15 of the best NFL players from obscure college football programs

Between the regional combines and efforts in Europe, the NFL has continued to increase opportunities for football prospects to get seen by scouts and eventually make a roster. That said, the surest path to the league still begins with a conversation with Nick Saban or Jim Harbaugh or any coach from an Power Five conference school, each of which has a steady pipeline of players headed to the next level.

Still the “little guys” have produced some greats and highly impactful players, and below we take a look at 15 of the best from the lesser-known college football programs around the country.

The former lineman for the William Penn Statesmen, which competes in the Heart of America Athletic Conference in Division II, has one of the best nicknames in football. He’s also a tremendously valuable run-stuffing tackle who’s earning that big contract the Giants gave him in free agency last offseason.

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The Buffalo Bulls competed in Division III and the FCS until making the leap to Division I (FBS) in 1999. The Raiders took the dominant third-year edge rusher, Mack, at fifth overall in the 2014 NFL Draft, the highest a Buffalo player has ever been drafted. Mack already has 27 sacks and five forced fumbles in his young career.

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Armstead, one of the best left tackles in the NFL, is the pride of the Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden Lions football program, which competes in the Southwestern Athletic Conference of the FCS. In 2013, the Saints made the 6-foot-5, 305-pound tackle the first Golden Lion drafted since the Chargers took guard Courtney Van Buren in 2003.

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The North Dakota State Bisons are certainly more widely known now, after the Eagles traded a haul to the Tennessee Titans to take Wentz at No. 2 overall in the 2016 NFL Draft. The Fargo-based Bisons, by the way, are winners of a record five Consecutive FCS national championships (2011-15). Wentz still has much to prove and some growing pains to work through, but he looks like the real deal and will become realer when the Eagles surround him with more wideouts not named Nelson Agholor.

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Everyone’s new favorite dancing punter (who ranks fifth in the NFL in gross and net punting yardage) hails from Fort Valley, which competes in the Divison II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Other NFL-ers who have emerged from the historically African-American university in Georgia include Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Lockette and retired cornerback and two-time Super Bowl champion Tyrone Poole.

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Woodhead stamped his name numerous times in the Chadron State, Division II and NCAA record books and ranks second all-time with 9,259 all-purpose yards in NCAA football history behind only former Eagles great Brian Westbrook. Still Woodhead struggled to stick in the NFL, an experience he wrote about in a compelling essay for the Players’ Tribune.

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Big Ben put Miami of Ohio on the map … in Pittsburgh.

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The University of Mary Hardin–Baylor (UMHB) was at one time the female department of Baylor University, but it later became its own institution. The 30-year-old former Division III linebacker signed with the Titans as an undrafted free agent in 2008 before spending three years in the CFL and returning to the NFL with the Colts, where he played alongside Robert Mathis out of the not-so-well-known Alabama A&M Bulldogs program (FCS).

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In 2010, the Oakland Raiders drafted the 6-foot-8, 320-pound blocker out of Division II, where the Hillsdale (Michigan) Chargers compete in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (though all the Chargers varsity teams will soon to be joining Great Midwest Athletic Conference in 2017).

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In a league where kickers are treated like second-class citizens and replacement parts, the former South Dakota State Jackrabbit (FCS as of 2004) is a dependable constant and a future Hall of Famer.

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Hey, another Patriots discovery. Butler became the Super Bowl XLIX hero with that famous goal-line interception and just continued to ascend thereafter, earning a Pro Bowl nod in 2015. He’s the pride of the Division II Western Alabama Tigers as well as Popeye's corporate headquarters.

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The Valdosta State Blazers compete in the Gulf South Conference of NCAA’s Division II. The 28-year-old Schraeder didn’t even play high school football and walked on to junior college team before joining Valdosta. The undrafted free agent has become a force for the Falcons, who on Monday signed him to a five-year contract extension with $12.5 million guaranteed.

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There’s another Southern Mississippi Golden Eagle you probably have heard of named Brett Favre. The Golden Eagles compete in Conference USA in the FCS, and the program has produced a healthy number of NFL players (Texans OT Chris Clark to name another) but is certainly not an NFL factory like the schools in the power conferences.

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Brate has not yet joined the NFL’s upper echelon, but he’s emerging as a solid red zone target for Jameis Winston and has five touchdowns so far this season. There’s that, plus we wanted to get some Ivy League representation in here because someone needes to take the torch from Ryan “You know, he went to Harvard” Fitzpatrick. Also, shoutout to Packers center J.C. Tretter out of Cornell.

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There’s a lot of links between the Patriots and Cowboys and their current backups, so why not put the former Eastern Illinois Panthers together? In his 2013 senior year, Jimmy G broke Romo’s career and season records for passing touchdowns and yards. One or both of these former Panthers (of the Ohio Valley Conference) will be suiting up and starting for another team next season.

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