10 College Football Players Who Will Face Sophomore Slumps in 2010

To take a page out of Fall Out Boy's manual, I decided to take a look at 10 college football players who would hit a sophomore slump in 2010 (not have a "comeback of the year").

Keep in mind, these aren't guys I think are going to play poorly, just not really impress after the impact they made as freshmen. Sure, some will see their stats increase, but just because a player increased hit total tackle count, doesn't necessarily mean he improved, what if the majority of his tackles became assisted versus solo the previous year?

The most important thing to remember here is that these are predictions. They're for fun, and just what I am expecting; nothing is set in stone.

Ryan Williams (Virginia Tech)

As a freshman, Williams was the ACC's leading rusher in 2009 with 1,655 yards and 21 touchdowns.

He played one less game than Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, and only had three fewer yards and was able to get in the end zone four more times than the Alabama star.

To me, the most impressive stat Williams had last season was ZERO fumbles.

But working in an offense where your starting quarterback is a dual-threat talent, it's hard to rack up a 1,700 yard season. Look for Williams' numbers to be down in the fall from last season.

Jordan Wynn (Utah)

A last name like Wynn is just as likely to get heckled as Kansas Jayhawks quarterback Kale Pick. People like to make your name into a pun, and for Wynn, it's the expectation of winning.

In 2009, Wynn did win. In only six games, he passed for 1,329 yards and eight scores including the best game of his career in the Poinsettia Bowl against Cal. All of this came after sitting the first seven games of the season behind JUCO transfer Terrance Cain.

Wynn has been slowed by injury this spring and Cain seems to be right where he left off last season before Wynn took his place. Don't be surprised to see Cain retake the spotlight in 2010.

Matt Barkley (USC)

While his touchdown-to-interception ratio in 2009 was abysmal at 15:14, overall Barkley had a good campaign for the Trojans as a freshman, completing nearly 60 percent of his passes for over 2,700 yards.

While it was a down season for USC, Barkley did manage to take the Trojans to a 9-4 record and an Emerald Bowl victory.

In 2010, Barkley's leash under Lane Kiffin will be much tighter as senior Mitch Mustain looked like an adequate quarterback for the first time in his college career during the Trojans' spring game.

If Barkley's decision making suffers, he won't play.

Luke Kuechly (Boston College)

Luke Kuechly was arguably the biggest surprise name on defense in 2009, ranking second in the national in total tackles as a freshman behind Carmen Messina of New Mexico.

The Cincinnati product was a three-star recruit with a 5.6 Rivals Rating (two points away from being a 4-star). Expectations were no where near the results Kuechly gave Eagles fans.

The question now is whether or not the freshman all-American has reached his peak, or whether he'll keep improving the next three years. I predict his total tackles to stay about the same, but instead of doing most the work solo, he'll have more assisted take downs.

Huldon Tharp (Kansas)

While Tharp didn't have a phenomenal season, he did manage to rank fifth on the team in tackles with 59 and will be the Jayhawk's third-leading returning tackler behind Chris Harris and fellow linebacker Drew Dudley.

New head coach Turner Gill is an offensive mind and for teams that struggled on defense as much as Kansas did in 2009, that's not usually a good sign. Good news is that Clint Bowen is out and Carl Torbush is in at defensive coordinator, but new isn't always better (though it's hard to get worse that Bowen).

Expect Tharp's stats to increase in 2010, but that's just due to experience and seniority graduating. He has the potential to be an all-conference name, but it will take him at least two seasons before he can reach the level of guys like Mike Rivera.

DJ Monroe (Texas)

One of college football's best kick returners last season was DJ Monroe of Texas. The redshirt freshman averaged over 33 kick return yards per game (total of 537) and two touchdowns.

The problem facing Monroe this season: He's no longer a secret and opposing special teams will make it a point to kick away from him.

He reminds me a lot of former Oklahoma State cornerback Perrish Cox who returned the first kickoff he ever received for a touchdown as a freshman. After Cox's freshman season (2006), only in 2008 did he average more yards per kick return.

It's now not only the eyes of Texas, but the Big 12 Conference, who are upon Monroe.

Conner Vernon (Duke)

The thing about playing bad programs like Duke, you never know who you should expect to hurt you. Sure, you've scouted them, watched film, and know who their "Stars" are, but for some reason, it's always someone different standing out in each game.

Conner Vernon was one of the biggest bright spots for the Blue Devils in 2009, tallying 746 yards and three touchdowns as a freshman (all scores coming on the road). That's a great place to build on, but when you play in a mediocre conference like the ACC, who cares?

Four of Vernon's five games that jumped out on the stat sheet were against Wake Forest, Virginia, North Carolina State, and Maryland—none of which became bowl eligible. He did play his best game against Virginia Tech, but that was an outlier.

He excelled against poor teams and the ACC should be better in 2010 than it was last season, expect his stats to reflect accordingly.

Tate Forcier (Michigan)

Rich Rodriguez's future at Michigan is riding on this season. There's no way around it.

Will this spread-attack ever work at Michigan? With quarterbacks like Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson, Rich Rod still thinks so.

If the Wolverines start to struggle early, whether it's Forcier's fault or not, Rodriguez will panic, which will result in most-likely extreme play calling, or the yanking of his starting quarterback.

I really like Tate Forcier, but I don't think he is a good fit at Michigan and I honestly don't expect him to stay for another season without the Wolverines winning seven games in the regular season. He will fall victim to Rodriguez, and that's a shame.

Antavious Wilson (Marshall)

Marshall ranked 10th out of 12 Conference USA's passing ranks in 2009, ahead of only UAB and Rice. Still,thanks to a strong scoring defense, the Herd were able to win seven games, including the Motor City Bowl.

Freshman wide receiver Antavious Wilson led the Thundering Herd in receiving yards with 724 yards, but only had three touchdowns.

With tight end Cody Slate graduating, Wilson should be Marshall's top target next season, which means double-coverage as the Herd aren't that great of a passing team to begin with. Plus, no matter how athletics kids from Pahokee, Fla. always seem to be, 6'0" isn't the size that generally makes you a star wide receiver.

Landry Jones (Oklahoma)

Most people don't realize it, but Landry Jones had an amazing first season at Oklahoma with over 3,000 yards, 26 touchdowns and a completion percentage of 58.

Why don't folks realize it? Because they expected Jones to be a matured Sam Bradford.

Sure, Jones didn't have quite the freshman season Bradford had, though he did throw for more yards, but Bradford was not your top-rated OU recruit, in fact, Bradford was a very average player in high school before breaking out in college.

Jones will likely never put up the numbers Bradford did, but more than likely, Sooner fans are lucky enough to have a quality quarterback under center for the next three seasons.

While I expect his numbers to get better each season and become a Heisman candidate by 2012, he'll always be living under Bradford's "shadow" which will make people think he's a flop.