Predicting College Football's Most Clutch Performers in 2025

One thing you simply can't teach in sports is the clutch gene.

Some say it doesn't exist, and it's all a matter of chance and happenstance, like the some-say "mythical" momentum swings. Those who play the game would argue otherwise.

When the game is on the line or big moments need plays, some just rise to the occasion. As receiver Santana Moss said back when he was in a Miami Hurricanes jersey in the early 2000s, "Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games."

There have been variations of that quote before and since, but it's true.

In 2025, several returning college football players have that calm heartbeat and are a walking, talking heat-check in huge moments. From elite pass-catchers to quarterbacks who've either proven their ilk or have the ability, there are a bunch of guys who fit the bill.

Here are some of the top players we expect to be the most clutch in the game in 2025.

Caleb Downs, Ohio State Safety

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When you think of Caleb Downs and big plays, the one that comes to your mind first is the 79-yard punt return for a touchdown that helped the Buckeyes separate themselves against Indiana in a win last year.

But Ohio State's rising junior safety just makes everything look easy. At times, he does stuff to impact that game that doesn’t show up in the stats.

There’s no question he’s the most talented player at his position in the country, and he was arguably Ohio State’s most consistent defender on a unit that helped carry the Buckeyes to the national championship. Yes, guys like Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau had some bigger plays, but Downs always showed up.

He was a consistent force for then-coordinator Jim Knowles. Entering into the title game, he was on the minds of everyone involved with Notre Dame's offense.

“You have to make some decisions about how you’re going to treat (Downs),” Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said, according to AL.com's Matt Stahl. “Is he a linebacker? Is he a safety? Is he something in between? It’s a unique scheme you don’t see a lot. I’d call it kind of a little bit of a nest look, where they’ve kind of got him perched up there waiting to pounce, whether you run it or pass it. He’s in a position to affect the game on either side of the field.”

In other words, Downs can do it all. Prior to the title game, he'd just sealed the game with an interception of Quinn Ewers to give the Buckeyes a semifinal win over Texas.

He just makes plays all day, no matter the situation.

Anthony Hill Jr., Texas Linebacker

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Perhaps the fastest, most aggressive defense in the nation in 2025 belonged to the Texas Longhorns, and that's largely due to coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski regularly bringing in difference-makers year after year.

A couple of classes ago, former 5-star Anthony Hill Jr. was expected to be an impact player, and he was right away as a freshman in 2023. This past season, he made the leap to megastar.

This was evidenced by huge games, including in a lopsided rivalry win over Oklahoma in which Hill had 11 tackles, including 3.5 for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble and a quarterback hurry. He is simply all over the place, all the time.

Performances like this are nothing new to Hill, though, who started his career in Austin by manufacturing massive moments in minimal opportunities.

In Texas' huge 34-24 win over Alabama in '23 with Hill barely knowing what he was doing in the early season, he spied Jalen Milroe and finished with two sacks and a quarterback hurry in a 34-24 win that announced coach Steve Sarkisian's program back on the national spectrum.

Last season, he finished with 113 tackles, eight sacks, four forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and an interception. The number of plays he disrupts is astounding.

If there's a big play to be made on defense, the 'Horns look to Hill. And now he has elite playmaker Colin Simmons on the second level to take some of the pressure off him.

Blake Horvath, Navy Quarterback

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Quarterback Blake Horvath kept the Navy Midshipmen in the feel-good storybook during the 2024 college football season.

In the Armed Forces Bowl against Oklahoma, he proved to the nation that he could do big things against big-conference opponents, too. Horvath led a rugged, Navy-special 12-play, 66-yard touchdown drive that put Navy ahead of the Sooners in a 21-20 win.

Horvath ground out a gutsy effort on that drive, converting on third down twice and adding a huge fourth-down conversion to keep the Midshipmen on the field. Horvath completed a clutch 10-yard pass to Brandon Chatman on a third down, then later found snipe Eli Heidenreich for a 16-yard gain on fourth down to set up the game-winner.

This came after a 95-yard scamper for a score earlier in the game, but it was far from the only heroics from Horvath on the season.

Earlier in the year in a 56-44 win over Memphis, Horvath totaled six touchdowns, finishing with 12 rushes for 211 yards and four scores, along with nine completions on 12 attempts for 192 yards and two touchdown passes.

In a win over Army, he had 204 rushing yards and 107 passing yards.

Horvath just makes massive plays with the game on the line, and with him at the helm, the Mids are must-see TV.

Cade Klubnik, Clemson Quarterback

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The maturation of Cade Klubnik has not been overnight, but after taking some lumps early in his Clemson career, he enters his senior season as arguably the nation's top quarterback.

The Texas native and former 5-star prospect certainly has the potential, and after two years in coordinator Garrett Riley's offense, Klubnik's comfortability was obvious as the '24 season went on.

Perhaps the showcase play of the season was a 50-yard touchdown run that gave the Tigers a sweaty 24-20 win over a reeling Pittsburgh team in mid-November when Clemson was fighting for a playoff spot.

Once the Tigers made the final 12, they were dispatched by Texas, but it was through no fault of Klubnik who had a big game in a losing effort, completing 6-of-7 play-action passes for 104 yards and a score in a 336-yard performance against the nation's top-ranked pass defense.

The loss came on the heels of a 262-yard, four-touchdown performance against SMU in an ACC championship game win to put the Tigers in the playoffs. He found Antonio Williams for a 17-yard gain to set up a 56-yard game-winning field goal in that one, too.

With playmakers all around him, Klubnik and the Clemson passing game could be very scary in the ACC in '25. The Tigers are likely the odds-on favorites again to win the conference, especially if they can find a running game.

Clutch Cade makes plays, and everybody will see that again next year.

Sam Leavitt, Arizona State Quarterback

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By design, there are a lot of quarterbacks on this list because there are a lot of signal-callers who want the football with the game on the line. But few are mass-producers in big moments.

One of the guys who looks like he's got what it takes is Arizona State's Sam Leavitt, who still has a lot of eligibility left under coach Kenny Dillingham.

Last year as a redshirt freshman, Leavitt was overshadowed by an incredible season from senior spark plug running back Cam Skattebo, but that shouldn't take anything away from Leavitt. Without him, the Sun Devils wouldn't have made the College Football Playoff.

Once they got there, it was Leavitt's heroics with Skattebo in and out of the game and star receiver Jordyn Tyson on the sideline that nearly led them to a comeback win over Texas that fell just short in double overtime.

Leavitt finished his redshirt freshman year with 2,886 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and just six interceptions while adding 443 yards on the ground and five more scores.

“He’s a special, special kid,” Dillingham told the Associated Press' John Marshall. “His ability to see the field on game day. His work ethic. You know he works. You see the work. You see the process. You see the care level, but until you get into a season and you just see that, it’s just different.”

He led the Sun Devils to a 4-1 record against ranked opponents and was much better than just a game manager, throwing nine total touchdowns against just three interceptions. It was a nice start to what could be a great career.

Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame Running Back

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The inclusion of Jeremiyah Love on this list may be perplexing for some and controversial at least, considering his statistical no-show throughout much of the College Football Playoff.

After a 108-yard performance in a lopsided opening-round win over Indiana that included a touchdown, Love mustered just 68 yards on 21 carries over the next three games, capping a struggle-bus performance with just three yards on four carries in the title-game loss to Ohio State.

Don't forget, though, Love was hurt throughout those first two games, and though he was reportedly "95 percent" leading into the game against the Buckeyes, the Fighting Irish perplexingly decided not to give him any touches.

It's hard to make an impact on six total touches.

This is a dude who finished the year with 1,125 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns, and he scored at least once in the first 13 games of the season. In every big game the Irish played throughout a can't-lose regular season after an early loss to Northern Illinois, Love was the bell cow.

Now, he's coming back for the Irish for another year, and he's probably going to play with a chip on his shoulder. This is the most talented runner in the country, and he has something to prove after his production was down in the playoffs.

Watch out for a huge year.

John Mateer, Oklahoma Quarterback

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This offseason, the Oklahoma Sooners corralled perhaps the best and biggest transfer in the portal in former Washington State quarterback John Mateer.

It's not really hyperbole to say that Sooners coach Brent Venables' job depends on just how well he and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle make the transition from Wazzu to Norman. Mateer, on paper, looks like an elite addition.

A year ago, Mateer ran for 826 yards, threw for 3,139 yards, and found the end zone 44 times. He also was the heartbeat of an 8-5 team that nobody expected to flirt with a winning record the first year after the dismantled Pac-12.

Mateer started his steady-heartbeat games in a 24-19 Apple Cup win over rival Washington, passing for 245 yards and running for 62 more.

The next week, in a 54-52 double-overtime thriller of a win over San Jose State, Mateer led two fourth-quarter touchdown drives and a game-tying field goal drive to get the Cougars into overtime. He threw for 390 yards and ran for 111.

The heroics keep going. With 5:03 left in the fourth quarter of a 29-26 win over San Diego State, Mateer led a 63-yard game-winning drive that culminated with his own scoring run. Even as the Cougs faltered on a four-game losing streak to close the season, Mateer led juggernaut offensive effort in three of those losses.

He is a gamer, and now, he will be the catalyst who is called upon to help turn around a proud program in their second year in the SEC.

Jermod McCoy, Tennessee Cornerback

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Tennessee’s All-SEC cornerback Jermod McCoy arrives on this list with a huge asterisk by his name, but the Vols absolutely need him to be the playmaker he was a season ago.

The rising junior tore his anterior cruciate knee ligament in the offseason and will miss the spring but is expected back if not by the start of the season, very early in it. That’s a huge deal for coordinator Tim Banks’ defense.

In a rebuilt secondary on Rocky Top a season ago, the transfer from Oregon State was the catalyst. He led the SEC with four interceptions.

More than that, McCoy was a lockdown cornerback who had the ability to help take away opponents’ best receivers and shut down a side of the field.

Most importantly, the Texas native did his best work in the team’s biggest moments. Three of his four interceptions came inside the Vols’ 3-yard line with teams ready to score.

There was none of those bigger than McCoy’s highlight-reel interception of Alabama’s Jalen Milroe to turn away the Tide and keep the game scoreless in the first quarter of an eventual 24-17 win.

In a rivalry game like that, every momentum swing is huge, so it was big for the Vols to turn away Alabama. McCoy also led the team with eight tackles in that game.

He plays his best with Tennessee’s backs against the goal line, and the Vols desperately need him healthy.

Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt Quarterback

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While we’re in the state of Tennessee, let’s head on over to the West End of Nashville where Vanderbilt’s transfer quarterback Diego Pavia has put the Commodores back on the college football map.

He also made huge headlines this offseason when he petitioned for—and received—another season of eligibility after arguing that his two years spent in junior college hindered his NIL earning potential. That ruling opens the door for other collegiate athletes to do the same.

The bottom line for the ‘Dores is they get their catalyst back for another year after Pavia led them to a 7-6 season.

His magic moments against Alabama in the fourth quarter led to perhaps the biggest upset of the season in the sport when the Commodores stunned the top-ranked Tide. He finished the game 16-of-20 for 252 yards, two touchdowns and 56 rushing yards and would not be denied.

It was just a continuation of the magic he displayed at New Mexico State.

He was also incredible in a win over Kentucky, nearly pulled off an upset in a 27-24 loss to Texas and was unstoppable in the Birmingham Bowl win over Georgia Tech.

For a signal-caller who is undersized and was under-recruited, it was just a continuation of the fight he showed as a JUCO national champion and again in leading a woebegone New Mexico State team out of the doldrums.

Pavia is a big-game threat every time he steps onto the field.

Nicholas Singleton, Penn State Running Back

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In a two-running back system at Penn State over his collegiate career, Nicholas Singleton has still found a way to stand out.

Now, surprisingly in an era where the shelf life is short for NFL running backs and you regularly see collegiate runners leave early, Singleton is coming back for his senior year in '25 along with Kaytron Allen.

Those two and the comeback of Drew Allar should make Nittany Lions fans excited about the possibility of another deep run into the College Football Playoff and the hope that next year may finally be the season James Franklin wins big games and goes all the way.

Singleton is a big-time back built for major moments. His 58-yard fourth-quarter scoring run against Boise State in the playoffs made PSU's lead insurmountable in a 31-14 win. Even in a 27-24 loss to Notre Dame to end the season, Singleton had all three Lions touchdowns.

In the first-round win over SMU, he had 14 carries for 90 yards and scored. He also scored and helped Penn State salt away a 26-25 regular-season win over Minnesota, and had big games throughout.

Even though he laid a fat egg against Ohio State, Singleton had some great games and proved he is the guy who Penn State wants to feed with the game on the line. Next year will be more of the same.

Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State Wide Receiver

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If you’re wondering why Jeremiah Smith is in everything you see regarding next year’s college football projections, well, the freshman season he just had for the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes was pretty special.

There were a couple of lapses like in the playoff win over Texas, but there certainly weren’t many. When it came to clutch performances, Smith was right up there with the best.

Yes, there were several instances throughout the season. But it was on the biggest stage in the College Football Playoff that separated him.

Remember, the Buckeyes came in as an eight seed, and they separated themselves pretty quickly against an overmatched Tennessee team because of Smith. The Vols simply couldn’t guard him.

In that 42-17 win, Smith dazzled with six catches for 103 yards and two scores. Then-offensive coordinator Chip Kelly ran him on shallow crosses for first downs and on post routes for big gains. Tennessee had no answer.

Then, against top-ranked Oregon, Smith had seven grabs for 187 yards and two more scores in a 41-21 rout. When the Buckeyes absolutely had to have a play with Notre Dame closing the gap in the title game, Will Howard found Smith in man coverage.

The play was on third-and-11, and moved the Buckeyes all the way down to the Notre Dame 10-yard line where a field goal sealed it.

Time and time again, Smith made plays. He’s the definition of clutch.

Ryan Williams, Alabama Wide Receiver

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The Great Disappearing Act of Ryan Williams over the final half of the 2024 college football season was perhaps the biggest indictment of Kalen DeBoer's first season in Tuscaloosa and the inconsistency of quarterback Jalen Milroe in his system.

DeBoer quite simply has to find ways to get the explosive rising sophomore the football, no matter his quarterback situation.

With uncertainty at the position again entering '25 with Ty Simpson ready to take over but needing to hold off freshman Keelon Russell, whoever wins the job needs to look Williams' way often. In the final six games of the Crimson Tide's '24 season, Williams never had more than four catches or 53 yards.

That's simply unacceptable.

Williams is a gamer, and he proved it on one of the biggest stages of the season in a 41-34 win over Georgia. His pirouetting, 75-yard touchdown grab capped a 177-yard performance.

He scored seven touchdowns in the season's first seven games and only one afterward. The Tide need to make him the centerpiece of the offense in '25, and he will be one of the most clutch players in the nation.