Cody, you’re something else.'”

Not surprisingly, Mauch was in the middle of North Dakota State’s fiddle-playing tradition after FCS semifinal wins. Since the national title game is held annually in Frisco, Texas, North Dakota State plays the country song “If you’re gonna play in Texas [You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band]” in the Fargodome when it advances. Bison players will play air fiddle, but after a win over Incarnate Word in December, someone handed Mauch a real one.

Middle schoolers in nearby Moorhead, Minnesota, noticed Mauch’s fiddle form on TV and invited him to learn how to play correctly.

“Just a classroom of sixth- and seventh-graders making fun of me for not knowing how to hold it, not playing it right,” Mauch said. “That was cool to get humbled by those guys.”

For Mauch, the in-game displays made football fun, especially while playing on the line. He clicked instantly with the offensive linemen after switching over. Mauch loved that the group’s success hinged on being unified, but individual personalities could still stand out.

During pregame meals, the linemen would compile their Mount Rushmores — top fours — for a variety of topics: snacks, favorite foods, least favorite foods, favorite places in Fargo, and more. “The stupid stuff that was right in my wheelhouse,” Mauch said. Then, the Bison would usually proceed to mash their opponents. They ranked in the top 10 nationally in rushing throughout Mauch’s career.

Mauch’s philosophy impacted everyone around him, even his coaches.

“I didn’t think the football field was the place to have fun,” NDSU offensive line coach Dan Larson said. “But he has fun with it and it makes football enjoyable to him. We stopped worrying about whether he was doing first-down signals, or if a guy runs by and he gives a high-five, but [the opposing player] won’t do it, he gives himself a high-five.

“When I stopped worrying about those parts of it and just the snap and the finish, his level of football even went up. Because it’s who he is.”

ON NFL SUNDAYS in recent years, Mauch and his housemates would gather in their living room and watch games on four mounted TVs. Sometimes they’d even bring in a fifth screen.

Mauch used the time to unwind, but as he got older, his attention shifted.

“I’m sitting there, watching the left tackle, watching the center,” he said. “I was just putting myself in their shoes.”

Mauch’s appearance and personality project fun, but he takes football seriously. Entz never questioned Mauch’s commitment, noting that he approaches the grind of the game with some balance. Larson learned that as long as he smiled once in a while, he could challenge Mauch just like any other player.

Since Mauch is relatively new to playing offensive line, he had to build up his strength and technique. Kava remembered being able to bull-rush Mauch early in their careers before Mauch added “that tackle weight.” Larson worked on hand placement with Mauch but saw him thrive at playing with his hips low to keep defenders from getting past him in pass protection.

Mauch’s footwork and ability to move are his greatest assets. Larson thinks the right blocking scheme will make Mauch a “vertical monster,” where he can pull and run downfield. Mauch doesn’t have the longest arms, which measured 32 and three-eighths inches at the NFL combine, and might not project as a tackle for every team, but he can play all over the line, as he displayed during Senior Bowl week.

“He’s the only guy in this draft class who has proven he can play all five spots,” Senior Bowl executive director and former ESPN draft analyst Jim Nagy said. “Those guys are really hard to find. In the [Senior Bowl] game, he played left guard, center and right tackle, so he’s proven he can play on both sides, which is big, too.”

While scouting Mauch’s film, Nagy never flagged arm length as a potential drawback. Mauch held up well against better competition during Senior Bowl week, and players on the National team voted him as their top offensive lineman.

play

0:35

Cody Mauch’s NFL draft profile

Check out the best highlights that contributed to a stellar college career for North Dakota State’s Cody Mauch.

Nagy said most teams he talked to before the event pegged Mauch as a second-round pick, but Mauch’s performance gave him “a legit chance” to go at the end of the first round.

“I would start him at left tackle, because that’s the premium position and prove to me that he can’t play there,” Nagy said. “If he can’t play there, then we’ll slide him into guard or center and there’ll be a Pro Bowl-level player inside.”

An AFC scout said Mauch likely projects as a Day 2 pick but added that all teams are starving for tackles.

“His passion and the emphasis he puts on playing the game jumped out,” the scout said of Mauch. “I wanted to keep watching this guy.”

Everyone will soon be watching Mauch in the NFL. Mauch appreciates his unlikely path to pro ball: small town, nine-man ball, three years as a walk-on at NDSU. He considers receiving a scholarship to be among the best moments of his life.

Another moment will come soon when his name is called in Kansas City at the draft. Mauch looks forward to entering a pro facility with his signature smile and becoming “a locker-room guy,” just like he was at NDSU.

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Stanford hires former Nike CEO Donahoe as AD

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August 2, 2025

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Stanford hires former Nike CEO Donahoe as AD

  • Seth Wickersham

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    Seth Wickersham

    ESPN Senior Writer

    • Senior Writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine
    • Joined ESPN The Magazine after graduating from the University of Missouri.
    • Although he primarily covers the NFL, his assignments also have taken him to the Athens Olympics, the World Series, the NCAA tournament and the NHL and NBA playoffs.

Jul 31, 2025, 11:10 PM ET

Stanford has hired former Nike CEO John Donahoe as the school’s new athletic director, the university announced Thursday.

Donahoe, 65, will arrive in the collegiate athletic director space with a vast swath of business experience, as Stanford officials viewed him as a “unicorn candidate” because of both his business ties and history at the school. Stanford coveted a nontraditional candidate for the role, and Donahoe’s hire delivers a seasoned CEO with stints at Nike, Bain & Company and eBay. He also served as the board chair of PayPal.

He also brings strong Stanford ties as a 1986 MBA graduate. He has had two stints on the Stanford business school’s advisory board, including currently serving in that role.

“My north star for 40 years has been servant leadership, and it is a tremendous honor to be able to come back to serve a university I love and to lead Stanford Athletics through a pivotal and tumultuous time in collegiate sports,” Donahoe said in a statement. “Stanford has enormous strengths and enormous potential in a changing environment, including being the model for achieving both academic and athletic excellence at the highest levels. I can’t wait to work in partnership with the Stanford team to build momentum for Stanford Athletics and ensure the best possible experiences for our student-athletes.”

Donahoe replaces Bernard Muir, who announced in February that he was stepping down after serving in that role since 2012. Alden Mitchell has been the school’s interim athletic director.

The hire is a head-turning one for Stanford, bringing in someone with Donahoe’s high-level business experience. And it comes at a time when the athletic department has struggled in its highest-profile sports, as football is amid four consecutive 3-9 seasons and the men’s basketball team hasn’t reached the NCAA tournament since 2014.

In hiring Donahoe, Stanford is aiming for someone who can find an innovative way to support general manager Andrew Luck and the football program while also figuring out a sustainable model for the future of Stanford’s Olympic sports.

“Stanford occupies a unique place in the national athletics landscape,” university president Jonathan Levin said in a statement. “We needed a distinctive leader — someone with the vision, judgment, and strategic acumen for a new era of college athletics, and with a deep appreciation for Stanford’s model of scholar-athlete excellence. John embodies these characteristics. We’re grateful he has agreed to lead Stanford Athletics through this critical period in college sports.”

Stanford’s Olympic sports remain the best in the country, as Stanford athletes or former athletes accounted for 39 medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. If Stanford were a country, it would have tied with Canada for the 11th-most medals. Stanford has also won 26 of the possible 31 director’s cups for overall athletic success in college, including a 25-year streak from 1995 to 2019.

School officials approached Donahoe in recent weeks about the position, with both Levin and former women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer among the chief recruiters. Donahoe has a long-standing relationship with both, as he maintained strong ties to the school throughout his career.

Sources said Luck will report to Donahoe. Luck spent time with him in the interview process and is excited to work with him, sources said. It’s also a change from the prior structure, as upon Luck’s hiring he had been slated to report to Levin.

“I am absolutely thrilled John Donahoe is joining as our next athletic director,” Luck said in a statement. “He brings unparalleled experience and elite leadership to our athletic department in a time of opportunity and change. I could not be more excited to partner with and learn from him.”

Stanford is set to begin a football season in which it is picked to finish last in the 17-team ACC. Former NFL coach Frank Reich is the interim coach, and both sides have made clear this is a definitive interim situation and that he won’t return after the 2025 season.

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Iowa State extends Campbell, bumps pay to $5M

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August 2, 2025

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  • Max OlsonAug 1, 2025, 04:59 PM ET

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    • Covers the Big 12
    • Joined ESPN in 2012
    • Graduate of the University of Nebraska

Iowa State and coach Matt Campbell have finalized a contract extension through 2032 after the winningest coach in program history led the Cyclones to their first-ever 11-win season in 2024.

Campbell will earn $5 million per year in total compensation, according to a copy of the contract obtained by ESPN on Friday. The three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year honoree took a discount on the deal, sources told ESPN, to ensure that his staff salary pool increased and to allow Iowa State to allocate an additional $1 million to revenue-sharing funds for its football roster.

Campbell earned $4 million in 2024 while leading the Cyclones to a Big 12 championship game appearance, an 11-3 record and a No. 15 finish in the AP poll. He’s entering his 10th season in Ames and has won a school record of 64 games during his tenure.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders will be the Big 12’s highest-paid head coach this year at $10 million after landing a five-year, $54 million contract extension in March. Campbell’s new salary will not rank among the top five in the conference, but he prioritized maximizing Iowa State’s ability to invest in its football roster following a historic season.

Campbell, 45, told ESPN in July at Big 12 media days that “probably our top 20 guys took a pay cut to come back to Iowa State” for 2025, relative to what they could’ve earned in NIL compensation by entering the transfer portal.

The head coach’s deal includes performance incentives based on the Cyclones’ regular-season record, starting at $250,000 for seven wins and climbing to $1.5 million for a 12-0 season. He’ll earn at least $100,000 for a Big 12 title game appearance and up to $500,000 for a Big 12 championship. The deal also permits him to distribute up to $100,000 of his performance incentive earnings each year to his football staff.

If Campbell accepts another Power 4 head coaching job before the end of his contract, his buyout would be $2 million. He would not owe liquidated damages if he departs for an NFL coaching opportunity. Campbell interviewed with the Chicago Bears in January during the organization’s head coaching search.

Campbell surpassed Dan McCarney as the program’s winningest head coach last season and has led the Cyclones to bowl games in seven of the past eight seasons, including a Fiesta Bowl victory and a top-10 finish in 2020.

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What you missed from college football recruiting this summer

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What you missed from college football recruiting this summer

  • Eli LedermanAug 2, 2025, 07:33 AM ET

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      Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.

The busiest 60 days of the annual recruiting calendar are officially behind us. And while another four months still remain before the December early signing period, college football’s top programs have already wrapped up the majority of their business in the 2026 cycle.

Per ESPN Research, a total of 155 prospects in the 2026 ESPN 300 made commitments in an avalanche of summer recruiting business from June 1 to July 31. In the wake of that, only 16 uncommitteds remain in the ESPN 300 as of Saturday morning. Within that group are just nine top-100 recruits, with five-star defensive end Jake Kreul, No. 2 running back Savion Hiter and No. 2 defensive tackle Deuce Geralds among those expected to come off the board in August.

More settled by this point of the cycle than any other in recent memory, college football’s 2026 class is unfolding against the backdrop of yet another moment of change in the sport. The House settlement and earliest ebbs of college athletics’ revenue sharing era have already shaped the 2026 cycle, and their effects will continue to ripple across the class until February’s national signing day.

As the recruiting trail prepares to take a (relative) back seat to fall camp practices, here’s a look at how the cycle played out this summer and what could come next for the class of 2026:

Revenue sharing and a new era in recruiting

The House settlement, which now permits schools to pay their athletes directly, among other sweeping changes, officially took effect July 1.

But according to personnel staffers, agents, recruits and parents surveyed by ESPN this month on the condition of anonymity, byproducts of college football’s new reality and the initial revenue sharing cap of $20.5 million across all sports have been steering the 2026 cycle for months. “In the past, collectives would always say we’re only going to offer what we know we can pay you,” a player agent told ESPN. “Now programs know what the budget will be, and harder numbers were discussed earlier than usual. The ability for programs to get those numbers out there early was huge.” As schools prepared roster budgets and braced for post-settlement oversight this spring, a number of Power 4 programs began front-loading their 2025 rosters in the lead-up to July 1.

In some cases, that meant negotiating updated, pre-settlement contracts with transfers and current players, deals that will not count against the post-July 1 revenue share cap. In others, sources told ESPN that programs and collectives found workarounds on the recruiting trail, doling out upfront payments as high as $25,000 per month to committed recruits in the 2026 class, primarily through advantageous high school NIL laws that exist in states such as California, Oregon and Washington.

Those front-loading efforts helped several programs jump out to fast starts in the 2026 cycle. Per sources, the impending arrival of revenue sharing also played a significant role in speeding up the 2026 class this spring. With programs in position to present firmer financial figures, a flurry of elite prospects committed to schools on verbal agreements before July 1.

“People rushed to get deals done pre-House,” a Power 4 personnel staffer told ESPN. “You know there’s only so much money available, and schools let kids know that. The first one to say yes gets it.”

Friday loomed especially large in the short-lived history of the House settlement.

Per the settlement, Aug. 1 was the first official date rising seniors could formally receive written revenue share contracts from programs and NIL collectives, the latter of which will now operate under looser regulation from the newly founded College Sports Commission, per a memo sent to athletic directors on Thursday. Put another way, Aug. 1 was the first day committed prospects and their families could officially learn whether terms they had agreed to earlier this year were legit.

“We’re going to see how serious these schools are,” said the parent of an ESPN 300 quarterback. “I think we might see some kids decommit and find new schools this fall.”

Across the industry, sources believe programs will, for the most part, deliver on the verbal agreements. Multiple agents and personnel staffers told ESPN that a number of programs have also generally ignored the Aug. 1 stipulation across the spring and summer, presenting frameworks of agreements to prospective recruits or flouting the rule entirely. Another question hovering over the months ahead: How much will these agreements do to contain the annual shuffle of flips, decommitments and late-cycle drama in the 2026 class?

“These deals should keep things more in check,” another Power 4 personnel staffer said. “But I’m not naive to think some won’t flip. There’s some snakes out there.”

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0:46

No. 1 overall prospect Lamar Brown commits to LSU

No. 1 overall prospect Lamar Brown stays home and commits to play for the LSU Tigers.

Where do things stand with the 2026 five-star class?

Oregon offensive tackle commit Immanuel Iheanacho, No. 13 in the 2026 ESPN 300, initially planned to announce his commitment Aug. 5. But, like many of the 2026 five-stars who entered late spring still uncommitted, Iheanacho felt the heat of an accelerated market in June.

“There were a couple of schools I was looking at that asked me to commit early, really wanting to get me in their class,” Iheanacho told ESPN. “Oregon didn’t rush me at all.”

Even so, Iheanacho eventually shifted his commitment timeline forward more than a month. ESPN’s second-ranked offensive line prospect picked the Ducks over Auburn, LSU and Penn State on July 3, landing as one of 11 five-star recruits to commit between June 14 and July 20.

As of Saturday morning, only one of the record 23 five-star prospects in ESPN’s class rankings for 2026 remains uncommitted. LSU secured a class cornerstone and the highest-ranked pledge of the Brian Kelly era in No. 1 overall recruit Lamar Brown on July 10. Meanwhile, Florida (McCoy) and Texas A&M (Arrington) each landed a top-15 defender, Ojo landed a historic deal with Texas Tech, and Texas closed July with the most five-star pledges — four — in the country.

With Kreul, the skilled pass rusher from Florida’s IMG Academy nearing a decision from among Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Texas, ESPN’s 2026 five-star class could be closed out before Week 0.

No matter how it plays out from here, the cycle’s five-stars are already historically settled. As of Saturday morning, 95.6% of the five-star class is committed among 14 schools across the Power 4 conferences. Per ESPN Research, it’s by far the highest Aug. 1 five-star pledge rate in any cycle since at least 2020. Just over a decade ago, only six of the 20 five-stars (30%) in the 2015 cycle were committed on Aug. 1, 2014; nearly half the class committed after New Year’s Day.

Highest rate of five-star pledges by Aug. 1 since the start of the 2020 cycle

  • 2026: 95.6%

  • 2024: 76.1%

  • 2025: 72.7%

  • 2021: 66.6%

  • 2020: 58.8%

A number of factors — the early signing period, NIL, transfer portal, new rules around recruiting windows and on-campus visits — explain why elite recruiting continues to inch further and further from the traditional February signing day. Amid the fallout of the House settlement, the latest five-star class seemingly received another nudge this summer.

What’s left for the 2026 QB market after summer moves?

The last major quarterback domino in the 2026 class fell July 18 when four-star Landon Duckworth (No. 178 overall) committed to South Carolina. More than four months from the early signing period, the quarterback market in 2026 is effectively closed.

After Ryder Lyons (BYU), Bowe Bentley (Oklahoma) and Jaden O’Neal (Florida State) found homes in June, Duckworth was the last uncommitted ESPN 300 quarterback. Further down the class, several major programs across the Big Ten and SEC dipped into the flip market or outside the top 300 to secure their 2026 quarterback pledge(s) this summer.

Notable quarterback moves since June 1:

Oregon ended its monthslong chase for a quarterback pledge June 25 with former Boise State commit Beaver. One of the cycle’s top summer risers after a standout Elite 11 finals showing, Beaver landed with Ducks coach Dan Lanning and offensive coordinator Will Stein over interest Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss in whirlwind, 13-day rerecruitment.

Alabama has five-star freshman Keelon Russell. But still repairing the program’s quarterback pipeline under coach Kalen DeBoer, the Crimson Tide added two pledges this summer between Thomalla — an Iowa State flip — and Kaawa. Across the state, Auburn and coach Hugh Freeze made their move June 26 flipping Falzone from Penn State before Ohio State (Fahey) and Kentucky (Ponatoski), another pair of quarterback-needy programs, landed pledges in July.

For now, the quarterback class is settled and only so many major programs are still searching in 2026.

Among the 68 Power 4 programs and Notre Dame, only 10 reached August without at least one pledge among the 106 quarterback prospects rated by ESPN: Colorado, Georgia Tech, LSU, Iowa, Iowa State, Maryland, Stanford, UCLA, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

Who might still be looking within that group?

Colorado (Julian Lewis), Maryland (Malik Washington) and UCLA (Madden Iamaleava) each signed a top-300 quarterback in the 2025 class. With all three programs in the midst of roster rebuilds, none is likely to make a serious push at the position this fall.

With Garrett Nussmeier out of eligibility in 2025, and after the LSU lost No. 1 overall recruit Bryce Underwood to Michigan last fall, the Tigers remain a program to watch in the coming months.

What did ESPN’s top five classes do this summer?

The Trojans got the bulk of their work done on the trail this spring and began June with the most ESPN 300 pledges of any program nationally. That remains the case as USC has bolstered its top-ranked incoming class with five more ESPN 300 pledges over the past eight weeks, adding defenders Talanoa Ili (No. 54 overall), Luke Wafle (No. 104) and Peyton Dyer (No. 269), a July 4 pledge from No. 3 wide receiver Ethan “Boobie” Feaster (No. 25) and the commitment of highly regarded four-star offensive guard Breck Kolojay (No. 198) on Friday.

Can USC hold on to secure its first No. 1 class since 2013? Time will tell. Sources told ESPN that the Trojans’ biggest moves in the cycle are likely finished while the program continues to target the tight end and safety positions, but there’s still time for plenty more to unfold this fall.

The Bulldogs went for volume and quality this summer, collecting 19 commitments including 12 from inside the ESPN 300. Georgia continued to build around five-star quarterback Jared Curtis with five-star tight end Kaiden Prothro, top-50 offensive tackle Ekene Ogboko, running back Jae Lamar and pass catchers Brayden Fogle and Craig Dandridge. On the other side of the ball, defensive backs Justice Fitzpatrick, Chase Calicut and Caden Harris, and defensive tackle Pierre Dean Jr. rank among the newest arrivals in an increasingly deep Bulldogs defensive class.

Georgia’s summer wasn’t without a few major misses. Losing out to Texas on No. 1 outside linebacker Tyler Atkinson — a priority in-state target — stung. Top running back Derrek Cooper’s subsequent pledge to the Longhorns marked another blow, as did wide receiver Vance Spafford‘s decision to flip to Miami in late June. But the Bulldogs are loaded up once again on top during this cycle and will hit the fall in line to secure the program’s 10th straight top-three signing class for 2026.

The Aggies landed a key local recruiting win over Texas on June 17 with a commitment from No. 5 running back K.J. Edwards, the state’s No. 6 prospect in 2026. But Texas A&M’s summer of recruiting was defined on defense, where coach Mike Elko is building another monster class.

Five-star athlete Brandon Arrington, who will play defensive back in college, became the program’s top-ranked 2026 pledge on June 19. Behind him, the Aggies have added top-150 defenders Bryce Perry-Wright, Camren Hamiel and Tristian Givens, and top 300 linebacker Daquives Beck since June 1 to a defensive class that features nine ESPN 300 pledges.

Even after narrowly missing on top defenders Lamar Brown (LSU) and Anthony Jones (Oregon) in July, Texas A&M holds one of the nation’s deepest classes and appears poised to contend later this year for its first top-five class since the Aggies went No. 1 in 2022.

It was a five-star bonanza for coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns this summer.

It began with a late-June pledge from Oregon decommit Richard Wesley, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive end. From there, Texas went on to secure its latest pair of recruiting wins over Georgia last month, swooping in to land Atkinson on July 15 before earning Derrek Cooper’s commitment five days later. With No. 1 quarterback Dia Bell already in the fold, the Longhorns have as many five-star pledges in 2026 as the program signed across 11 classes from 2011 to 2021.

Top-50 offensive lineman John Turntine III marked a key addition July 4, and the Longhorns got deeper on defense with commitments from cornerback Samari Matthews and former Georgia defensive tackle pledge James Johnson. But the five-star moves have been the story for Texas this summer, and Sarkisian & Co. might not be done yet with the Longhorns heavily in the mix for Jake Kreul, the last remaining five-star in the 2026 class.

After a productive spring, the Irish landed five ESPN 300 pledges after June 1, plugging the few remaining holes in the program’s 2026 class with a series of elite high school prospects.

Notre Dame landed its top two defensive back commitments within hours of each other on June 20 with pledges from cornerback Khary Adams and Joey O’Brien. On June 26, the Irish secured their highest-ranked tight end commit since the 2021 class in four-star Ian Premer. And in early July, Notre Dame bolstered its wide receiver class with an infusion of talent and NFL pedigree, adding Kaydon Finley (son of Jermichael Finley), Brayden Robinson and Devin Fitzgerald (son of Larry Fitzgerald).

Notre Dame’s trip to last season’s national title game arrived amid the program’s steady rise on the recruiting trail under coach Marcus Freeman. That has continued in 2026, where the Irish are poised to sign more ESPN 300 pledges — 17 — than in any cycle since at least 2006.

Five programs poised to push for a top-five finish this fall

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 6

Only one program can match USC’s count of nine top-100 pledges in 2026: Alabama.

The Crimson Tide’s second class under coach Kalen DeBoer boomed in June and July as the Crimson Tide secured a slew of commitments on defense with five-star safety Jireh Edwards (No. 23 overall), No. 3 outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 30) and defensive ends Nolan Wilson (No. 53) and Jamarion Matthews (No. 92). Priority in-state offensive targets Ezavier Crowell (No. 31) and Cederian Morgan (No. 47) marked two more key additions this summer.

Alabama whiffed on another major in-state recruit Thursday when four-star outside linebacker Anthony Jones, the state’s No. 1 prospect in 2026, committed to Oregon. Jones represented one of the last elite targets on the Crimson Tide’s board. But Alabama has already flipped four Power 4 commits this summer and could continue to climb this fall as long as DeBoer and his staff remain active within the class from now to the early signing period.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 11

LSU enters the month with ESPN’s No. 1 overall recruit, a five-star wide receiver in Tristen Keys (No. 10 overall) and 10 total ESPN 300 commits in the program’s incoming recruiting class.

How can the Tigers climb into the upper reaches of the 2026 cycle this fall? First and foremost, they have to hang onto Keys, ESPN’s No. 3 wide receiver. He has been committed to LSU since March 19, but that didn’t keep him from taking multiple official visits in the spring or shield him from serious flips efforts from Miami, Tennessee and Texas A&M this summer.

The Tigers’ battle to keep Keys could stretch all the way to the early signing period.

Sources expect LSU to ramp up its own flip efforts with in-state safety and Ohio State pledge Blaine Bradford (No. 34 overall) in the coming months. The Tigers are also finalists for Deuce Geralds and remain top contenders in the recruitments of offensive linemen Darius Gray (No. 73) and wide receiver Jase Mathews, both of whom are set to commit in August. LSU can’t be counted out from renewing its work in the 2026 quarterback this fall, either.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 7

The defending national champs had a relatively quiet summer atop the 2026 cycle, adding only four ESPN 300 pledges highlighted by the in-state pledges of outside linebacker Cincere Johnson (No. 82 overall) and running back Favour Akih (No. 160). Fahey, ESPN’s No. 28 pocket passer, will pad Ohio State’s future quarterback depth after Air Noland‘s offseason transfer, too.

One priority target who could help push the Buckeyes over the edge is four-star prospect Bralan Womack (No. 32). Ohio State has been consistent a leader in the recruitment of ESPN’s No. 3 safety through the spring and summer, and coach Ryan Day & Co. will have to hold off late pushes from fellow finalists Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M from now until Womack’s Aug. 22 commitment date. The Buckeyes also remain involved in the recruitments of No. 2 running back Savion Hiter and Darius Gray, the nation’s 10th-ranked offensive lineman.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 8

Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore has filled out his class with nine ESPN 300 pledges since June 1, headlined by top-100 defender Carter Meadows (No. 88 overall), who trails only quarterback Brady Smigiel (No. 44) among the top prospects pledged to Michigan in 2026.

Who could be next for the Wolverines? Michigan are finalists for ESPN 300 defenders Davon Benjamin (No. 63) and Anthony Davis Jr. (No. 299) with each set for a decision Saturday. More prominently, the Wolverines remain focused on Hiter (No. 24 overall), a top priority for the Michigan staff this summer whose commitment date is set for Aug. 19. The Wolverines also continue to be linked with Syracuse wide receiver pledge Calvin Russell (No. 28). ESPN’s No. 4 wide receiver closed a narrowing process with a commitment to the Orange on July 5, but sources expect Michigan and Miami to remain involved with Russell this fall.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 10

No. 2 outside linebacker Anthony Jones committed to the Ducks on Thursday, joining five-stars Immanuel Iheanacho and Jett Washington in a string of high-profile pledges for Oregon this summer.

Insiders believe the Ducks have backed off at the very top of the 2026 class after spending in the 2025 cycle, but Jones’ pledge could be the first move in a late-summer surge for coach Dan Lanning. Oregon is viewed as the front-runner for both Deuce Geralds and Davon Benjamin as the pair of top-65 prospects prepare to announce their commitments Saturday afternoon. If the Ducks land both, Lanning & Co. could be in position to sign another top-five class by December.

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