For Dreshaun Ross, recruiting officially kicked off nearly 16 months earlier than most of his Class of 2026 wrestling peers.
It started on a Saturday night in February of 2023 after Ross finished his blitz through Iowa’s Class 3A 195-pound bracket, becoming the state’s first freshman to win a state title at a weight class heavier than 160.
Minutes after the Fort Dodge phenom notched an 8-1 win in the state finals, Nik Moser, Ross’ high school football coach, received a call from Iowa assistant football coach LeVar Woods.
It went like this, according to Moser: “We need Dreshaun to call us tonight. We’re going to offer him. We want to be the first one to offer him because (the offers are) going to start coming.”
Sure enough, the offers began pouring in shortly thereafter with Iowa State, Purdue, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska following suit in the subsequent weeks. Combine those offers with the 19 college wrestling programs that checked in on the first full day that wrestling coaches were allowed to reach out to 2026 prospects and Ross has a lot of options to weigh in the recruiting process.
Football, wrestling or both?
“I have no clue yet,” Ross said.
Answering that question is likely the next step in the process, he said.
“It’s probably figuring out what I want to do first — if it’s both or one or the other,” he said. “That’s probably the first thing. After that, it’s probably narrowing down the colleges.”
As a wrestler, Ross is one of the top-end prospects in a top-heavy 2026 class that also includes Bo Bassett and Jax Forrest.
It’s not hard to envision Ross packing pounds onto his 6-foot-4 frame and turning into an adequately sized heavyweight with extraordinary leg attacks for the weight class.
At the moment, though, he’s halfway to Iowa high school legend status, dominating upperweight brackets in unprecedented fashion for an underclassman the past two seasons.
Ross ran through the 195-pound class as a freshman with a pin, a major decision and a pair of seven-point victories. He captured his second state title in February by pinning his four opponents in a combined 6 minutes, 39 seconds. He spent a grand total of 11 seconds on his feet during the 215-pound title bout this year and scored three takedowns during that time.
In April, he captured the 92-kilogram title at the U17 World Team Trials by outscoring his opponents by a combined 64-4 count. He’ll try to win his fourth Fargo title next week and then he’ll take aim next month at a U17 World title in Jordan.
These are reasons why five college programs — Michigan, Michigan State, Stanford, Iowa and Purdue — called Ross shortly after midnight on June 15 and 14 other programs called him later in the day when the recruiting process officially kicked off for 2026 wrestling programs.
“It was nice to meet all the coaches,” he said. “You watch some of them wrestle and it’s kinda crazy that they’re talking to me to try to get me to go to their college.”
The same characteristics that make Ross great on the mat — his explosiveness, quickness, length, reach and projectable frame — are qualities that have college football coaches dreaming on what he can become at the next level. And the level after that.
In fact, during the recruiting process, one college football coach’s pitch included a mention of the massive payday that could be coming Ross’ way with his second NFL contract.
“He’s probably more raw in football than he is in wrestling,” said Moser, a starting defensive back during his playing days at Iowa State. “He’s a world-class wrestler. In football, he’s not quite a world-class football player yet, but he has that potential to become one. He’s a really good football player, but I think his upside is through the roof.”
Rivals.com rates Ross a four-star talent on its five-star scale and the #178 overall prospect nationally in the 2026 class. 247Sports and On3 have him tabbed as a three-star prospect.
He currently holds nine Division I football scholarships — Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Purdue and Wisconsin.
Some schools see him as a defensive end and others project him as a linebacker.
“There’s some people that love him as a linebacker, some people that love him as an athlete and some people that love him as an edge,” Moser said. “His length causes a lot of problems and my personal opinion is he’s probably an edge rusher, but I think he has the potential to play any of the seven positions near the line of scrimmage.”
At the moment, though, Ross is more focused on what’s coming in the short term. Up next is Fargo and then the start of preseason football camp, which will get interrupted in early August by U17 World Team camp in Colorado Springs. Then it’s off to Jordan for the U17 World Championships. He wrestles Aug. 24-25.
Less than a week later, he’ll be back in Fort Dodge for the football season opener.
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