On Sept. 24, 2015, MaxPreps introduced us to the largest high school recruit we’ve ever seen, John Robert Krahn III. Krahn goes by the surname Junior and he stands at a whopping 7 feet tall and weighs 440 pounds. Before MaxPreps did a feature on him, Junior was largely an unknown entity with no interest from schools to play college football.

The feature ended up making him a national star as his highlight reel has been viewed over 1.65 million times on MaxPreps. He was also invited to appear on “Good Morning America” and suddenly coaches from Division I schools were contacting his head coach saying they would offer Junior if he could only lose weight.

“We had Division I coaches on site that said they’d consider offering him if he lost some weight,” USA Football’s Jimmy Thomas told MaxPreps writer Stephen Spiewak after Krahn participated in a USA Football camp in Los Angeles last summer. “They think he could be a force at a lighter weight.”

After a week passed, things went back to normal for Junior until he and his mom, Cindy, decided to team up and send out a highlight package to a number of schools across the country hoping just one Division I school would take a chance on him.

Sadly, Cindy Krahn passed away suddenly on Nov. 30 and it obviously shook the family to its core. Junior’s father, John Krahn Sr., urged him to go back to high school the next day to try and achieve some normalcy in his life. Cindy was buried on Dec. 10 in Riverside National Cemetery, and her passing only fueled fire inside of Junior to focus on his dream.

Junior began working hard in the weight room and set a goal of reaching 375 pounds by the time fall camp arrived. While there still haven’t been any offers from Division I schools, nor is there expected to be, Junior and his dad have made the decision that he will attend Riverside Junior College in the fall. There, he hopes to prove that he is Division I worthy.