Keagen Trost always wanted to be a professional football player, but for the first few years of his college football career, it seemed like that goal might not be realized.

But after seven seasons at four schools, the last of which was a career year at University of Missouri, the former Kankakee standout found himself at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine from Feb. 27 to March 2.

“It was great to get out there and interview with over 20 teams,” Trost said. “It was a blessing just to be there. When I first walked out on the field, I was like ‘It’s kind of crazy. I’m at the combine.’ ”

While many of the top prospects at the combine were highly-touted recruits out of high school, the route Trost took to Indianapolis was a bit different.

He committed to Division II Morgan State out of high school, playing once season there in 2019 before transferring to Indiana State.

His time with the Sycamores got off to a slow start, with COVID-19 resulting in the cancelation of the team’s 2020 season and an injury costing him most of 2021.

After working his way into the starting lineup over the next two seasons, he made the jump to the FBS level at Wake Forest for the 2024 season, where he played in 12 games before making the jump to the SEC and Missouri.

That was where he had his true breakout, earning first-team All-SEC honors and becoming the highest-graded offensive tackle in the nation by Pro Football Focus this past season.

While in some ways it would’ve been simpler had Trost wound up at a school like Missouri directly out of high school, played through three or four seasons and headed into the draft process from there, he is ultimately grateful he wound up on the path he did.

“I’m not sure how my career if I’d have just went to Mizzou out of high school, but shoot, I think everything happens for a reason,” he said. “If I could do it all over, I would do it the same, honestly.

“It’d be easier if I could go to a big school out of high school, but just going to those different schools, being at those lower levels and kind of working my way up, it kind of just showed how bad I wanted to keep getting better and better.

“I’m trying to bring that same thing to the NFL.”

Trost heads into the final steps of this pre-draft process with an NFL.com draft grade of 6.19, which ranks 10th among the draft’s offensive tackles. The grade classifies him as a “good backup with the potential of developing into a starter.”

He is currently back in Columbia, Missouri, where he is preparing the Tigers’ pro day. His days are now filled with Zoom meeting with teams and coaches from across the NFL as these teams start to narrow down their lists of potential draft picks.

“That’s kind of what it is right now, a lot of meetings and getting ready for my pro day on Friday,” he said. “Then after than, I’m sure it’ll be more meetings, more visits and more training to get ready for the draft and seeing where I’ll end up.”

After jumping from high school to Division II, Division II to Division I, the FCS to the FBS and the ACC to the SEC, this next jump from the SEC to the NFL will be the biggest one yet.

Regardless of where he winds up, Trost certainly has plenty of experience heading to a new time and carving out his place on that roster, and once the lengthy-but-rewarding draft process is over, he is ready to make that final jump.

“I’m honestly just looking forward to figuring out what team I’m going to go to and getting to work there,” he said. “This process can be a lot, but you can enjoy it. You meet a lot of new people, a lot of different types of people. ...

“I’m just most excited to see, not really what pick I’m taken, but more so I’m ready to get to a team and start working and proving myself to my teammates.”

The 2026 NFL Draft gets underway in Pittsburgh on April 23, where Trost and more than 250 other prospects will hope to have their names called and dreams come true.