2010 College Football Predictions: Best Kept Secrets College Football

Every season, college football anoints new players as national stars.

Prior to last season, Mark Ingram, Toby Gerhart and Ndamukong Suh were certainly recognized as great players by their respective fan bases, but lacked the national recognition that they would eventually receive as the season progressed. Each player ultimately finished in the top four in Heisman voting, despite the fact that none of them were listed by Vegas odds-makers as possibilities to win the award before the season started.

Now another year begins, and new surprise players are on the horizon. These players will take over the national spotlight and follow in the mold of their past counterparts in that they have tremendous talent and are well-recognized as great players among their fan bases.

Now, with the old guard either graduated or in the NFL, here are a few players who will be given extra attention nationally this coming college football season.

Jeff Fuller

Jeff Fuller may be among the most talented wide receivers in all of college football.

After recording 630 yards receiving and nine touchdowns as a freshman at Texas A&M in 2008, Fuller suffered a broken leg last season which hampered his numbers as a sophomore.

Regardless, despite sitting out three games, Fuller ended the season with back-to-back 100 yard games, including a 132 yard, three-touchdown performance in a tough loss against Texas at home.

A&M's offense should be fun to watch this season, and with a full offseason under his belt to recoup, expect Fuller to be an All-Big 12 performer this season.

Colin Kaepernick

Despite being the active leader in rushing touchdowns in college football, it's likely many casual fans have heard of Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick will fill the void left by Dan Lefevour as the nation's best dual-threat quarterback on a mid-major team.

Kaepernick has thrown for over 2,000 yards and rushed for over 1,000 yards two years in a row at Nevada. This year will mark his fourth and final year under center for the Wolfpack.

Kaepernick will have two national TV appearances this season, where he will have the opportunity to gain some notoriety: September 17th vs. Nevada and November 26th vs. Boise State.

Against Cal, Kaepernick will face another under the radar player that could emerge as a national name in Shane Vareen. Vareen is a dynamic rusher who led the Golden Bears in rushing yards last season, out-performing first round pick Jahvid Best.

While an upset of Boise State may appear to be a long shot on paper, Kaepernick has played the Broncos tough throughout his college career, losing 69-67 in 2007, 41-34 in 2009, and 44-33 in 2010 in his only three contests against the perennial WAC champions.

Steven Sheffield

Sheffield may be a questionable pick for this list, as it's not set in stone that he will even start for the Red Raiders at quarterback.

Regardless, I still feel that he's worthy of mention both because of his impressive play in limited snaps last season, and because of the fact that if he hadn't incurred a foot injury, there would be little doubt that he would be the current starter in Lubbock.

Filling in for Taylor Potts, Sheffield completed nearly 75 percent of his passes and threw for 14 touchdowns along with only four interceptions. More impressively, Sheffield led the Red Raiders to a 31-10 victory over Nebraska in Lincoln last season.

Although Potts had 334 more attempts than Sheffield last season, he only threw for eight more touchdowns and had more than three times as many interceptions.

Potts has the talent, but Sheffield has a good knowledge of the offense. If the Red Raiders hope to run Mike Leach's style of offense successfully this season, they should go with Sheffield behind center. But if new coach Tommy Tuberville plans to incorporate a more traditional scheme, all bets are off.

Bruce Miller

The University of Central Florida's defense was one of the best-kept secrets in all of college football last season, and the best player on the unit was defensive end Bruce Miller.

Miller, the reigning Conference USA defensive player of the year, ranked third in the nation in sacks last season with 13. He anchored a Central Florida team that allowed the third least rushing yards per game in all of college football.

Miller may not have gotten the recognition he deserved last year, but expect more media outlets to pay closer attention to this rising star if he's able to repeat his success.

Ricky Dobbs

Dobbs was achingly close to leading Navy to an upset win over Ohio State in the first week of the 2009 season. Despite the near miss, he continued his stellar play throughout year, leading Navy to yet another bowl appearance.

Dobbs has an arm that forces opposing defenses to stay honest against Navy's vaunted triple option offense, making him a very dangerous player for the Midshipmen.

There have been some rumblings that Dobbs could be an under the radar Heisman contender this season. These predictions are certainly warranted—with their light schedule, it's possible that Navy may go undefeated, which would more than likely garner Dobbs an invite to New York City in December.

Jeremy Avery

If Boise State lives up to their billing this season, Jeremy Avery will receive much more publicity nationwide. The senior led the Broncos in rushing last year and has averaged more than 5.5 yards per carry throughout his career.

Avery rushed for 1,150 yards last season, but was only able to gain 20 yards on 12 attempts against TCU in the Fiesta Bowl. Avery will face another tough defense to start this season in Virginia Tech. If the Broncos hope to go undefeated and become the first non-BCS team to play in the national championship game, Avery will need to provide balance to the offense by complimenting the arm of Kellen Moore in tough games.

Fortunately for Boise State, by all indications, the diminutive back should be in for a big year.

Mark Barron

When you play on a national championship-level defense alongside high NFL draft picks Terrence Cody, Javier Arenas, Kareem Jackson and Rolando McClain, it's hard to get the attention you deserve. Such is the case with first team All-SEC safety Mark Barron.

Barron was among the best players in the nation at his position, but didn't quite receive the publicity one might expect.

This season he will be the face of a defense that will be breaking in several new starters. Barron was brilliant last season tallying seven interceptions along with 74 tackles, but this year he will have much more pressure on him to lead. Whether he is up for the challenge will go a long way in dictating how the Crimson Tide's defense of their national championship plays out this season.

Kyle Padron

Padron may look like a mere adolescent, but the former South Lake Carroll quarterback was brilliant for the Mustangs during his freshman season.

SMU is a team on the rise, and with a full off-season under his belt, Padron should be even more adept leading June Jones' passing friendly offense.

Padron ending last season very strong, throwing for 460 yards and two touchdowns en route to a 45-10 Hawaii bowl win over Nevada—the first bowl victory for SMU in 25 years.

If this former two-star recruit continues to mature, it's likely that he will lead the Mustangs to a few more bowl victories before all is said and done.