The video clips are still out there, the ones that the South Dakota State coaching staff saw of Tucker Kraft running over and around opponents as he starred for tiny Timber Lake High School in tiny Timber Lake, S.D..

The town is so small — with a population of about 500 — that Timber Lake played nine-man football, so there were only three linemen.

“It was different,’’ said South Dakota State offensive coordinator Zach Lujan, who helped recruit Kraft. “It wasn’t just that it was nine-man [football]. It was literally watching a man among boys. He was out there, 6-5, 225 and pretty much everyone else was 5-10, 160.”

He was so dominant that Timber Lake head coach Ryan Gimbel used Kraft at multiple positions starting during his freshman year.

“We had him at tight end and defensive end and then moved him to quarterback and even running back,’’ said Gimbel, who coached Kraft in both football and track and field at the school located about 120 miles south of Bismarck, N.D. “And we also used him as a guard. He played just about every position for us, since he was so athletic.”

But it’s at tight end that Kraft has made his mark in college, where he was a standout at South Dakota State and is set to be selected in the NFL draft, which begins April 27 in Kansas City, Mo.

Some mock drafts have him going in the first three rounds.

Kraft’s path to the NFL is rare, but not exactly unheard of.

In fact, Dallas Goedert of the Eagles also grew up playing nine-man football in South Dakota before breaking out at South Dakota State on his way to being selected by the Eagles in the second round of the 2018 draft.

“Guys like Dallas pave the way,’’ Kraft wrote on Twitter.

But it wasn’t always a smooth road for Kraft.

When he arrived to the campus in Brookings, Lujan said Kraft “was a diamond in the rough.”

“It was quite an adjustment for him,’’ Lujan said. “After a week of fall camp, our defensive line coach said he could make him an NFL defensive end. He was just a pure athlete, but he was drowning early on. He had to learn a totally new way of playing, from a personnel standpoint and he had to learn how to play his position in a totally new way, with his hand on the ground. It took about a year and a half, but he’s a hard worker.”

He got some extra time to figure it out when the FCS postponed the 2020 season due to COVID and pushed it to the spring of 2021.

Kraft, though, suffered an injury that limited him to seven games that season.

He played in all 15 games as a junior in 2021 before an ankle injury sidelined him for a month.

But Kraft returned in October and helped lead the Jackrabbits to the FCS title, beating rival North Dakota State in the championship game in January, with Kraft making a pair of catches.

His impact was made in other ways, which is what South Dakota State tight ends coach Chris Meyers says also sets him up well for the next level.

“What makes him different than everybody else in this draft class is that a lot of guys produce similarly to him in receiving, but his willingness to block and execute is as good as anyone,’’ Meyers said of Kraft, who is now 6-foot-5, 260. “He loves to hit people. Some guys are just out there to catch balls and block only when they have to. Tucker is a dominant blocker. He loves to hit people.”

That goes back to his days at Timber Lake, when he could be seen running downfield, with opposing would-be tacklers bouncing off of him.

Gimbel believes the blocking mindset began in high school and that Kraft was able to use some of what he picked up in nine-man football and apply it to the traditional game.

“He has that ability to block downfield,’’ Gimbel said. “He became a great blocker out of the backfield for us. He knew how to use his body to block more than one guy.”

That trait will no doubt be on display when Kraft gets to the NFL, as he’s known more for his blocking ability than his route-running, although he’s made strides there, as well.