2027 Rankings Newbies on Cusp of Even Bigger Senior Season

As we close out this rankings cycle for the Class of 2027, projections become the name of the game.    What we saw throughout the 2025 season matters in real-time, but it's also often a great indicator for where specific players can go. When it comes to these 10 in particular, we're seeing even more continued upward movement from them.   Each of them moved into the Prep RedZone rankings for the first time 13 days ago. Where they go from here is obviously up to them.   But every metric were looking for is there for continued rises up the ranks for the next 11.5 months.   [player_tooltip player_id='1654910' first='Makorean' last='Anderson-Wallington'] QB, Mountain View Prep - The entire MVP program was dealt an April blow when Jaylen McGill reclassified and left high school for the University of North Carolina six months early. Everyone and their mother then game-planned for slowing down receiver [player_tooltip player_id='1395046' first='KD' last='Hainsworth'] but still Anderson-Wallington made the necessary adjustments en route to nearly throwing for 3,000 yards to go along with his 1,100 on the ground. The one-time Dorman back-ups    [player_tooltip player_id='1824044' first='Bryson' last='Crawford'] RB, Fox Creek - Crawford's per-carry average (7.0) wasn't off the charts, necessarily, but the fact that he chimed in with fewer than 200 carries on the season while nearly hitting 1,400 yards and 21 touchdowns as a junior lets us know that he wasn't ground down throughout the course of the year. In fact, until he piled up 31 carries in the playoff-opening loss to Dillon, he'd only got over 20 carries in a game four times, and none of those four times included more than 23 runs. Crawford is built for a bigger work load and now has more of a feel for how to extend his production even later in the season.    [player_tooltip player_id='1820466' first='Roman' last='Benjamin'] WR, Bluffton - Three different players - Benjamin, [player_tooltip player_id='402486' first='Carnell' last='Warren'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1036774' first='Amare' last='Patterson'] - all caught at least 50 passes for the Bobcats last fall. Warren is out of high-school eligibility, and while we know Bluffton well enough to recognize that they'll add another body to the outside to replace their Power 4 signee Benjamin's 58 catches for 701 yards and four touchdowns could all be a blip on his resume moving forward. He moves well in traffic and can move seamlessly between the slow and outside. The fact he's such a sure-handed receiver tells us the next Bobcats' quarterback is going to have targets.    [player_tooltip player_id='1790589' first='Muntu' last='Brown'] RB, Wren - It appears the Hurricanes will be losing one of their biggest offensive weapons to an out-of-state transfer, but the sheer amount of talent coming back should push this squad to another eight-win (or more?) season. Brown (pictured) is maybe the biggest piece. The one-time linebacker could see time on defense again, but it's a much harder sell considering he busted out for 1,686 yards and 20 touchdowns for Wren this past fall. What's more, most of the other returning pieces are younger. Brown had 229 carries as a junior. We wouldn't be surprised to see it approach 275 in his final season.   [player_tooltip player_id='232624' first='Xavier' last='Means'] QB, Northwestern - Means wasn't exactly by his lonesome in Rock Hill, but the first-year starting quarterback proved he was even better than his freakish combine performance from the spring in which he showed he was among the fastest quarterbacks in the entire state. The Trojans' offense is rather complicated, and Means looked like he was right at home. After all, he didn't sail past 4,000 combined passing/rushing yards and surpass 50 total touchdowns simply because of the name on the front of the jersey.    [player_tooltip player_id='1647592' first='Corey' last='Gleaton'] WR, Gray Collegiate - The War Eagles had an established standout in receiver long before Gleaton started to show off his skill set. So we can't ignore than he nudged his way into the WR1 spot, hauled in 1,200 yards worth of passes and set the stage for 2026 in the process. Teammate [player_tooltip player_id='1672914' first='Carsyn' last='Harris'] (who missed time during the summer and then played JV ball) will be coming up, and [player_tooltip player_id='1319663' first='Royce' last='Williamson'] is back for one more go-around. What we've seen out of Gleaton, though, is an established star on the cusp of challenging the top receivers in the state in terms of production. His connection with a certain top-end QB doesn't hurt.    [player_tooltip player_id='1819778' first='Nolan' last='Giet'] OL, Summerville - Giet went from zero-to-60 not only in terms of getting onto the field as a starter, but then getting audibled from center to tackle later in the year. The Class of 2027 has some high-level linemen with some big boy offers already, but Giet is closer to many of the 16 positional peers ahead of him to the vast majority of those behind him. His inside-out flexibility is important, but if he can get into a rhythm at center or tackle for a full season, his ranking will only improve.    [player_tooltip player_id='1302875' first='Will' last='Haunert'] TE, Camden - Bulldog quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1354590' first='Greyson' last='Rimpf'] has clearly picked his favorites on the outside, and Haunert is absolutely one of those favorites. The 6-foot-4 hybrid tight end/receiver has a monster catch radius and is seemingly faster once he puts on pads. Now combine that with Camden's expected drop back down to Class 3A and we're struggling to see how much of the rest of the division will be trying to handle him come region play and the postseason. Because if Rimpf and the play callers elect to feature their big body on the outside, Haunert's 23 receptions for 434 yards and eight touchdowns from his junior year might feel like child's play.    [player_tooltip player_id='1822457' first='Brian' last='McMillan'] QB, Bamberg-Ehrhardt - McMillan shifted over from receiver in the offseason after Chanston Crosby gradated and headed to the college ranks. We assumed their would be a massive drop-off in the Red Raiders' passing attack, only to see McMillan pick up where Crosby left off and then expand on it. He exhibited an excellent understanding of the offense almost immediately, and even during a handful of games in less than ideal conditions, he made it look easy.    [player_tooltip player_id='1149055' first='Nasir' last='Waldrop'] ATH, Powdersville - Waldrop wasn't some type of a stop-gap from 2025 to 2026. No, he was the focal point for this offense. He rushed fro 1,072 yards and 15 touchdowns while averaging 6.2 yards per carry and caught 26 passes (38 target) for another 279 yards. Amidst all that production was a growing confidence by the staff because what Waldrop also does well is hold onto the football. In his 183 offensive touches, he only lost one fumble. When you're not making mistakes, the coaches will continue to feed him the ball over and over again.

As we close out this rankings cycle for the Class of 2027, projections become the name of the game.