Troubling pattern emerging for HBCU NFL draftees

LUT WILLIAMS, BCSP Editor

What do 2026 HBCU NFL Draftees Karon Prunty, Kevin Coleman and Andre Fuller have in common with 2025 HBCU draftees Travis Hunter, Bhayshul Tuten, Shedeur Sanders and Jacory Croskey-Merritt?

ANSWER: The three 2026 picks are like four of the five former HBCU players drafted in 2025 that played at but didn’t finish their college careers on HBCU rosters.

That was the case in 2025 for Hunter and Sanders (Jackson State to Colorado), Tuten (North Carolina A&T to Virginia Tech) and Jacory Croskey-Merritt (Alabama State to New Mexico to Arizona).

It’s also the case for this year’s selections of Prunty (Kansas to North Carolina A&T to Wake Forest), Coleman (Jackson State to Louisville to Mississippi State to Missouri) and Fuller (Arkansas-Pine Bluff to Toledo). The only 2025 draftee to finish his career at an HBCU was Alabama A&M offensive lineman Carson Vinson.

It appears that in this current era, dominated by the transfer portal and NIL, the HBCU to PWI to NFL Draft route is becoming the norm rather than the exception.

That’s especially true when one considers that the most productive players that finished their 2025 careers at HBCUs – Virginia Union running back Curtis Allen and Morgan State linebacker Erick Hunter – were not taken in last week’s draft.

Karon Prunty

Prunty (6-2, 192), 24, a Portsmouth, Va. native, began his career at Kansas and came to NC A&T after earning honorable mention all-Big 12 honors in his only year with the Jayhawks.

In three seasons with the Aggies, he was a defensive backbone earning first team all-Big South designation in 2022 and third-team all-CAA honors in 2023 and 2024. He then transferred to Wake Forest where he earned third team all-ACC honors with the Demon Deacons in the 2025 season.

He was the first player with black college experience off the draft boards going to New England with the 31st pick of the fifth round, 171st overall.

Prunty’s, long, angular stature and 4.45-second 40 speed he showed in workouts has led to team-best numbers in pass break-ups in all three of his stops. For his college career, he totalled 151 tackles and six interceptions. At WFU, he was considered the top cornerback on the ACC’s top passing defense.

Kevin Coleman Jr.

Coleman (5-11, 180), 22, out of St. Louis, Mo., was a consensus Top 100 prospect and Missouri’s top ranked player out of high school that decided to take his talents to Jackson State in 2022 to play for much-ballyhooed head coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders.

He proved his mettle as a true freshman with 32 receptions for 475 yards and three touchdowns earning Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) freshman of the year honors. He was also JSU’s leading receiver in its 41–34 loss to MEAC champion North Carolina Central in the 2022 Celebration Bowl, gaining 137 yards and one touchdown on seven receptions.

He left JSU as Sanders did, transferring to Louisville where he started but finished with just 26 receptions for 362 yards and two touchdowns. A year later he was at Mississippi State where he had a breakout season with 74 catches for 932 yards and six touchdowns, more than doubling the production of any other Bulldog wideout and earning All-SEC Third Team recognition.

Coleman’s fourth and final stop came at Missouri for the 2025 season, where he returned home to play in front of family and friends. Once again he established himself immediately, leading the Tigers with 66 receptions for 732 yards despite inconsistent quarterback play, and his 78.8 percent catch rate ranked sixth nationally.

Consistent production at all four stops intrigued scouts and led to his selection by Miami as the 37th pick of the fifth round, 177th overall.

Andre Fuller

Fuller (6-1, 200), 24, from Palm Beach, Fla., is a former walk-on at Arkansas-Pine Bluff who spent two years playing for the Golden Lions. In the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season he played in just six games. In 2021, he led the SWAC with 17 passes defended (14 pass break-ups and three interceptions).

In 2022, Fuller transferred to Toledo where he played for three seasons, missing the entire 2024 season with a sports hernia injury.

His breakout year was in 2025 where he started all 13 games at cornerback for the Rockets totalling 49 tackles, 11 passes defended including an interception while being named first-team All-Mid-American Conference (MAC) and a Group of Five All-American. At the conclusion of his collegiate career, Fuller was invited to the 2026 East–West Shrine Bowl and to the NFL Scouting Combine.

The Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks plucked him off the draft boards with the 20th pick of the seventh and final round, 236th overall.

Fuller brings versatility and playmaking to the Seahawks defense, having played cornerback, nickel corner and safety during his time at Toledo in addition to playing multiple roles on special teams.

Curtis Allen

Running roughshod thru NCAA Div. II defenses to the tune of 2,400 rushing yards and 30 touchdowns and becoming the first HBCU recipient of the Harlon Hill Trophy as D2 offensive player of the year did not earn Petersburg, Va. native Allen (6-2, 215) a draft spot or a free agent contract. The CIAA player of the year has reportedly gotten rookie minicamp invites from both Seattle and Atlanta (see STAT CORNER).

Erick Hunter

Hunter (6-4, 220), 23, out of Capital Heights, Md., was a prolific performer during his time at Morgan State finishing his career as the second leading tackler in Bears’ history with 296 tackles. He led the MEAC with 102 stops in 2025. He also showed his sideline-to-sideline skills in postseason workouts. He signed a free agent contract with the Detroit Lions.

J’Mari Taylor

Taylor (5-10, 199), 24, out of Charlotte, N. C., followed a similar path as Tuten, leaving a successful (four-year) stint in the MEAC at N. C. Central to earn first-team all-ACC honors at Virginia.

Taylor finished third in ACC rushing stats with 1,062 yards and 14 rushing scores, second best in the conference.

Unlike Tuten, taken in the fourth round of the 2025 draft by Jacksonville, Taylor was not drafted but will join Tuten and the Jaguars on a rookie free agent contract.

BLACK COLLEGE PLAYERS IN 2026 NFL DRAFT