Hottest and Coldest Players in College Football Right Now
It's heat-check time in college football. After five weeks of tremendous action, we're taking stock of what direction everyone is heading.
Many players have been on a torrid pace since the 2016 season began, to the point that if they keep going at this rate, then some major awards are in their future. For others, their play has them resembling a frozen pop—so cold they are at risk of having their seasons get away from them.
Who's hottest and coldest at this point in the season? Check out whose temperature is on the rise and whose keeps falling as we near the season's halfway point.
Cold: Kenny Allen, K, Michigan
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Michigan's 5-0 start to 2016 has come entirely at home, where the friendly atmosphere from more than 100,000 supportive fans has helped the Wolverines overcome the few bouts of adversity they've faced to this point. But even that group is fed up with how Michigan's kicking game has been.
Senior Kenny Allen has missed three straight field goals and four of five, including both attempts in Saturday's 14-7 win over Wisconsin. Sophomore Ryan Tice replaced Allen in the second half, but Tice also missed from 40 yards out.
So far, those misses haven't affected the Wolverines, but with four of their remaining seven games on the road—including upcoming trips to Michigan State, Iowa and Ohio State—something has to change. Head coach Jim Harbaugh indicated there will be a kicking competition this week to "see if we can't make them next time," per SB Nation's Evan Petzold.
Allen is also Michigan's kickoff specialist and its punter, and in the latter, his 43.44 average is second-best in the Big Ten.
Hot: Amba Etta-Tawo, WR, Syracuse
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In June, AthlonSports.com released a list of the top 100 impact transfers in college football, but Amba Etta-Tawo wasn't on there. He was included among a group of "other key wide receiver transfers for 2016," but since he'd managed only 31 catches in his previous two seasons at Maryland, it was hard to project how valuable he'd be to his new team.
The early verdict: He's been a godsend to head coach Dino Babers' swift-moving offense, producing at a near-record pace.
The senior has 47 catches for 840 yards and six touchdowns, already topping Syracuse's No. 1 receiver from 2015 in the first two categories. He's had at least 103 yards in all five games, going for 200-plus twice, while averaging 17.87 yards per reception.
Etta-Tawo's 168 yards-per-game average projects to 2,016 yards for the regular season and 2,184 if the Orange (who are 2-3) make a bowl game. The FBS season receiving record is 2,060, set by Nevada's Trevor Insley in 1999.
Hot: Derrius Guice, RB, LSU
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Leonard who?
Leg injuries have hampered LSU star rusher Leonard Fournette this season, causing him to miss two games and manage only two touchdowns in the other three. Good thing the Tigers are loaded in the backfield, as Derrius Guice has made for a mighty fine replacement when Fournette can't go.
Guice ran for 163 yards and three TDs on 17 carries Saturday in a 42-7 win over Missouri, following up the 19-carry, 155-yard, one-TD performance in Week 2 against Jacksonville State. For the season, he's run for 402 yards and is averaging 8.74 yards per carry, which ranks third nationally among players with at least 40 rushes.
The 5'11", 212-pound sophomore has three career 100-yard games (he ran for 161 yards last season against South Carolina) and would no doubt be the featured back at most others schools. With LSU, he's serving as a valuable insurance policy.
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Hot: Lamar Jackson, QB, Louisville
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Find a Heisman Trophy list that doesn't have Lamar Jackson firmly at the top, and you'll discover someone who hasn't been paying attention this season. At 1-4 odds, per Odds Shark, the sophomore is running away with the award and is as close to a lock as you can get this far from December.
Jackson accounted for 457 yards of total offense and three touchdowns in Louisville's 42-36 loss at Clemson on Saturday, with 319 of that coming in the second half, which actually lowered his averages for the season. He's second in FBS at 462.6 yards per game and is responsible for 28 TDs (14 passing, 14 rushing) in five games.
If he were his own team—which has been the case quite a bit this season—Jackson would be tied for ninth nationally in TDs.
Cold: Malik Jefferson, LB, Texas
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Texas head coach Charlie Strong demoted defensive coordinator Vance Bedford on Monday and will now oversee that unit. The move is a desperate attempt to fix a defense that's 116th nationally in scoring (38.3 points allowed per game) and has allowed at least 47 points to all three power-conference opponents.
It might help if the Longhorns got a notable performance from their top defender, sophomore Malik Jefferson. He was a freshman All-American last season but has been almost nonexistent with 23 tackles and one sack in four games.
"I haven't done anything to impact this team," Jefferson said, per ESPN.com's Max Olson. "That's my problem. That's what's eating me alive right now."
Jefferson's lone sack came in the season opener against Notre Dame, when he also had eight tackles. Since then, he's recorded fewer tackles each outing, with only four in Saturday's 49-31 loss at Oklahoma State.
Cold: Ronald Jones II, RB, USC
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Five of USC's seven Heisman Trophy winners have been running backs, yet none ran for as many yards as a true freshman as Ronald Jones II. Last year, he had 987 yards and eight touchdowns despite splitting carries with Justin Davis in the backfield.
Jones is again sharing the load with Davis as well as Aca'Cedric Ware, and the result is a relatively pedestrian 152 yards and one TD through five games on just 36 carries. He had only five touches for 20 yards in Saturday's 41-20 home win over Arizona State, while Davis ran for 123 yards and a TD.
"He's ready for a breakout game," Trojans head coach Clay Helton told Scott Wolf of the Los Angeles Daily News. "It's coming. We all know it."
Jones' 2016 rushing total is less than he had in one game last year against Arizona, when he ran for 177 yards and a TD on 19 carries.
Hot: Ejuan Price, DE, Pittsburgh
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Ejuan Price is making the most of his sixth year of eligibility, granted by the NCAA as the result of injuries wiping out all of his 2012 and 2014 seasons and half of the 2013 campaign. He showed last year what he could do when fully healthy and has continued his torrid pace this fall.
The 6'0", 255-pound Price leads the nation with 7.5 sacks through five games—four shy of his tally from all of 2015—and he's also first in FBS with 11.5 tackles for loss. He's registered at least one sack in each of the Panthers' games, with two coming in Saturday's 43-27 win over Marshall.
Price's play has been one of the few bright spots for a Pitt defense that is allowing 31 points per game and six yards per play.
Cold: Dakota Prukop, QB, Oregon
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Though the run game has always been Oregon's offensive bread and butter, strong quarterback play has been necessary for that high-speed attack to run smoothly. Marcus Mariota executed it to near-perfection during his time with the Ducks, and when healthy last season, Vernon Adams was also strong through the air.
Dakota Prukop has yet to find that consistency with the passing game, and Oregon is (not surprisingly) riding its first three-game losing streak since 2007.
The graduate transfer from Montana State has thrown for 1,173 yards and eight touchdowns on 66.2 percent passing but has been picked off in each of the last two games. Twice during the Ducks' skid he's failed to throw a TD, with their NCAA-record 82 consecutive games with a TD pass coming to an end in Week 3 at Nebraska.
Hot: Mitch Trubisky, QB, North Carolina
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At a time when quarterbacks transfer so frequently to other schools they're now doing it in the middle of the season, it's incredibly refreshing to see a player who chose patience and loyalty over instant gratification to be rewarded for waiting. Mitch Trubisky bided his time behind Marquise Williams, serving as his backup for two seasons before taking over North Carolina's starting job this fall, and so far he's been nothing short of phenomenal.
Trubisky has completed an FBS-best 76 percent of his passes for 1,711 yards and 13 touchdowns in five games, with zero interceptions in 175 attempts. He hasn't been picked off since November 2014, during garbage time of a 35-7 loss to North Carolina State.
"He doesn't make mistakes," UNC receiver Ryan Switzer said, per Inside Carolina's Greg Barnes. "He puts the ball where it needs to be. He's composed. He's got as good of an arm as I've seen."
The 6'3", 220-pound junior has thrown for at least 400 yards in three straight games, executing last-second game-winning drives in the Tar Heels' last two contests. On Saturday, he was 31-of-38 for 405 yards and three TDs and got his team in position for Nick Weiler's 54-yard field goal as time expired to win 37-35 at Florida State.
All recruiting information courtesy of Scout.com unless otherwise noted. All statistics provided by CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted.
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