Monshun Sales grew up with the nickname “Bama” — family ties to Tuscaloosa will do that. On Friday, the kid from Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis walked onto the Pat McAfee Show and told the country he’s staying home. Indiana it is, over Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, and Texas.
That sentence would have read like a misprint two years ago. Five-star wide receivers don’t pick Indiana. They just don’t. But Curt Cignetti has won a national championship and made two College Football Playoff trips since arriving in November 2023, and the whole recruiting calculus in Bloomington flipped with it.
Sales is the No. 2 wide receiver and No. 7 overall prospect in the 2027 class, per Rivals. He is the highest-rated player to commit to Indiana in the modern recruiting era. Commit No. 17 in a class that already holds Brownsburg four-star receiver Branden Sharpe, Noblesville three-star offensive tackle Mason McDermott, and Michigan City three-star offensive lineman Jeremiah Jones.
“My decision to commit to Indiana was not an easy one,” Sales told Rivals through his agency, Ascend. “The relationships that I made with the coaches and staff at Indiana throughout the process is what made it feel like home. Coach Cignetti has built a winning program and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
The film doesn’t lie on this kid. At 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds, Sales caught 37 passes for 794 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior — 21.5 yards per catch — while starting at safety and racking up 56 tackles. As a sophomore, he added 34 grabs for 568 yards and seven scores on an 11-1 team ranked No. 1 in Indiana Class 6A. He runs a 10.81-second 100 meters and placed second in the state 200 at 21.09. Rivals scouting director Charles Power compared him to Brian Thomas Jr., a 2024 first-round pick out of LSU. The 247Sports evaluation called him “one of the biggest freakshows in the country.”
Sales watched Indiana’s rise with a front-row seat. Lawrence North produced Omar Cooper Jr., a first-round NFL Draft pick in April who helped the Hoosiers during their national title run. Sales talks nearly every day with Davion Chandler, another Lawrence North alum entering his sophomore season at IU. He watched Indiana beat Alabama, Oregon, and Miami on the way to a championship.
“It is showing that they can compete at a high level and beat those top programs, which they were not able to do in the past,” Sales said. “I feel like that’s all they really needed, was to start winning so they can get even better recruits. Imagine what they could do with those top recruited guys?”
Lawrence North coach Pat Mallory has known Sales since the kid was running around in the youth league. “I’m a pretty tough old guy to play for,” Mallory said. “Years ago in our youth league, I told him it was going to take a lot of hard work to get where he wants to go. When he was 11, 12 years old, I talked to him about how it was going to be tough. You might not always like it. But my goal was to get him ready, so he can be ready to play at the next level after his four years, not wait and get developed.”
Sales called his spring official visit to Indiana the turning point — the meetings, the photoshoot, the time with coaches. “It felt great to get back up there and spend great quality time with the coaches and let them show me why I should be a Hoosier,” he said.
Indiana’s 2027 class now sits at 17 commitments, anchored by a receiver who was supposed to belong to somebody else. The kind of recruiting win that used to happen to other programs. The film doesn’t lie — and neither does the trajectory in Bloomington.
Sources:
- Yahoo Sports — 5-star Monshun Sales commits to Indiana
- Yahoo Sports / Indianapolis Star — Why 5-star WR Monshun Sales picked Indiana football
- 247Sports — Monshun Sales player profile
- On3 / Rivals — Monshun Sales scouting report