MOBILE, Ala. — For the Senior Bowl media day on Tuesday, there were a handful of podiums set up for the bigger-named prospects, most of them typically from the blue-blood schools, to handle the extra media attention.

But when a podium is set up for a tight end … from Dayton, no less … it’s quickly evident that there’s something different at work.

Tight ends aren’t typically stars coming from college. And Dayton is the coldest of football hotbeds, as least as far as the league is concerned — after all, this is a school that hasn’t produced an NFL draft pick since 1977.

So when Dayton’s Adam Trautman drew one of the bigger crowds during the Tuesday media scrum, it represented shock. Later in the day, when Trautman showed he belonged at the all-star event with his size, athleticism and receiving ability, the hype appeared warranted.

When Trautman’s media session ended, he flashed a wide grin as he scanned the packed room at the Mobile Convention Center to soak it all in.

“This is crazy,” he told Yahoo Sports. “It’s all so weird. I’m not quite used to this.”

The biggest crowds Trautman saw this season were double- and triple-teams from FCS opponents determined to top him, and even with that he averaged 83.3 receiving yards per game and scored 14 TDs in 11 games.

What makes the story even wilder: Trautman never caught a pass in a game — any game — until 2016. Now in early 2020, he’s a legitimate NFL prospect who will hear his name well before other tight ends from much bigger programs. The 6-foot-5, 251-pound tight end set school career receiving records and was named to the FCS All-America team, and there appears to be more in store for him than just the mantle of small-school prodigy.

Of course, Trautman wants to dismiss the notion that a small-school prospect can’t hang at an event such as this, much less thrive in the NFL one day.

“I want to take that asterisk away,” he said. “I feel like there’s an asterisk when they talk about the smaller programs and those players. There’s a few of us [at the Senior Bowl], and I think we all come here believing we belong.”

Dayton TE Adam Trautman (left) accepts his Senior Bowl invitation from Flyers head coach Rick Chamberlin. (Dayton Athletics) More

Trautman might be the highest-rated senior tight end in the 2020 draft on some teams’ boards. It’s at least trending in that direction, which could lead to Trautman being a second- or third-round draft choice in April, according to feedback we’ve received from NFL scouts leading up to this week.

Dayton has a rich football history that includes alums Chuck Noll and Jon Gruden. But it’s a basketball school now, first and foremost. And for a football program that hasn’t produced an NFL player logging a single regular-season game played in nearly 45 years, this is something else entirely.

“At our level, the guys we get, they’re good football players,” Dayton head coach Rick Chamberlin told Yahoo Sports, “but physically, they just don’t typically have that NFL size or speed. Certainly not both.

“That’s why Adam is our unicorn.”

And with the basketball program having its own draft prospect of note — Obi Toppen, who could end up a top-five selection in the NBA draft this summer — Dayton athletics are reaching a peak few could have imagined.

“The students just can’t get enough of this story,” Chamberlin said. “The whole thing is a fairy tale.”

From skinny QB to NFL tight end prospect

Trautman was a tall, skinny quarterback at Elk Rapids High School in Williamsburg, Michigan — just across Lake Michigan from Green Bay, Wisconsin — a school with an enrollment just under 400 students. He weighed 176 pounds as a junior there.

The varsity team that year featured 18 players, all the way up to 21 the next year. That meant double (and often triple) duty for every player. Trautman also played cornerback.

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