Ceyair Wright has turned himself into a household name among college football recruiting fans as one of the top prospects in the 2021 class, but soon he could become a name people outside of football recognize as well.
Wright is the No. 108-ranked prospect overall, a cornerback from Los Angeles, and has some of the top schools in the country after him. Michigan, Notre Dame, Stanford, USC, Cal, Oregon, Nebraska and Utah are just a few of the bigger programs that want to sign the talented defensive back in this class.
One of the things that separates Wright from the typical recruit: his acting pedigree. He was cast as LeBron James' son in the upcoming "Space Jam" sequel.
Wright has been acting and modeling since he was 4 or 5 years old, eventually graduating up to commercials and realizing he wanted to do film and television at 13. He landed a few smaller roles and was in an independent film in eighth grade.
He went to an audition and in the same building saw a signup sheet for "Space Jam: A New Legacy." He called his manager, who told him to ask to audition, but the casting employee working told Wright he was too old for the part after scanning him up and down.
A few days later, Wright went on another audition with a well-known casting director knowing he wouldn't fit the part, but trying to get in front of her for roles in the future.
"I know I'm not going to get this role because I don't fit the description at all, but at the end of the audition she was like, 'Do you play basketball?'" Wright recalled. "I was like, 'Of course I play basketball, I play for my high school.' Which I don't play for my high school."
A few days after the audition, Wright and his manager received an email about a part in "Space Jam" for an older brother than was previously being cast. He sent in his tape, auditioned, went through callbacks and eventually landed the job.
Getting the part meant he was able to work daily with James on set and get to know him on a personal level.
"He's a great guy. For how big he is in our society, it's unbelievable to me how down to earth he is and how well he handles everything that goes on in his life," Wright said. "Everything that he does has blown up in the spotlight, so it's crazy to see how well he handles everything."
Wright wants to continue acting in college but wants to balance it with his education and football, as the latter will be a priority. Coaches recruiting him know he wants to act and how important it is to his future, and Wright believes it's something he can still maintain in college.
"Acting is something where you don't have to film a movie all the time, you can do smaller roles or commercials and work around it to do both at once," he said. "I've had conversations about it because I want to do both for as long as I can. I do see myself, after football is done, I see myself being an actor, that's what I want to do, so I don't want to neglect that and want to work on my craft."
Wright's acting accomplishments make him one of the more interesting recruits in this class, but there are others who stand out as well.
Here are a few more of the most interesting prospects in the 2021 class.
DT Tywone Malone
Bergen Catholic High School (New Jersey)
ESPN 300 ranking: 43
Malone is a big, versatile defensive tackle who lists a top six of Tennessee, Florida State, USC, Ole Miss, Rutgers and Texas A&M. Each school will also allow Malone to play his other favorite sport: baseball.
The 6-foot-4, 310-pound Malone plays first and third base in high school and calls himself a versatile defensive player in the field.
"I can make big plays when it happens, I'm a dominant defensive player," Malone said. "On offense, I consider myself a power, drive guys in type of guy. When we need to get people in, they rely on me to move them over."
He has had a few MLB scouts monitoring his play, and if his stats from this past summer are any indication of his future potential, he could have an excellent career on the diamond in college as well as the football field. In more than 25 games this summer on a travel team, Malone said he had a .425 batting average, 10 home runs and 40 RBIs.
Tywone Malone (@TywoneMalone) with a 3-run home run today up in Michigan for the @16uDbacks.
— Pastime All-Scout (@PastimeAllScout) June 27, 2020
Class of 2021
4⭐️ DT out of New Jersey (#1 in state)
6'4, 300lbs
Bergen Catholic HS (NJ)@FlatgroundBats #GetNoticed pic.twitter.com/OQPdYXQVub
"This one home run I had this summer, we played on a minor league field and I hit a home run deep center, it was like 425 feet," Malone said. "That was probably the best home run I've ever had in my life. I didn't even know it was gone, I was still running when I saw it go over."
He isn't planning on signing with a college team until February, so he will have plenty of attention after the dust settles from December's early signing period. If any other schools want to try to get in the mix, they will have to have a good baseball program and will have to allow him to play both in college.
QB Jaxson Dart
Corner Canyon High School (Utah)
ESPN 300 ranking: 73
First of all, Dart is an outstanding last name for a quarterback. Beyond that, quarterback recruiting typically goes faster than other positions. As it stands, Dart and Chase Mason are the only two ESPN 300 quarterbacks who haven't committed to a school.
Part of the reason for Dart's lack of a decision comes from the fact that he has been steadily gaining notoriety this season. He is one of the fastest rising prospects in the country. He was only recently added to the ESPN 300, going from unranked to inside the top 75.
His jump makes sense based on his stats. Through 14 games this season, Dart threw for 4,691 yards, 67 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He also had 1,195 rush yards with six touchdowns on the ground. Dart had three or more touchdown passes in every game he played this season, with seven passing touchdowns as the most in one game.
A late offer from USC came in October, and the Trojans are a school he's now considering. He said he grew up wanting to play for Chip Kelly, so naturally UCLA is also a school he's eyeing, along with BYU and a few others.
"I've really enjoyed the offense [BYU has] put on the field this year," Dart said. "Obviously I have a great relationship with [BYU quarterback] Zach Wilson, we have the same high school coach, went to the same high school and we train together with the same quarterback coaches. I'm super comfortable with what they have to offer."
RB Jackson Acker
Verona High School (Wisconsin)
Three stars
The Badgers have an outstanding track record with evaluating running backs and turning them into stars -- Ron Dayne, Montee Ball, James White, Melvin Gordon III, Corey Clement and Jonathan Taylor, to name a few.
But some analytics might indicate that Acker could be next in line. The scouting service Tracking Football gives football teams access to independently verified data on key athletic performance statistics, like track and field data, and combines stats into what they call a player athletic index (PAI) score.
The PAI is a tool used to give an athletic rating that indicates Division I football athleticism, customized for each position and compared with data from more than 30,000 division I players.
Tracking Football lists Acker at 5.0 PAI, the highest rating a player can get. Past Wisconsin running backs going back to 2010 have averaged a 3.4 PAI rating.
Some of the data collected to formulate that rating include his times in the 55-meter dash at 6.68 seconds, which was better than 88% of the rest of the 2021 class and better than 71% of Big Ten running backs since 2010, according to Tracking Football's data.
It included times in the 100-meter dash, 400- and 800-meter relays and also his numbers in the shot put and discus throw. Acker recorded 52 feet, 6 inches in the shot put, which is better than 97% of the entire 2021 class and 90% of Big Ten running backs since 2010.
He also recorded a discus throw of 191 feet, 8 inches, which was better than 99% of all the athletes in Tracking Football's database and better than 100% of the 2021 prospects.
Based on his numbers, Tracking Football compares Acker to former Iowa State running back David Montgomery, who was selected in the third round of the 2019 NFL draft. Montgomery had similar numbers in the same events with Acker besting him in the discus throw by approximately 23 feet.
DT/QB Howard Brown
Lincoln College Preparatory Academy (Missouri)
Three stars
Normally, a DT-QB means "dual-threat quarterback." But for Brown, it means defensive tackle/quarterback because he plays both for his high school.
At 288 pounds, it's not just a trick play his high school coaches bring him in for to run over the opponents and gain a few yards; Brown has actual quarterback stats. In his first three seasons at Lincoln Prep, Brown accounted for 82 touchdowns and approximately 6,000 yards.
Meet Howard Brown, a 6'2" 275 lb QB/DT combo.
— RADIO.COM Sports (@RDCSports) October 14, 2020
Committed to @CycloneFB, Brown has thrown for over 6,000 yards and 82 TDs 😲pic.twitter.com/Zobk7eRuME
Watch the video; he can move, too. Yes, he is able to bowl people over with his size, but he is nimble and makes people miss for how big he is.
While Brown is committed to the Cyclones as a defensive lineman, we can only hope Iowa State's coaches give him an opportunity to take some snaps at quarterback.
QB Shedeur Sanders
Trinity Christian School
ESPN 300 ranking: 60
Sanders is the son of former NFL great Deion Sanders and is an interesting quarterback prospect out of Texas. Shedeur and Deion have teamed up in high school to put up some incredible stats over the past few seasons.
Deion has been Shedeur's offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian School, helping his son amass 8,925 yards, 123 touchdowns and 19 interceptions over three seasons, which also included a few state championships.
Shedeur is no stranger to the spotlight being his father's son, and also having two older brothers who went through the recruiting process as well: Deion Sanders Jr., who played for SMU, and Shilo, who plays for South Carolina.
Shedeur had been committed to play at Florida Atlantic until his father took the head-coaching job at Jackson State. With the opportunity to team up once again, it was too good for Shedeur to pass up, and he flipped his commitment to Jackson State.
He is the highest-ranked commitment the program has ever landed, and he is hoping to help his dad bring in other top-ranked recruits as December's early signing period nears. Fellow three-stars Braezhon Ross and Herman Smith are also in the fold.
ATH Christian Leary
Edgewater High School (Florida)
ESPN 300 ranking: 75
Leary is listed as an athlete but was recruited to Alabama as a wide receiver. At 5-foot-9, 180 pounds, he has been told he will fill a similar role to current Alabama wide receiver Jaylen Waddle.
He compares in size and stature, and Leary has plenty of speed to add to Alabama's offense. He ran a 10.5-second 100-meter dash in February, breaking his high school record. That time also ranked 13th nationally.
10.5 season opener 🔥 pic.twitter.com/65zA3lF6TR
— "6iX" (@ChristianLeary4) February 22, 2020
He didn't get to run the event after February, because of shutdowns from COVID-19, but said at the time he thought he could do even better than the 10.5. That speed should help him see the field early on when he arrives in Tuscaloosa.
OG Bryce Foster
James E. Taylor High School (Texas)
ESPN 300 ranking: 144
Foster, who has Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Oregon, LSU and a slew of other schools after him, was given the nickname "The Mountain" for his 6-foot-5, 330-pound frame. Watching his play, it's easy to see what coaches see, as he has tweeted out several of his plays from this season.
He has run the 40-yard dash in 4.93 seconds and routinely shows off his speed on the field. This clip shows how well he can move blocking for his teammate downfield after a screen.
I am SPEED.... pic.twitter.com/QEin86G9Po
— Bryce Foster (@BryceFoster5) October 31, 2020
Foster also has incredible power. He has bench pressed 405 pounds and thrown a shot put 64 feet and the discus 198 feet.
Knocking off some rust😳 pic.twitter.com/Kk9eQ8aY6G
— Bryce Foster (@BryceFoster5) August 16, 2020
RB Will Shipley
Weddington High School (North Carolina)
ESPN 300 ranking: 21
Shipley, a Clemson commit, has more than 2,000 rushing yards and 30 touchdowns this high school season, as well as 582 receiving yards and 12 receiving touchdowns. What separates him from other running backs is his speed.
According to Shipley, he has been hand-timed in the 40-yard dash at 4.34 seconds, laser timed at 4.46. He has a 37-inch vertical and has recorded a 21.2-foot long jump.
Shipley also ran the 55-meter dash in 6.36 seconds his junior year, which broke his school's record and ranked third in the nation before nationals. Sometimes prospects can have track speed, but not the ability to translate it to the football field.
Shipley has the speed and the talent on the field that should make him an explosive athlete in Clemson's offense.
QB Garrett Nussmeier
Marcus High School (Texas)
ESPN 300 ranking: 61
The LSU commit Nussmeier has a lot of talent and a lot of potential in the Tiger's offense.
He also has a little more help than most prospects do at home. His father, Doug, is currently the Dallas Cowboys' quarterbacks coach and had previously spent time as offensive coordinator at Florida, Michigan, Alabama and Washington.
Nussmeier said his father has helped him with the recruiting process, but has allowed him to make his own choices and go through the process with his best interests at heart. To study the game with a coach is one thing, but it is another to learn it at any time with a parent.