*Walt taking 2014 and 2018 |
Charlie Campbell, Senior Draft Analyst |
North Texas Produces More Prospects
Updated June 14, 2019By Charlie Campbell. Follow Charlie on Twitter @draftcampbell.
When NFL teams held their spring scouting meeting, a preseason watch list compiled by advance scouts was distributed to all 32. The watch list is shared among the teams and helps the area scouts, national scouts, and college directors identify which players they will scout for the next draft when they start visiting college campuses in training camp. Of course, new players are added and others are dropped as the season unfolds, but this list has the vast majority of players who will make up the 2020 NFL Draft class.
There are many surprises on the list every year, with some small schools being represented, and one small school in particular really stands out this year for the amount of prospects its football program has for the 2020 NFL Draft. That school is North Texas, which has seven players on the NFL teams’ preseason watch list – the same amount as the Texas Longhorns. North Texas has more prospects on the watch list than many big-name schools, including defending National Champion Clemson, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor, Penn State, Miami, Florida State, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Washington, UCLA and USC.
The seven players from North Texas are: wide receiver Rick Bussey, safety Taylor Robinson, safety Khairi Muhammed, quarterback Mason Fine, defensive end La’Darius Hamilton, running back Loren Early and guard Elex Woodworth. Among those seven players, only Bussey received a projection by one team as having the potential to go in the top half of the 2020 NFL Draft. The other six players were given a projection of the back half of the draft or being worthy of consideration as undrafted free agents. Thus, schools like Clemson, Georgia, LSU and Florida will have more big-name players and early-round picks than North Texas, but entering the season, NFL teams have more players from the North Texas Mean Green on their preseason watch list than those college football powerhouses.
