There were 21 NFL players who are alumni of Minnesota high schools on opening day rosters earlier this month and six of them are former Golden Gophers. The NFL released extensive data earlier this month about the origins of its players and Sports Headliners identified the following players with high school ties to the state:
Joe Alt, Totino-Grace and Notre Dame; Kayode Awosika, Maple Grove and Buffalo; Yahya Black, Marshall and Iowa; Elijah Campbell, St. Paul Central, and Iowa Western Community College, Northern Illinois and Northern Iowa; Blake Cashman, Eden Prairie and Gophers; Amani Hooker, Park Center and Iowa; Bobby Jamison-Travis, Iowa Western Community College and Auburn; Emmett Johnson, Holy Angles and Nebraska; Jermaine Johnson, Eden Prairie and Georgia and Florida State;
Nick Kallerup, Wayzata and Gophers; Byrce Lance, Marshall and North Dakota State; Trey Lance, Marshall and North Dakota State; Cody Lindenberg, Anoka and Gophers; Boye Mafe, Hopkins and Gophers; Namdi Obiazor, Eden Prairie and Iowa Western Community College and TCU; Ty Okada, East Ridge and Montana State; Trey Pipkins, Apple Valley and Sioux Falls; Brevyn Spann-Ford, St. Cloud Technical and Gophers; Danny Striggow, Orono and Gophers; Jalen Travis, DeLaSalle and Princeton and Iowa State; Treyton Welch, Buffalo and Wyoming.
NFL starters among players who didn’t play at Minnesota are Alt, Black, Hooker, Jermaine Johnson and Travis. Ex-Gophers starting are Cashman and Mafe.
Six of the 21 players listed above played for Minnesota, or about 28 percent. What to make of that?
College football recruiting is a nationwide endeavor for Power Four programs like Minnesota. The Gophers annual recruiting classes consist of players from around a dozen different states that supplement the Minnesotans in the group.
An analysis of many other states likely would show a large number of players from their high schools who didn’t play for the hometown Division I program. Many prep players want to go out of state for college and there is intense competition to land elite local players no matter what part of the nation they’re from.
It’s interesting to note, however, that many of those Minnesotans who are in the NFL weren’t highly recruited or pursued by Power Four programs including the Gophers. Reasonable to suggest the Gophers, led by head coach P.J. Fleck, could bolster roster talent by recruiting more Minnesota natives, knowing many would need development.
That fits with Fleck’s ongoing operating philosophy of running a developmental program. One that puts emphasis on still recruiting high school players rather than purging the roster and bringing to town transfers from other universities.
Fair or not, there’s been a perception for decades that University of Minnesota football coaches could be more thorough in evaluation and willingness to bring state high school players to Dinkytown.
That opinion may gain credibility when the comparison is to the state of Iowa and the Hawkeyes. The Big Ten and neighboring rival Hawks are 8-1 in games against Fleck and are a poster program for identifying and developing talent within their state. The Hawkeyes consistently outdo the Gophers in national rankings and better bowl games.
There were 26 players who were alums of Iowa high schools on NFL opening day rosters. And 12 of them played collegiately for the Hawks, or 46 percent.
That’s even more impressive given that the Hawkeyes have another Power Four program in the state, Iowa State, to compete against for talent, while the Gophers have no such rival.
Although Iowa has a smaller population (about 3.2 million) than any Big Ten state except for Nebraska, it ranks eighth per capita for most players in the NFL.
A relevant note, though, to the Gophers and Hawkeyes comparison is that hockey is an obsession in Minnesota and more of a whisper in Iowa. High school athletes who play hockey in Minnesota may not even participate in football. Or if they do, they choose college hockey careers rather than football.
BTW North Dakota State has won national championships for years with a recruiting pillar of Minnesota high school talent, sometimes players unwanted or under recruited by the Gophers and other Big Ten programs.
Other news from the NFL’s deep dive into its rosters includes:
Texas (192), Florida (185) and California (159) were the leading states in number of players on NFL rosters. Bradenton, Florida, with 22 alums, topped the list of cities producing the most players. Miami was second at 21.
There are now 778 colleges and universities with football programs. There are 17 schools across all NCAA divisions, the NAIA and independents that are launching programs in 2026 or announcing plans for coming years. Since 1978, the number of schools playing NCAA football has increased by 194, growing from 484 to 678.
The NFL report gives pause to the perception pre-college participation in football is declining.
Eleven-player football has 1,043,716 participants and is by far the most popular high school sport for boys or girls. There has been a 7.1 percent since the first survey after the pandemic in 2021-22.
Football is the most popular high school sport for fans. There are approximately 7,000 high school football games on an average Friday night, with about 7-10 million fans in attendance on a weekly basis.
Youth tackle football participation continued to grow in 2025, with more than 3.47 million youth playing. For those playing 26 or more times during the year, there was an increase of 3.9%, reaching more than 2.2 million participants in 2025. The increase was strongest among teens ages 13–17, with participation growing 7.3% year-over-year to more than 1.46 million.
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