Suh, McCoy are the top defensive line prospects

Suh, whose mother is Jamaican and whose father is from Cameroon, appears to be rated slightly ahead of McCoy.

Suh terrorized teams in the Big 12 and won a host of national awards.

As a youth, Suh played soccer before switching to football after he racked up too many red cards. Suh's soccer lessons transferred with him to football.

"The footwork," Suh said. "Being able to get around an offensive lineman is a lot easier just because it's more natural. ... it became a little bit easier to me because I started at a young age with soccer."

They knew about Suh in the Big 12, but he flashed on the national scene in the league's championship game in December. He put on a show while basically pitching himself a tent in Texas' backfield.

He finished with 10 unassisted tackles, a league championship-record 4.5 sacks and seven tackles for loss.

But Suh doesn't like to get caught up in his own stats.

"I think that was my best game," Suh said. "But I look at it, a game like that and a game like at Arizona. I had so many tackles and so many sacks that Texas game, but then I turned around at the bowl game, I had three tackles and one for loss, and we killed that team 33-0. ... I did everything I was supposed to do in that game, and we won 33-0."

McCoy is a part of the record-tying 53 underclassmen that entered the draft. The record was set in 2008.

"I have a strong work ethic," McCoy said. "I try to outwork the opponent that I'm going against. The thing with me is I hate giving the person I'm going against an opportunity to say, ‘I won.'"

McCoy was the president of Oklahoma's Christian Leadership Council and of the school's chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

"I was raised to be a leader not a follower, and it's just in me. It's just natural," McCoy said. "I was picked as a captain my sophomore year."

Suh and McCoy were rivals in the Big 12, but are friends off the field.

"I met him for the first time after we beat OU at home, and it kind of grew from there," Suh said. "We more or less got to know each other on kind of the awards circuit."

NFL executives are split as to who's the better pro prospect.

"When I try to get people down on that conversation, it's a little more McCoy 1A and Suh 1B," said Charlie Casserly, Houston's former general manager-turned broadcaster. "I ask two questions: Who's the better athlete, and who's the better pass rusher? McCoy comes up more often than not as the yes guy there."

It's too close to call for some.

"There’s really not that big of a difference between those guys," New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese said. "I don’t think. They’re different in some ways. ... [but] they’re both really good football players."