Jake Funk (born January 11, 1998) is an American football running back for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Maryland. In Maryland's four games during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, Funk averaged 129 rushing yards per game. He also led the Big Ten Conference and ranked second among all Football Bowl Subdivision running backs with an average of 8.6 rushing yards per carry. Funk was drafted in the 7th round of the 2021 NFL Draft NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams, and won a Super Bowl with the team in 2022.
High school career
Funk attended Damascus High School, where he was a heavily lauded football player. Funk was named the 2015 Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year as well as The Washington Post All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year for the same year, also earning two consensus all-state selections. In the state championship game his senior year, Funk scored a title-game record seven rushing touchdowns against Dundalk High School. Funk finished his senior season as the Maryland state record holder for touchdowns in a season with 57.
Recruiting profile
Despite his success in high school, Funk was only a moderately-rated prospect, earning two-star ratings from ESPN and Rivals.com and three-star ratings from 247Sports.com and Scout.com. Despite this, he received scholarship offers from the three service academies (Army, Navy, and Air Force) Ivy League schools Harvard, Yale, and Penn, Group of Five schools Ohio, Old Dominion, and Charlotte, Football Championship Subdivision schools Towson and Bucknell, and Big Ten schools Wisconsin and his eventual destination Maryland. Though recruiters were concerned about Funk's speed, his strength and versatility on defense made him an intriguing option (Funk also played safety in high school), and he was recruited by at least one school as a linebacker. However, after receiving his offer from Maryland, Funk quickly committed to his hometown school, where he was the first commit for then-interim head coach Mike Locksley.
2016-2020 |
2021-2022 |
2022 (Practice) |