Former Top CFB Recruits Running Out of Chances Ahead of 2025 Season

Every year, recruiting rankings are getting better and better as a lot of the top-tier prospects in each class go on to have incredible collegiate careers and head on to the NFL.

But being a high-profile recruit is not always a smooth trip to stardom.

For a lot of guys, it takes several years of development, second chances and maturity. For others, it never comes. For the guys on this list, the jury is still out, and while there is some time remaining in their careers, the proverbial clock is ticking.

There are a lot of guys who could fall in this category for the 2025 season, but we've picked the 10 guys you probably have heard of or remember if you follow recruiting at all. Others you may go, "Oh yeah, I remember that dude. He's still in college football?"

The answer is yes, and even if you've forgotten about some of these guys, there are still opportunities for these former top-100 prospects to find a way onto the field and resurrect their careers.

Here are some former recruits who were on the top of the high school world who are running out of time to do anything on the college level.

Once upon a time, Jeremiah Alexander was the nation's top-ranked edge rusher, the No. 18 overall player in the nation and a 5-star expected to head to Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide and be a megastar.

Things don't always work out, and now four years later, the former Thompson (Alabama) High School standout who played alongside Clemson star Peter Woods will try to resurrect his career next to him again.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney doesn't take a lot of transfers, but he made an exception for Alexander, who has one remaining season as an outside linebacker/edge player and hopes to do big things in the ACC.

Throughout his career in Tuscaloosa, he was primarily a special teams player. The 6'2", 232-pound defender has just eight tackles in his entire time at Alabama, so while he has a lot of talent, the production simply has been nonexistent.

New Tigers defensive coordinator Tom Allen is trying to tap into that talent.

“Has a tremendous desire to want to play,” Allen told The Clemson Insider's Jason Priester. “He is always in here doing something extra. Comes in on the weekends on his own, which is awesome to see. He is always studying film, asking really good questions. Has a good football IQ. Very strong guy and has some really good physical traits.”

But can he put it all together and be a weapon for the Tigers in his final year? It would be a nice story if so.

You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody at Ohio State who had anything bad to say about Devin Brown, who showed multiple times just how much he loved and was committed to the Buckeyes.

Fortunately for him, he left a national champion. Unfortunately, the former 4-star prospect who was a top-50 player in the 2022 class didn't have the career he expected.

Brown battled Kyle McCord when CJ Stroud left for the NFL, but he lost the job. Once McCord left for Syracuse, Brown had an uninspiring bowl performance in a loss to Missouri last year but hung around to battle for the job, despite Ryan Day's desire to get a transfer signal-caller.

Once Will Howard came on board and won the starting signal-caller spot, Brown stayed. Even as Ohio State made the College Football Playoff, Brown stuck around to be the backup in case anything happened to Howard.

Ultimately, he left for Berkeley where he'll play his final two seasons for the California Bears closer to his Draper, Utah home. But how will he fare? In Columbus, he'd fallen behind a future star in Julian Sayin.

Now, coach Justin Wilcox has elite quarterback Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele on campus, and Cal rarely gets playmakers of his ilk. He probably won't stick around to be the backup, so while Brown has veteran savvy and plenty of talent himself, can he beat out the youngster?

He's got one more chance to live up to expectations, and while he still has two remaining years of eligibility, he's got plenty of competition to win the job.

There are so many former (and a current) Alabama Crimson Tide players on here that it could have been its own slideshow. When former coach Nick Saban stockpiled so much talent, though, you have to know there just isn't room for everybody.

Some get lost in the shuffle; others just simply don't pan out.

For receiver JoJo Earle, he fell somewhere in the middle. Now, four years after he was a top-50 player coming out of Aledo (Texas) High School, the 5'9" jitterbug offensive playmaker is trying to go somewhere and be a big-time player.

Stops at Tuscaloosa and closer to home as a TCU Horned Frog had flashes but never really materialized into what he'd hoped his career would be. He has just 47 career catches for 579 yards and reached pay dirt five times.

There was a glut of star pass-catchers for Earle to compete with at Alabama, but that wasn't really the case in Fort Worth. Even so, he saw his role diminish this past year, catching just seven passes for 37 yards.

Now, Earle will try to resurface in Las Vegas for UNLV under new coach Dan Mullen. He's the first of a couple of guys on this list who will hope for a big final season with the Runnin' Rebels. It would be cool to see him get a lot of touches and make things happen.

Back when Denver Harris came to the Texas A&M Aggies as part of that elite 2022 class that Jimbo Fisher signed that was ranked No. 1 nationally, everybody expected the Houston native to be a star.

He was a 5-star prospect and the No. 23-rated overall player in the nation, after all.

Harris probably would have been, too, if he was able to control his temper and follow team rules. He played in five games as a true freshman with the Aggies before Fisher suspended him for a violation of team rules. He left College Station and resurfaced at LSU where he was suspended two more times by Brian Kelly before getting kicked off the team.

Last year, Harris played the most snaps of his career as a member of the UTSA Roadrunners, and even though he had a nice campaign in San Antonio, here he is on the move again.

Harris will join JoJo Earle and new coach Dan Mullen in Las Vegas where he will try to have the type of season that will get him noticed by NFL teams. At 6'1", 180 pounds and with blazing speed and great coverage skills, Harris has all the tools.

If he can stay out of trouble, play a large sample set of plays and make an impact, he's the type of prospect who can shine in an NFL combine setting. It feels like this is the point of his career where he needs to show some maturity, though, if he wants a shot at the pros.

You know Emmanuel Henderson Jr. grew up in Geneva County, Alabama, as the best player every time he stepped on the football field, watching what Nick Saban was doing with the Crimson Tide and dreaming to be a part of it.

He got that opportunity after a high school career that saw him rated the No. 41-ranked overall player and the second-rated running back in the 2022 class.

After a position change, some bumps in the road and a lot of special teams action, Henderson is now finishing his career a long way from home and trying to make an offensive impact in the Big 12.

Following a career that saw him play a ton on every special team in Tuscaloosa, Henderson (who moved to wide receiver) played a lot of snaps as a junior last year under Kalen DeBoer, but the offensive production simply wasn't there. He had just four catches for 82 total yards.

Now, with just one remaining season of eligibility, he's heading to Lawrence, Kansas, to play for coach Lance Leipold. With quarterback Jalon Daniels returning for another year with the Jayhawks, the opportunity for some explosiveness is there.

He doesn't want to just be a special teams weapon, anymore.

This is one final chance for Henderson to show he can be the difference-maker many thought he'd be when he came out of high school.

There's one more chance for CJ Hicks to be a dominating defender for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2025, and he may just live up to the hype.

A position change has renewed some hope surrounding the 6'3", 233-pound defensive player who came to the Buckeyes from Dayton, Ohio, where he was the No. 7-ranked overall player in the nation and the second-rated linebacker.

Last year, he had 22 tackles and a pair of sacks playing situationally, and now, he's moving to edge-rusher, where he may not start but will play a bunch of snaps.

Last year, according to Cleveland.com's Stefan Krajisnik, linebackers coach James Laurinaitis called Hicks his best blitzer, and he finished with two sacks on 151 defensive snaps. Even though Kenyatta Jackson and Caden Curry will likely hold the starting spots at defensive end, Hicks will be a key piece.

Hicks was expected to be a star out of high school, and it hasn't worked out that way. But he has a national championship, played for his childhood favorite team and has a new lease on his playing life with a new position and one remaining season.

With a big year, he's going to get plenty of attention from the NFL. Look for him to have a lot of chances to shine, and he could have a massive season in his last year at Columbus.

Walker Howard is going home, and he is going to try to make the most of what feels like a once-promising collegiate career that's veering toward the ditch.

After a record-setting career at Lafayette's St. Thomas More High School, Howard fulfilled the dream of many Louisiana boys by signing with the LSU Tigers. He'd been the No. 40-ranked overall player and the fifth-rated quarterback in the 2022 class.

But he left Baton Rouge after just one season, deciding instead to play for coach Lane Kiffin and the rival Ole Miss Rebels.

There, however, he couldn't beat out Jaxson Dart, and then he lost the backup job to Austin Simmons, who looked like a future star in limited action in '24. So, Howard is on the move again with two remaining seasons of eligibility, and he will head home.

Michael Desmoreaux's Ragin' Cajuns lost two redshirt senior signal-callers from last year's 10-win team, and they need a quarterback. Howard seems like the perfect fit, and with two seasons of eligibility remaining, he could be a godsend.

But first, he's got to beat out sophomore Daniel Beale and redshirt sophomore Lunch Winfield, who won't go away easily. Obviously, Howard's a local legend and is the faraway leader in the court of public opinion, but he's got to prove it on the field.

That's something he unfortunately hasn't shown yet on the collegiate level.

When Malachi Nelson came out of Los Alamitos (California) High School as part of the 2023 recruiting class, he was not only a part of that historic (on-paper) group of dynamic signal-callers, he was one of the guys at the top.

Nelson was the nation's No. 13-ranked overall player and the fifth-rated quarterback, a solid 5-star prospect who was expected to be the next great player at the position under coach Lincoln Riley after Caleb Williams went to the NFL.

Two years later, he's still searching for his first collegiate start.

Nelson endured labrum surgery before his USC career, played just one season in Los Angeles without ever really being in the mix for key snaps and then left. It was expected to be a big deal when he transferred to Boise State.

Again, he couldn't win the job, losing out to Maddux Madsen, who went on to have a big season for the Broncos. After that, Nelson is off again to El Paso, Texas, where he'll play for the UTEP Miners and coach Scotty Walden.

Whether or not he'll make an impact on a low level remains to be seen, but former offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter didn't mince words about Nelson in regards to the competition with Madsen.

It's time for Nelson to show that he can play on any level, and even though he still has time to develop and shine, he's got to focus on learning a system and getting on the field. Or else he's on his way to "bust" status.

There have been a bunch of former Alabama players on this list and, truthfully, there could be about four or five more.

Ty Simpson is hoping he isn't in that category next year. Why? He's still in Tuscaloosa battling for the starting quarterback job as a junior this year in Kalen DeBoer's system, and it's now-or-never time for the former 5-star.

Simpson was the No. 26-ranked overall player and the third-rated quarterback in the 2022 class when he spurned home-state Tennessee and signed with Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide. Since then, he's really only played sparingly and has done nothing to inspire confidence.

In three years, Simpson has completed 29-of-50 passes for 381 yards and hasn't thrown a touchdown. Even though Jalen Milroe really wasn't a fit for the DeBoer offense, Simpson couldn't do enough to steal snaps.

Now, he's battling redshirt freshman Austin Mack and true freshman Keelon Russell for the job, and if he doesn't win it, you probably should expect him to exit the Crimson Tide for another chance in the future. This is his opportunity to shine.

Simpson is more of a traditional drop-back passer, and he has spent three years in college now and a year in the DeBoer system, so he should be ready if he's ever going to be. But, like is always the case at the Capstone, there is a bunch of talent there to replace him if he doesn't shine.

All eyes are on that Tide battle under center this spring.

Once upon a time, Ty Thompson was supposed to be the next big thing as quarterback for the Oregon Ducks coming out of Mesquite High School in Gilbert, Arizona.

Now, he's just trying to make an impact somewhere at some spot.

The latest twist in Thompson's story is a position move from quarterback—where he's spent his entire career—to tight end. With a 6'4", athletic frame, maybe it'll be a good move for him. At this point, it's anybody's guess.

Thompson was the incoming star prospect in the 2021 recruiting class as the No. 7-ranked quarterback and 40th-rated overall player. After sitting for three years and attempting just 42 passes there, he left for Tulane.

Last year with the Green Wave, he didn't fare much better. He lost the job to Darian Mensah, and when the latter transferred to Duke, Thompson struggled in the bowl game. He completed just 17-of-40 passes on the year with three touchdowns and three interceptions.

But with quarterback now in the rearview, it's tight end time. With just one catch for 4 total yards returning at the position for the Green Wave, the opportunity is there.

"It's definitely a change of pace, but it's something I'm ready for and very willing to dive into to help the team win and get me on the field," Thompson told NOLA.com's Guerry Smith. "It kind of just comes naturally."

Even though his career hasn't gone as planned, you've got to love the unselfishness. Maybe this will finally be the fresh start Thompson needs.