We’re one month into the 2026 college football season, and while some players have disappointed, particularly as it pertains to next April, when many of them were supposed to change an NFL franchise, plenty of names have also emerged after being barely talked about.
I’m not going to spend time discussing Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith lighting the world on fire as a Heisman front-runner, Florida’s Jadan Baugh further cementing himself as the top running back in the 2027 draft thanks to a dominant opening stretch, or Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons just tying the program single-game sack record (five) – along with delivering one of the most insane celebrations I’ve ever seen on a football field.
Rather, the purpose of this article is to highlight those types of guys who have really put themselves on the radar of pro scouts with their performances up to this point. Some of them obviously were to a certain degree already, but have gotten a lot more people to buy in, while others did kind of come out of nowhere.
Let’s go through four names on offense and defense each!
