College Football HQ

No. 1 QB recruit's latest decision moves him a year closer to college football

A top 2028 prep recruit has moved up to the 2027 recruiting class.
Joe Cox|
Wonderful "Champ" Monds IV is making the move from the class of 2028 to the class of 2027
Wonderful "Champ" Monds IV is making the move from the class of 2028 to the class of 2027 | CRYSTAL VANDER WEIT/TCPALM / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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One top prep QB recruit is in a hurry to make his arrival in college football. Despite the massive haul of 2027 QB talent, the QB ranked top among passers in the 2028 Rivals300 ranking is moving his expected date of college football arrival up a season.

QB Wonderful "Champ" Monds IV, off a successful 2025 season near Vero Beach, Florida, has announced that he is reclassifying up from the class of 2028 to the class of 2027. The final recruiting word on Monds is very much uncertain, as all recruiting services aren't quite as sold as Rivals in their evaluation of the young QB.

Monds was the top ranked QB in the 2028 Rivals300. Part of that situation may have sprung from a relatively thin 2028 QB class. Rivals has only four QBs among its top 68 players ranked in that class. With Monds's departure, the current QB leader, Christopher Vargas of Massachusetts, is the No. 18 player overall.

Rivals ranks Monds 12th at the QB position in the class of 2027. It remains an uneven 2027 class as well, with Rivals' top ranked QB being Texas Tech commit Kavian Bryant, the No. 42 overall player in that year's national recruiting class.

Again, Monds, a 6'2" passer isn't universally regarded as highly by other services as by Rivals. 247sports ranks him as the No. 36 QB prospect in the 2027 class and a three-star recruit. 247's composite ranking places Monds as the 18th QB in the class and the nation's No. 254 player. Similarly, Rivals's recruiting industry ranking lists Monds as the No. 23 QB prospect and the nation's No. 335 player.

Monds is apparently very interested in Ohio State, where he has visited unofficially on three occasions. On3 lists Ohio State as his most likely predicted landing spot. The two next most likely favorites will certainly have georgraphy on their side. The Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes, each much closer to Monds's hometown, are also considered strong competitors to ink the highly-regarded young passer.

Of course, given the massive coaching shifts recently undertaken, Monds may have room for some new favorites. After a bevy of reported SEC offers in early 2025, the most recent offer noted by 247 is Michigan, where Coach Kyle Whittingham will be in the midst of imprinting his vision on the Wolverine program.

If Monds's name sounds familiar, it's because he's part of a family tradition of oddly-named stars. His grandfather, Wonderful Terrific Monds Jr., played at Nebraska and briefly in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers. The name is allegedly related to the grandfather of Wonderful Jr., whose wife gave birth to a son after producing 11 daughters causing the happy father to exclaim "Wonderful, terrific," which thus began the name.

With his college decision, at least one fan base might well be exclaiming "wonderful, terrific" a year sooner than was otherwise expected.

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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