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Every so often, a player manages to fall through the cracks of the college football recruiting process.

But few land with the kind of thud that Chad Hansen did.

“I don’t know how we missed him,” said Greg Biggins, a national recruiting analyst for Scout.com. “It was a bad evaluation on our part.”

It’s not that Hansen was a vaunted three-star or four-star recruit as a receiver out of Moorpark High in Ventura. There were no stars — and therefore not one major college offer to his name.

Hansen wasn’t just low-profile. Not one of the major scouting services had even bothered to create a profile for him.

“We blew it,” Biggins said.

The recruiting experts don’t get second chances, but Hansen made sure he did. From unwanted high school prospect to one of the nation’s top pass catchers, the laid-back Southern California kid known to his Cal teammates as “The Llama” is making the most of his circuitous route to the Berkeley campus and college football’s big time.

“I knew if someone gave me a chance, I’d be a good player for them,” said Hansen, who is the second leading receiver in the country with 754 yards and is tied for first with eight touchdown catches.

In possession of a lean, chiseled 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame, coupled with length, strength, hands and body control, Hansen probably should’ve been a known commodity years ago.

But if his measurables didn’t jump off the page to scouts back then, they certainly have the college football world’s attention now.

***

It’s not uncommon for a guy to go under-recruited in high school and then explode on the college football scene. Maybe he was undersized, didn’t play in the right system or just got better coaching for his development at the next level.

But the path the junior receiver has traveled is among the most rare.

As the old adage goes, if you’re good enough to play at a certain level, coaches will find you. Few players with the ability to make a tangible, season-changing impact for a Power Five program go completely unnoticed throughout their recruitment.

“I honestly think it’s harder for a white wide receiver than it is a black quarterback to get recruited at a high level in this day and age,” Biggins said. “Unless you have an extreme skill set that jumps out.”

Hansen had all of the physical tools in high school, but he was a late bloomer.

The receiver didn’t earn his spot atop Moorpark’s depth chart until his senior season. He wasted little time displaying an innate sense of when to go up for a ball, how to position a defensive back and an ability to play bigger than he is.

Even Muskateers coach Tim Lins didn’t fully realize his talents until a rivalry game against Westlake High in November of Hansen’s senior year.

“He caught a corner route and just took off,” Lins said. “He outran the entire defense. I think it was like 70 yards. When he caught the ball, it was like he had exploded. I hadn’t seen that out of him.”

A month before National Signing Day in 2013, Idaho State, an FCS program surrounded by potato fields in rural Pocatello, had a scholarship open up.

It turned out to be Hansen’s only offer.

The Bengals went 3-9 during Hansen’s freshman year. Having started 11 of 12 games, the wideout recorded 45 catches for 501 yards and three touchdown receptions.

Hansen took a second stab at the recruiting process by compiling a highlight reel of his plays and sending email after email to colleges all over the West Coast.

Just like high school, Hansen was told no more times than not.

Cal, and coach Sonny Dykes, were the first to say “yes.”

***

Dykes has coached his share of the overlooked and under-appreciated.

While the co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Texas Tech, Dykes inked five-time NFL pro bowler Wes Welker as a late addition after signing day. He helped Oakland Raiders wideout Michael Crabtree transition from a high school quarterback who didn’t know how to line up at receiver into a booming NFL talent.

Receivers are a vital part of Cal’s pass-heavy offense. Knowing the Golden Bears would lose six pass-catchers after the 2015 season, Dykes invited Hansen to walk on.

In limited reps last year, Hansen presented his case to become one of the key pieces of the offense in the future.

“After bowl prep, I remember coming in and watching the practice film and thinking this guy might be the best receiver we’ve got,” Dykes said.

He solidified his position against Arizona State during the last game of the 2015 regular season. In the Bears’ 21-point comeback, Hansen hauled in four receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown.

Hansen may not have fully grasped how drastically his role was about to increase. But his coaches did.

“They just kept saying if you do your job, you’re going to get the ball,” Hansen said.

***

Within hours of arriving in Berkeley on May 23, Davis Webb was already building a rapport with the guy who would become his No. 1 target.

It didn’t take Webb long to realize why his teammates endearingly refer to Hansen as “The Llama.”

“Just the way he walks around off the football field and the way he acts is similar to a llama,” Webb said. “And then on game day, he’s a monster. It’s a light switch. He becomes the most competitive human on the face of the earth.”

Summertime Thursday’s were filled with dread when Cal took its conditioning regimen to a nearby sand volleyball court. One workout late in July, the team did 36 stations, coupled with 28 100-yard sprints.

“That’s the day he earned my trust,” Webb said. “He lost zero reps with the receivers, he led every single workout and was first in line. At the end of the workout, everyone else is gassed and you see him walking around like a llama, like nothing happened.”

But it’s what Webb saw during the workout that told him even more.

“You see his face, you see his eyes and how determined he is,” he said. “He’s thinking about all the people that have doubted him, and you can see that. It gets me fired up and everyone around him because he’s been through a lot and he’s proving all of those people wrong.”

Offensive coordinator Jake Spavital’s scheme is designed for Hansen to draw one-on-one matchups and get the ball often. The system has allowed the receiver to become the focal point of the Pac-12’s most high-powered scheme — and to keep putting the days of doubt behind him one catch at a time.

“I knew he’d be good,” Spavital said. “You didn’t really notice during the Hawaii game that he had 14 catches. It happened again vs. San Diego (State) and then again vs. Texas.

“After the fifth game, it’s not a fluke.”

Follow Courtney Cronin on Twitter @CourtneyRCronin.