COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 15:
NC Prep Products In NFL, NCAA Title Games
Among DG’s ACC/NC “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs”
(Weekly Video = Posted Below)
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Dec. 2, 2025)
While the focus of our “This Week In College Football” show is forward-looking as often as possible, we always take a glance back at the previous weekend in college football, too, and sometimes we’ll offer some quick mentions to those making impactful headlines on the gridiron, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or across North Carolina.
With that in mind, below are our Week 15 “Fun Facts and Shout-Outs,” brought to you by our good friends at Jimmy’s bar and King Neptune restaurant in Wrightsville Beach.
Jimmy’s has a full bar, nightly drink specials and live music 365 days a year(!). (It’s a great place to watch a game, too.) Right next door, King Neptune has become one of the best restaurants in the entire greater Wilmington area.
Week 15 “Fun Fact #1″
Fun Fact: The great state of North Carolina has risen all the way to #5 on the list of the National Football League’s most productive high school talent pipelines.
Going all the way back to the 1980s and perhaps longer, the top four states on this list haven’t changed. Sometimes the order has changed, but it’s the same four states every time: Texas, Florida, California and Georgia.
This year, the North Carolina high school football pipeline is #5 in terms of producing the most NFL players, and that is a much-needed positive sign about the gridiron culture in the Bold North State, especially as so many of our in-state college football programs have been mostly mediocre or worse in recent times.
It’s always important to point out in these conversations that pure demographics — just sheer population numbers — explain much of this stuff. For example, the only three states with more than 20 million people each are California, Texas and Florida. It definitely helps that high school football has — to varying degrees — become so ingrained in the cultures of those three huge states, which all have warm climates and multiple generations of true passion for the sport, but it starts with those enormous population numbers.
That’s also part of why it’s so exciting to see North Carolina rise all the way up to #5 on this list. Yes, like Georgia, the Bold North State is one of the 10 most populous states in the country, with an estimated population of approximately 11 million people. But right now Georgia and North Carolina are both producing far more NFL-caliber players than every other state with a similar population, and that can’t possibly be a bad sign.
Here are the specific 2025 NFL numbers by state:
Rank/State—High School Products In NFL
(2025 Opening-Week Rosters)
1. Texas—199
2. Florida—179
3. California—143
3. Georgia—143
5. North Carolina—70
6. Louisiana—59
7. Ohio—57
8. Illinois—55
8. Michigan—55
10. Alabama—52
11. New Jersey—50
12. Maryland—44
12. Pennsylvania—44
14. Virginia—41
15. Tennessee—33
16. Mississippi—32
16. South Carolina—32
18. Arizona—30
18. Missouri—30
20. Indiana—26
20. Wisconsin—26
Looking ahead, this impressive development provides at least some room for the hope that one or more North Carolina-based FBS program can become more relevant on the national scene at some point soon.
Quick side note on this topic: The Bold North State also is represented on the list of the five American cities whose high school ranks produced the most opening-week NFL players this season.
Charlotte ranked fifth, with 14 players. That number includes, among others, New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, who starred at Myers Park High School in the Queen City before developing into the ACC Player of the Year and a #3 overall draft pick during his time at UNC.
The only U.S. cities whose high school ranks produced more current NFL players were Bradenton, Fla., Atlanta, Miami and Detroit. Bradenton should get an asterisk of some kind, because young prospects move to that relatively small city from all over the country to attend IMG Academy, which skews the numbers quite a bit.
Regardless, for Charlotte to be listed alongside legendary football hotbeds such as Atlanta and Miami is a wonderful sign for the future of football in North Carolina.
Now on to this week’s shout-outs, with a similar theme in mind, as every conference championship game worth watching this week will include one or more high-profile players who are products of the North Carolina high school ranks.
#1—Shout-out, in the Big Ten championship game, to Indiana safety Devan Boykin and Ohio State defensive end Beau Atkinson, who both previously played high school football and college football here in the Bold North State.
In that monumental collision between 12-0 and top-ranked Ohio State and 12-0 and second-ranked Indiana on Saturday night, Boykin will be starting in the secondary for the Hoosiers, and Atkinson will be one of the first defensive players off the bench for the Buckeyes.
A sixth-year senior, Boykin spent five years at NC State and earned an NCSU diploma during his time in Raleigh. He appeared in 45 games for the Wolfpack, with 20 starts, after starring at Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, N.C., where he played for his father, coach Johnny Boykin.
Coming off a knee injury that caused him to miss the 2024 season, Devan quickly earned a starting safety role at Indiana, and he was the Hoosiers’ fifth-leading tackler during the regular season. His biggest plays this year include a 32-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown against Maryland, plus interceptions against UCLA and Wisconsin.
Atkinson, a 6-foot-6, 258-pound redshirt junior, is more of a situational player for Ohio State at defensive end. He spent three years at UNC, including a redshirt campaign, and compiled 11 sacks in 26 games while serving in a backup role for the Tar Heels. He previously starred at Leesville Road High School in Raleigh.
#2—Shout-out, in the Southeastern Conference title game, to Georgia safety Kyron Jones, as the 11-1 Bulldogs take on 10-2 Alabama in Atlanta late Saturday afternoon. A North Carolina high school product, Jones has had an extraordinary rise during his time with the Bulldogs over these past three seasons.
A product of Charlotte Christian School, Jones redshirted at Georgia in 2023, served as an important second-team player in 2024, then earned a starting position this season as a redshirt sophomore, which is a heck of an accomplishment, given the Bulldogs’ incredibly deep and talented roster.
After starting Georgia’s first six games this season, and posting 10 tackles against Tennessee and seven against Alabama, Jones suffered a foot injury. He hasn’t played since, although coach Kirby Smart has repeatedly mentioned that he hopes Jones can return from his injury at some point this season.
During his time at Charlotte Christian, where he was more well-known as a running back, Jones led the Knights to a 10-3 season and the state championship game as a senior on the gridiron. He also was a two-time state champion in track and field, while setting state and school records in the 100-meter dash.
#3—Shout-out, in the Big 12 championship game, to Texas Tech tight end Johncarlos Miller II, as the 11-1 Red Raiders battle 11-1 BYU in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday afternoon.
Miller starred at Dudley High School in Greensboro at the high school level and became an FCS star at Elon University before transferring to Texas Tech prior to last season.
At Elon, Miller redshirted in 2021, became a starter in 2022, then earned first-team all-conference honors with the Phoenix in 2023.
At that point, the 6-foot-5, 240-pound tight end made the jump to Texas Tech, and he has become a part-time starter for the Red Raiders. Over these past two seasons in Lubbock, Miller has 19 receptions for 199 yards and three touchdowns.
#4—Shout-out, in the American Conference championship game, to three extremely important players who came through the North Carolina high school ranks and will be expected to play important roles on Friday night as 11-1 North Texas visits 10-2 Tulane.
Tulane actually has two starters — one on offense, one on defense — who both became stars at Shelby High School here in North Carolina and who both played last season at Appalachian State.
The Green Wave’s starting center is 6-foot-4, 300-pound fifth-year senior Jack Hollifield, who spent three seasons at Virginia Tech before becoming a second-team All-Sun Belt player during his single season at App State, in 2024. Also starting for the Green Wave, at defensive tackle, is redshirt junior Santana Hopper, who developed into a first-team All-Sun Belt performer in 2024, the last of his three seasons in Boone. Hollifield and especially Hopper are strong candidates to earn postseason honors in the American Conference this year.
At North Texas, meanwhile, one of the starting linebackers is sixth-year senior Shane Whitter, who became a high school superstar at Williams High School in Burlington, N.C.
Whitter spent four seasons at Oklahoma, mostly as a backup and special-teams performer, then transferred to North Texas prior to last season. A part-time starter for the Mean Green last year, Whitter has become a full-time starter and the team’s fifth-leading tackler in 2025.
#5—Last, but not least, shout-out — in the ACC championship game — to a slew of players who will be on the field in Charlotte on Saturday night. As you might expect, the Virginia-Duke matchup will be overflowing with important contributors who came through the North Carolina high school ranks.
For Virginia, the #1 example — by far — is sixth-year senior running back J’Mari Taylor.
A product of West Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, Taylor is a legitimate first-team All-ACC candidate this year, during his one and only season with the Cavaliers. During the Wahoos’ 10-2 regular season, Taylor carried the ball 207 times for 997 rushing yards (best in the ACC) and scored 14 touchdowns (second-best in the ACC). He added 39 pass receptions for 219 yards.
Taylor previously spent five years at NC Central in Durham, where he went from walk-on to superstar. As a redshirt junior in 2024, he compiled 1,146 rushing yards for the Eagles, which ranked as the fourth-best single-season total in program history. With that performance, he earned first-team All-MEAC honors and became a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, which honors the top player in the FCS ranks.
Duke, meanwhile, has more than a dozen key players from North Carolina, beginning with Vincent Anthony Jr., Tre Freeman, Aaron Hall and Todd Pelino, who all have started for multiple seasons during their time with the Blue Devils.
Anthony, a senior defensive end and three-year starter, is from Jordan High School in Durham. Freeman, a fifth-year senior linebacker and another three-year starter, is from Northern High in Durham. Hall, a fifth-year senior defensive tackle and two-year starter, is from the Southern School of Energy & Sustainability in Durham. Pelino, a senior placekicker and four-year starter, is from Cannon School near Charlotte.
The longer list at Duke also includes wide receiver and return man Que’Sean Brown, bruising second-team running back Anderson Castle, rover DaShawn Stone and injured All-ACC safety Terry Moore. Brown, a redshirt sophomore, is from East Forsyth High in Winston-Salem. Castle, an Appalachian State transfer, is from Watauga High in Boone. Stone is from Reynolds High in Asheville. Moore is from Washington High.
Congratulations and best wishes to all of those North Carolina high school products — in all of those big games — here during college football’s Championship Week.
