Michigan tackle Jake Long, left, and Virginia defensive end Chris Long peer out from behind a curtain at an NFL Draft preview TV show Friday in New York. The draft begins today.

New York ? Vernon Gholston dominated the Big Ten. Glenn Dorsey was an unstoppable force in the SEC. Chris Long made life miserable for blockers and ball carriers in the ACC.

All three could go at the top of Saturday’s NFL draft, just behind Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long, who already has signed with Miami.

None is worried where he winds up.

“This isn’t a recruiting process to me,” said Chris Long, an All-America defensive end for Virginia and the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long. “Wherever you go, you go. The process is not competitive. The draft is an achievement, but the real achievements you make on the field.”

The accomplishments of this defensive trio were impressive: Gholston played for the past two national championships at Ohio State; Dorsey helped LSU win the 2007 title; Chris Long might have been the best all-around defensive lineman in the nation.

The St. Louis Rams are up next and are considering all three defenders.

“If there was a gap between one guy and the other two, he would have been eliminated already,” Rams vice president of player personnel Billy Devaney said Thursday. “That’s why all three are right there clumped together.”

Chris Long certainly has the pedigree, and he spent some time being interviewed by the Raiders in Oakland, where his father was a perennial Pro Bowl lineman. The Raiders pick fourth on Saturday, after St. Louis and Atlanta, and have expressed interest in improving their defense immediately.

But they also are enamored of Arkansas running back Darren McFadden.

Would Howie’s son be intimidated by joining the team for which his dad was so dominant?

“I’m not afraid of it,” he said. “I wouldn’t run from a challenge like that.”

Boston College’s Matt Ryan is the main passer in this draft, and he’s been projected to go to the Falcons, the Chiefs at No. 5 or the Ravens in the eighth spot. There’s more uncertainty about Ryan than usual for the draft’s highest-rated quarterback, although nobody expects him to plummet the way Aaron Rodgers did in 2005 or Brady Quinn spiraled last year.