Over four years of playing college football — first a three-year stint at Division II Shepherd University and then a final season at Division I North Texas — a clear path forward emerged for Cameron Dorner.
When the former Oakdale High School receiving star surveyed the sports' landscape, he saw a lot of players at his position that looked and played like him.
Even when watching the best in the business on NFL Sundays, he saw a lot of players that at least looked like he did. Ja'marr Chase (6-feet, 205 pounds) of the Cincinnati Bengals . Justin Jefferson (6-foot-1, 195 pounds) of the Minnesota Vikings . Amon-Ra St. Brown (6-feet, 202 pounds) of the Detroit Lions .
So, the persistent thought that kept popping into the head of the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Dorner, who possesses reliable hands and a 43-inch vertical leap, is why not me?
"You know, I just had 900 [receiving yards] my senior year. FBS [Football Bowl Subdivision]," he said. "I put up athletic tape. I meet every measurable to play at the next level. Why not me?"
And so, in the middle of last week, Dorner officially declared for the NFL Draft, throwing his name into the mix of top college prospects to be selected by the league's 32 teams near the end of April in Pittsburgh .
"It feels unreal sometimes that I am training for this," Dorner said earlier this week. "But it's definitely something I want to do and, obviously, I think I have a pretty good shot at it and can go far, for sure."
Dorner is back home in Frederick County. He makes regular 47-mile treks to Burtonsville to train at Domain Fitness with Coach Myron Flowers, who has worked with and helped Maryland natives Stefon and Trevon Diggs reach the highest levels of the sport.
"He's just a good example of hard work," Oakdale High football coach Kurt Stein said of Dorner. "He had to grow into that body in the weight room. Coming into the high school, he had a much slighter build. He was tall, but he was a very thin guy. And now he's all muscle. And it took that commitment in the weight room to get him to another level."
In three seasons at nearby Shepherd, Dorner caught 75 passes for 967 yards and nine touchdowns in becoming a team captain and helping the Rams win the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Division title in 2022.
But the path from Shepherd to the NFL is not well-trodden. Only seven players in the school's history have played professional football and just three have ever been directly drafted into the NFL from the small university in West Virginia, most recently running back Wayne Wilson by the Houston Oilers in 1979.
So, if Dorner was going to get the serious NFL look that he coveted, he knew he needed to go elsewhere.
"Shepherd gave me every opportunity for three years to make plays," he said. "My career there is not something I take for granted. But I felt like I could take my talents to a higher level. I wanted to be noticed. I wanted to be noticed a lot more for my game, for sure."
Dorner attracted a fair amount of attention from bigger schools in the transfer portal. But he quickly homed in on North Texas, a university of almost 47,000 students about 40 miles north of Dallas in the city of Denton (pop. 139,869).
The Mean Green, named for their most famous NFL alum "Mean" Joe Green, ran one of the most prolific passing attacks in the country under former coach Eric Morris, who left in December to become the head coach at Oklahoma State.
"I felt like there was a lot of opportunity there," Dorner said. "They passed the ball more than any team in the country. They consistently had a 4,000-yard QB in each of the last four years. They had multiple receivers over 800 and 900 yards. ... They had started 5-1 in the previous season.
Despite being far away from home for the first time, Dorner "felt it was a no-brainer," he said. "It felt like it was right for me. And it felt like a diamond in the rough, almost too good to be true."
After adjusting quickly to the speed of the game and the bigger defensive backs that were now covering him, Dorner carved out a crucial role for himself in the North Texas offense.
He caught 56 passes for 911 yards and eight touchdowns in helping the Mean Green finish 12-2 overall and with a national ranking of 25 at the end of the season.
Had North Texas beaten Tulane in The American Conference championship game, it would have earned a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
The Mean Green closed their season with a 49-47 win over San Diego State in the Isleta New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 27. Dorner finished that bowl game and his college career with six catches for a game-high 66 receiving yards and two touchdowns before a national TV audience on ESPN.
"To me, it was a hell of an opportunity," Dorner said of playing his senior season at North Texas.
The Mean Green have sent almost 80 players into the professional ranks, including 5-foot-8, 175-pound wide receiver Jaelon Darden , who was a fourth-round pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021.
Dorner is hoping to add his name to that list.
Right now, he is training for North Texas' pro day, which will likely take place in early March. And he's hoping to be invited to showcase his skills at the NFL Combine next month in Indianapolis .
"I am not expecting much," Dorner said. "I am the type of guy to stay quiet and go to work. The only thing I am ready for is not to be signed and have opportunities elsewhere and be prepared for anything.
"The NFL is obviously the main goal. Playing football is what I want to do. The NFL is my dream."
