So, what do you actually want to do?

Jacob Hollister has heard that question frequently over the years. The answer: Since graduating from Bend’s Mountain View High in 2012, as his football career continued at Nevada, Arizona Western Community College and most recently Wyoming, Hollister has aspired to play in the NFL.

Those who had shrugged and asked Hollister about his backup plan stopped asking. They believed. He was bound for the NFL.

“People always say to create a Plan B,” the 6-foot-4-inch, 239-pound tight end said last week during a phone interview from Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he has been living with his twin brother, Cody, since January. “But I’ve always had the mindset of having a Plan A and then have a new Plan A when that plan is done.

“In my head, it was never a consideration to try anything but football for as long as I could. I never had anything that I wanted to do besides play football.”

Hollister always watched the three-day NFL draft growing up. He will continue that tradition this week, beginning with the first round Thursday.

This year, though, Hollister is motivated not just by his interest in seeing in which round and by which team college football’s top prospects are selected. This year, he will be waiting to be one of the few Central Oregon products ever to hear their names called.

Plan A is potentially just days away from becoming a reality.

“I’m anxious, just because I’m excited,” said Hollister, noting that he will be watching the draft from Arkansas. “It’s just so much different than college because you’re not picking a school to go to; hopefully someone is picking you. I just want to know what team I’m going to be playing for and be excited about it and get out there and play football and be done with this draft process.”

Six players from Central Oregon have ever made it to the NFL, and only three have been drafted: Redmond High’s Jed Weaver (seventh round in 1999), Bend High’s Doug Hogland (eighth round in ’53) and Bend’s Byron Haines (seventh round in ’37). Jacob — and even Cody, a 6-4, 209-pound wide receiver who played at Arkansas the past three years — are primed to join that short list.

“Our whole life, it’s been about knowing we can do it, but the next step in front of us has been an expectation,” said Cody, also by phone from Fayetteville. He recounted how he missed the Razorbacks’ bowl game this past season while recovering from surgery for what he described as “extreme turf toe” on his left foot. That injury forced him to miss most of his pro day workouts at Arkansas in March, though he said he expected to speak with scouts and participate in a workout for representatives of several NFL teams early this week.

“Looking back when we were kids, the NFL was this big dream, but we always took the next step,” Cody Hollister said. “Nevada was an expectation, junior college was an expectation, Arkansas was an expectation. Now the NFL is an expectation. When you look back at the journey, I wouldn’t have felt the same way at the beginning.”

It is not as though the Hollisters will be first-round picks or even be selected within the first three rounds of the draft. Still, the two brothers — who guided Mountain View to its only football state championship, in 2011, with Jacob at quarterback and Cody at wide receiver — just might go where few Central Oregonians have gone before.

“It’s crazy,” said Jacob, a first-team all-Mountain West Conference player in 2016 while helping the Cowboys reach the MWC championship game. “It’s weird going into it, watching it with obviously a completely different feeling this year, knowing that my name could be called at some point.”

From Mountain View, the Hollisters redshirted at Nevada before transferring to Arizona Western Community College the following year. Jacob made the transition from quarterback to tight end at the junior college, setting him up for a productive career at Wyoming.

This past year, Jacob was the Cowboys’ third-leading receiver with 32 catches for 515 yards and hauled in seven touchdowns to rank second on the team. The season’s highlight came against then-No. 13 Boise State in October when he caught six passes for a career-high 144 yards — the most by a Wyoming tight end since 1993.

“He really developed this past year a sense of leadership, that he demanded a lot of others,” said Wyoming offensive coordinator Brent Vigen. “Even though that’s a trait that’s not necessary for kids to get picked up or drafted, I do feel like when an NFL team can come in and coaches can speak of character, work ethic and leadership, those are certainly things we value and they value at the next level, as well.”

With that leadership, Vigen noted, is a blend of speed and strength that makes Jacob Hollister one of the more well-rounded tight ends in the country, though Vigen conceded that Jacob is “probably an inch or two short” of the NFL ideal.

“But I think with the size that he has, he was able to do everything effectively, whether it was being on the line and blocking defensive ends, being able to go in the backfield and serve kind of like a fullback, being able to be split out (as a wide receiver),” Vigen said. “We didn’t lose much of anything as far as he’s replacing a receiver, essentially, when you’re splitting him out. You’d love to have a couple of him out there, because it would be tough to defend. We wanted him on the field as much as possible while the other guys we were playing were much more one-dimensional and were more of situational guys. Jacob became a guy that, in every situation, we wanted to use him in the most important (situations).”

Cody Hollister has been at his brother’s side nearly every step of the way. But after Arizona Western, as Jacob went off to Laramie to play for Wyoming, Cody went east to play at Arkansas. There, he amassed 342 yards receiving and just one touchdown, but he showcased his speed on jet sweeps en route to 48 yards rushing and a TD this past season. He was also solid on special teams, of which he was voted the MVP by the Razorbacks.

While Cody was only recently at full strength to display his skills for NFL scouts, Jacob has long been on the radar for several pro teams.

The Wyoming tight end participated in the program’s three-hour pro day in early March in front of representatives from 29 NFL teams, according to various news sources. He said he has been in frequent contact with NFL coaches and scouts, and since the beginning of April, he says, he has been visiting two teams a week, including the Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans, Atlanta Falcons, New York Giants and New York Jets.

“It’s been a grind,” Jacob laughed. “But it’s been fun. I’m enjoying it.”

Jacob says he and his agent, Kyle Strongin from MGC Sports in Tennessee, have heard that he could be drafted anywhere between the fourth and seventh rounds. Meanwhile, Cody, who is also represented by Strongin, could be a sixth- or seventh-round pick, according to Cody. If they go undrafted, both Hollisters are confident they will sign with NFL teams as free agents.

Certainly, fulfilling a lifelong dream of playing in the NFL would be incredible, Cody said. But the experience — being back by his brother’s side — makes the draft process even more special.

“Being together, it’s just surreal, man,” Cody said. “Having your best friend, your brother, it’s a feeling like he’s a part of you, too. I can’t even describe it in words. … It really blows my mind. It’s been the most humbling thing, but it really has gotten me so pumped the last three months.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0307, 
glucas@bendbulletin.com.