12 College Football Underclassmen to Watch This Bowl Season
The soon-to-begin bowl season isn't just a final showcase for players ready to make the jump to the pros. It can also be a coming-out party for underclassmen.
Last year's Sugar Bowl introduced the rest of the world outside Alabama to Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry, a freshman who had seen limited action in his first 12 games but in the loss to Oklahoma erupted for 100 yards and a touchdown on eight carries—as well as a 61-yard TD reception. Henry parlayed that into a breakout sophomore year, with 895 rushing yards and 12 total TDs.
While much attention will be placed on teams' veteran stars and leaders, many bowl games will end up hinging on the play of younger players who can use these contests as a springboard for their careers.
Who are some underclassmen to look out for in the next few weeks? Click through to see our picks to click.
Rashard Higgins, WR, Colorado State
1 of 12
Year: Sophomore
Bowl matchup: Dec. 20 vs. Utah in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl
Alabama's Amari Cooper won all the awards associated with wide receivers this season and finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting. He was also named to pretty much every All-American team, but so was a mostly unheralded guy from Colorado State—one whose numbers compare favorably to Cooper's in two fewer games played.
Rashard Higgins had 89 receptions for 1,640 yards and 17 touchdowns this season for the Rams, leading the FBS in TD catches and yards per game (149.1). His breakout year helped Colorado State win 10 games, which helped coach Jim McElwain land the Florida job.
"I want to be one of the best receivers to ever come through college football and come through CSU, and that's the road I'm on right now," Higgins told Kelly Lyell of The Coloradoan.
Higgins caught more passes than any three other CSU players this season, using his 6'2" frame to outleap defenders and outrace tacklers all year long. At one point he had three consecutive games with 175-plus receiving yards, the first FBS player to do that since Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree in 2007. He had 174 yards in the fourth game.
Higgins figures to have a big game in the bowl against Utah, which ranked 92nd in the country in passing defense and allowed 22 TDs through the air.
Jarvion Franklin, RB, Western Michigan
2 of 12
Year: Freshman
Bowl matchup: Dec. 20 vs. Air Force in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
There are 22 freshmen or sophomores on Western Michigan's two-deep depth chart, making it one of the youngest teams in the country. But that youth movement has been a big part of the Broncos' turnaround, going from 1-11 to 8-4 in coach P.J. Fleck's second season.
A big part of that breakthrough year has been freshman running back Jarvion Franklin, who ran for 1,525 yards and 24 touchdowns. The 6'1", 220-pound Franklin was considered a 2-star prospect out of high school, according to 247Sports—ranked as the 115th-best running back in the country in the 2014 class.
Franklin hit a bit of a wall down the stretch, with only 195 yards and two TDs in his final three games, but with three weeks to recover and game-plan, he figures to have a big game against Air Force.
Donnel Pumphrey, RB, San Diego State
3 of 12
Year: Sophomore
Bowl matchup: Dec. 23 vs. Navy in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
San Diego State might be the most consistently good football program in the country that no one talks about, and much of that has to do with how well the Aztecs run the ball. A fifth-straight bowl appearance matches up with a fifth year in a row with a running back who gained at least 1,200 yards and ran for 15 or more touchdowns.
This year's standout back is Donnel Pumphrey, whose 1,761 rushing yards ranked third in the FBS behind Melvin Gordon and Tevin Coleman. The 5'9", 170-pound speedster also scored 19 touchdowns, with six multi-TD games and nine games with at least 100 rushing yards.
Pumphrey was the No. 2 back as a freshman, when he ran for 752 yards and eight TDs behind Adam Muema.
Running the ball will be of utmost importance in San Diego State's bowl game, as opponent Navy is second in the country on the ground but also allows 199.7 rushing yards per game.
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Samaje Perine, RB, Oklahoma
4 of 12
Year: Freshman
Bowl matchup: Dec. 29 vs. Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl
One of the great things about bowl season is the intriguing matchups we get between teams that might not normally play each other in the regular season. Oftentimes, this will pit a standout offensive player against a stout defense, or vice versa.
In the Russell Athletic Bowl, we get to see if the FBS single-game rushing record-holder can put up a big effort against one of the best rushing defenses in the country.
Freshman Samaje Perine burst onto the scene for Oklahoma this season long before he went for 427 yards against Kansas in November, topping Melvin Gordon's one-week-old mark of 408 yards. Perine emerged from a three-man race to replace Brennan Clay by going off for 242 yards and four touchdowns in the Sooners' win at West Virginia in late September.
He cooled off for a while but went on a roll with 791 yards and 10 TDs in his final three games to finish with 1,579 yards and 21 scores. But no defense he's faced is as strong against the run as Clemson, which ranks seventh nationally at 97.7 yards allowed per game.
Nick Chubb, RB, Georgia
5 of 12
Year: Freshman
Bowl matchup: Dec. 30 vs. Louisville in the Belk Bowl
As the No. 33 overall prospect in the country and the fifth-best running back in his recruiting class, Nick Chubb didn't exactly show up at Georgia without fanfare. But as part of a crowded backfield with a clear No. 1 option, Chubb's contributions as a true freshmen weren't expected to be that significant.
Then life happened for Bulldogs standout Todd Gurley—first in the form of a four-game NCAA suspension for accepting money in exchange for autographs and then a season-ending knee injury—and suddenly Chubb was Georgia's go-to running back.
Chubb had only 31 carries for 224 yards and two touchdowns before taking over the starting job, but he responded like a seasoned veteran by rushing for at least 113 yards in all seven games. He finished the year with 1,281 yards and 12 TDs, averaging a healthy 6.9 yards per carry.
"Chubb didn’t merely pick up the work load of Todd Gurley; he picked up the workload of the entire backfield," Bleacher Report's Andrew Hall wrote.
Chubb figures to get a lot of touches in Georgia's bowl game against Louisville, especially since Louisville features one of the best secondaries in the country led by safety Gerod Holliman and his 15 interceptions. The Cardinals are also third in the nation defending the run.
Scooby Wright, LB, Arizona
6 of 12
Year: Sophomore
Bowl matchup: Dec. 31 vs. Boise State in the VIZIO Fiesta Bowl
By now, the whole country should know about the best overall defensive player in the country. Those who aren't aware of Arizona's Scooby Wright haven't noticed all of the hardware he's picked up and All-American teams to which he's been named.
Wright—who led the nation in tackles for loss (27) and forced fumbles (six) and was second in tackles (153)—last week won the Lombardi, Bednarik and Nagurski awards and finished ninth in the Heisman voting. The Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year has been named to at least seven major All-American teams, according to the school's Twitter account.
Not bad for a 2-star prospect who received very little interest beyond Arizona.
Wright helped anchor a bend-but-don't-break Wildcats defense this season, one that didn't look great from a statistical standpoint but made big plays at the right time to help Arizona win the Pac-12 South and earn the Fiesta Bowl bid. Wright now gets a chance to try and contain both elusive Boise State running back Jay Ajayi (1,689 yards, 25 touchdowns) and efficient passer Grant Hedrick (3,387 yards, 22 TDs).
Derek Barnett, DE, Tennessee
7 of 12
Year: Freshman
Bowl matchup: Jan. 2 vs. Iowa in the TaxSlayer Bowl
With the number of true freshmen that Tennessee put on the field this season, it might be hard to single out one as the best of the lot. Actually, it might be hard to pick the second-best, since Derek Barnett was by far the most impressive of the young Volunteers in 2014.
Named the National Rookie of the Year by ESPN's Grantland, which called him "Tennessee's best edge rusher right out of the gate," Barnett finished with 10 sacks and 20.5 tackles for loss while starting nine games and playing in all 12. He had a pair of three-sack games (against Ole Miss and South Carolina) and 69 total tackles, despite picking up more double teams as the season progressed.
The 6'3", 267-pound Barnett was actually considered the 10th-best prospect in Tennessee's bountiful 2014 recruiting class, but his performance this year has made him No. 1. And now he gets a chance to show his stuff against one of the best offensive tackles in the country, Iowa senior Brandon Scherff, who last week won the Outland Trophy—given to the nation's top lineman.
Emmanuel Ogbah, DE, Oklahoma State
8 of 12
Year: Sophomore
Bowl matchup: Jan. 2 vs. Washington in the TicketCity Cactus Bowl
It can be easy to get ignored on a 6-6 team that lost five straight and needed a miracle comeback to win its final game and become bowl-eligible. But despite Oklahoma State's defense being ranked 96th in yards allowed, that unit featured a hidden gem, one who could use the Cowboys' bowl game as a chance to shine on a national stage.
Sophomore Emmanuel Ogbah tied for 13th in the FBS with 17 tackles for loss this season, while his 11 sacks were tied for eighth. Both totals were second-best in the Big 12 Conference, where Oklahoma State finished in seventh place but was able to qualify for a bowl after rallying to win in overtime at rival Oklahoma in its regular-season finale.
Ogbah will once again be overshadowed by other defensive standouts in the bowl game, as opponent Washington features three players (linebackers Hau'oli Kikaha and Shaq Thompson and defensive linemen Danny Shelton) who were named first-team All-Americans on Tuesday by the Associated Press.
Dalvin Cook, RB, Florida State
9 of 12
Year: Freshman
Bowl matchup: Jan. 1 vs. Oregon in the Rose Bowl (national semifinal)
While quarterback Jameis Winston tends to get the headlines—good or bad—more often than not this season, when Florida State needed a big play on offense it ended up being freshman running back Dalvin Cook who came through in the clutch. It's what you'd expect from a player rated as the No. 13 prospect (and second-best running back) in the 2014 class, but it took him a little while to get his chance and run with it.
Cook, who led the Seminoles with 905 rushing yards, didn't play in the season opener and had only 24 carries through the first five games. But a midseason injury to senior Karlos Williams led to Cook getting his first start against Syracuse, and he responded with 122 yards and a touchdown.
After that, he shared the ball in a lot of games with Williams, but he tended to be the one who broke off the big runs. He had TDs of 40 and 38 yards in FSU's comeback win at Louisville—the latter giving his team the lead in the fourth quarter—and his 26-yard score with 3:05 left at Miami kept the Seminoles unbeaten.
"Dalvin Cook did it again," Winston told Brendan Sonnone of the Orlando Sentinel after the Miami win.
Cook is coming off a career-high 177 yards on 31 carries in FSU's win against Georgia Tech in the ACC title game, and he figures to play a major role in the defending champions' game plan to eat up clock against Oregon in the semifinals.
Royce Freeman, RB, Oregon
10 of 12
Year: Freshman
Bowl matchup: Jan. 1 vs. Florida State in the Rose Bowl (national semifinal)
On a team led by the Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback, it might seem like nobody else was responsible for the run to the playoffs. But where would Oregon be without Royce Freeman?
Freeman has run for 1,299 yards and 24 touchdowns, which ranks fourth in the Pac-12 and third in the nation among true freshmen. He's also thrown a TD pass—to Mariota—and hauled in 14 receptions for 139 yards and a score.
With so many teams keying on trying to contain Mariota's mobility and disrupt his passing lanes, Freeman has been able to emerge as a dependable weapon that Oregon didn't have last season. Bryon Marshall ran well in 2013, but not as well as Freeman, and as a result Marshall was converted into the Ducks' top receiving threat.
Oregon's wide-open offense conjures images of small, speedy guys, yet the 6'1", 229-pound Freeman is as much a bruiser as he is a speed back.
Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Ohio State
11 of 12
Year: Sophomore
Bowl matchup: Jan. 1 vs. Alabama in the Sugar Bowl (national semifinal)
Ohio State was able to overcome the loss of quarterback J.T. Barrett in its 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, with replacement Cardale Jones sliding easily into Barrett's role. But Alabama figures to present a much bigger challenge for Jones, which means the rest of the Buckeyes' offensive players will need to step up and balance things out.
Enter Ezekiel Elliott, who in his second year in the program has developed into the go-to running back Ohio State had hoped.
Elliott has rushed for 1,402 yards and 12 touchdowns, with seven 100-yard games. His best effort came in the Big Ten final, picking up the slack for the loss of Barrett's running by going for 220 yards and two TDs that included an 81-yard scoring run.
Alabama will be waiting for him, though. The Crimson Tide are second in the FBS in rushing defense, at 88.7 yards per game, allowing just three touchdowns on the ground while not allowing a running back to go for 90 or more yards.
JK Scott, P, Alabama
12 of 12
Year: Freshman
Bowl matchup: Jan. 1 vs. Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl (national semifinal)
Laugh all you want at this pick, but in big games where teams seem evenly matched on offense and defense, it can often come down to a big play on special teams. Alabama has had its struggles holding onto the ball on punt and kickoff returns, and its field-goal kicking leaves a lot to be desired, but the Crimson Tide have had absolutely no complaints from their punting game.
That's due to freshman JK Scott, who ranked third in the country with an average of 46.98 yards per punt. Only 10 of his 48 punts have been returned—for just 73 yards—and only five have gone into the end zone.
"Scott flipping the field for the Alabama defense has been a major part of that unit's success this season," Bleacher Report's Marc Torrance wrote.
In Alabama's win over then-unbeaten Mississippi State, Scott dumped three punts inside the 10-yard line. The shortest of those, a 34-yard kick, was downed at the Bulldogs' 4-yard line. Two plays later, Alabama tackled MSU running back Josh Robinson in the end zone for a safety.
Statistical information courtesy of CFBStats.com. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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