The 2025 College Football Playoff chase will be impacted by these 20 players
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Indiana was picked to finish 17th in the Big Ten preseason poll a year ago, but went 11-1 in the regular season and crashed the CFP with a bunch of transfers from James Madison.
The point? There is so much we don't know about who will impact the race for the 12 spots in the Playoff.
That won't stop us from speculating. Here are 20 players — or in some cases, position groups — on contending teams who could go a long way in determining which teams will have an opportunity to play for a national championship. We're focusing on players who have yet to see significant snaps for their current team or are new to the Power 4 level.
We will start with the non-quarterbacks.
1. Penn State's receivers: The Nittany Lions' national title hopes will likely hinge on whether Kyron Hudson (USC), Trebor Pena (Syracuse) and Devonte Ross (Troy) can provide reliable pass-catching options for senior QB Drew Allar.
2. Ohio State left tackle Ethan Onianwa: Onianwa, ranked 10th on our top-100 transfers list, has lost more than 20 pounds since arriving on campus in January. He's leveling up in competition after starting 34 games at left tackle in his career at Rice.
3. Oregon running back Makhi Hughes: Hughes is a proven commodity from the Group of 5 ranks after rushing for 2,779 yards and 22 touchdowns in the last two seasons at Tulane. That said, the Ducks are counting on four new starters on the offensive line — including three transfers — to open holes for their new lead back.
4. LSU's offensive line: We told you why the Tigers won the transfer portal in the offseason. Ultimately, the success of star quarterback Garrett Nussmeier will come down to whether transfers Braelin Moore (Virginia Tech) and Josh Thompson (Northwestern) — who have a combined 45 starts — are as good as the guys they're replacing. LSU had four offensive linemen drafted off last season's 9-4 team.
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5. Miami safety Zechariah Poyser: Mario Cristobal signed six defensive backs in the portal and hired defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman to patch up the holes that cost the Hurricanes a trip to the ACC title game. Poyser, a redshirt sophomore from Conference USA champion Jacksonville State, wore the green dot on his helmet during the spring and will be the new maestro on the revamped back end for the Canes.
6. Texas A&M receiver KC Concepcion: The Aggies came close to reaching the SEC Championship Game in Mike Elko's first season. Quarterback Marcel Reed, five starters on the offensive line and the entire backfield return. What's needed is a dynamic playmaker at receiver, and Concepcion, the 2023 ACC Rookie of the Year, has the talent and experience to fill the void.
7. Clemson defensive end Will Heldt: It's easy to forget Clemson's defense wasn't very good last season — especially against the run. Peter Woods and T.J. Parker are arguably the best tackle-edge combo in college football, but they need help. Heldt arrives from Purdue and should be even more productive (he had five sacks in 2024) now that he is playing with far more talent.
8. Arizona State running back Kanye Udoh: Cam Skattebo's impact on the Sun Devils last season didn't become evident on a large scale until late in the season. Udoh, who is bigger than Skattebo at 6-1, 220 pounds, enters the lead back role with a stronger resume than his predecessor. Udoh ran for 1,117 yards and 10 touchdowns last season at Army.
🗣️Here are the Runner-ups for #CFB's 5 Fastest Players of Week 6️⃣!
7. @ArmyWP_Football's Kanye Udoh
Second 60 yarder on this list 🤯 20.9 MPH@KanyeUdoh6 #GoArmy #BEATnavy pic.twitter.com/04I1FdNHAI
— Reel Analytics (@RAanalytics) October 11, 2024
9. SMU's defensive line: The Mustangs have put together back-to-back 11-win seasons — the first in the American and the second in their ACC debut. Still, many are expecting Rhett Lashlee's squad to take a step back after losing nine starters from the league's top defense. Jeffrey M'Ba (Purdue), Terry Webb (Texas State) and Aakil Washington (South Alabama) are the proven trio among nine new additions on the D-line.
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10. Illinois receiver Hudson Clement: Illinois is 12th in both the AP and Coaches poll, the highest preseason rank for the program since it was 11th in 1990. The Illini welcome back quarterback Luke Altmyer and five starters on the offensive line, but they must replace the top two receivers, including third-round pick Pat Bryant. Clement, a former walk-on at West Virginia, caught 51 passes for 741 yards for the Mountaineers in 2024.
1. Texas' Arch Manning: The preseason Heisman Trophy favorite has played only 260 offensive snaps since arriving in Austin as the No. 1 recruit in the 2023 class. He won both of his starts last season in place of the injured Quinn Ewers — at home against Louisiana-Monroe and at Mississippi State — and ended the year with 939 yards passing with nine touchdowns and two interceptions. But now, it's his show entirely and he will be operating an offense that has four new starters on the line. The path to stardom doesn't start easy — on the road against the defending national champions.
2. Ohio State's starting quarterback: Ryan Day has yet to name a starter in the competition between Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz. Either way, all eyes will be on the player tasked with throwing passes to Jeremiah Smith this fall. Sayin, the top quarterback recruit in the 2024 cycle, played 27 snaps last season as a true freshman. Kienholz, a 2023 four-star recruit from South Dakota, has played a total of 68 snaps in his career.
3. Georgia's Gunner Stockton: By the time Carson Beck pulled his name out of the NFL Draft and instead took a big payday at Miami, the defending SEC champions had already moved on and invested their financial resources elsewhere. That's not to say Georgia didn't look for QB help after the season. Kirby Smart's team kicked the tires on former Cal starter Fernando Mendoza before he ended up at Indiana. Stockton made his only start in the 23-10 Playoff loss to Notre Dame.
4. Notre Dame's starting quarterback: Marcus Freeman has yet to announce if redshirt freshman CJ Carr (four career snaps) or redshirt sophomore Kenny Minchey (17 career snaps) will start the opener at 10th-ranked Miami. Neither has played much to this point. That's a different approach after Notre Dame went with seasoned transfers in the last two seasons — Riley Leonard (Duke) and Sam Hartman (Wake Forest).
5. Oregon's Dante Moore: The redshirt sophomore and former five-star recruit from Detroit started five games as a true freshman at UCLA two seasons ago. His 461 career snaps at the Power 4 level are valuable for the defending Big Ten champions as they look to replace Heisman finalist Dillon Gabriel and eight other starters on offense.
6. Alabama's Ty Simpson: Kalen DeBoer named Simpson, a former five-star recruit who is in his fourth year in Tuscaloosa, as the starter over 2024 Washington transfer Austin Mack and five-star freshman Keelon Russell. Simpson played 71 snaps last season behind Jalen Milroe, but saw his most meaningful action two years ago off the bench when he led Alabama to a 17-3 come-from-behind win at South Florida.
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7. Michigan's Bryce Underwood: Michgian coach Sherrone Moore said he'll announce the starter the week of the opener against New Mexico. Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit in the Class of 2025, is the favorite. Either way, the 2023 national champions will have an upgrade at the position after an abysmal offensive season in 2024. Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene has started 34 games in his career and completed 70.5 percent of his passes last season for 2,892 yards and 18 touchdowns, but he hasn't been taking a lot of reps as he recovers from injury.
8. Oklahoma's John Mateer: Matteer, the top player in The Athletic's transfer portal rankings, was in the news earlier this week after some screenshots taken from his Venmo account indicated that he had bet on college football games during his time at Washington State. Assuming nothing comes of this — he has denied any wrongdoing — Mateer is expected to revive the Sooners' offense after putting up huge numbers with the Cougars last season. To help ease the transition, Ben Arbuckle, his OC with the Cougars last season, is now calling plays for Oklahoma.
9. Ole Miss' Austin Simmons: As our Justin Williams wrote this summer, Simmons flashed when he came off the bench to replace Jaxson Dart in a win over Georgia last season. Now a redshirt sophomore, Simmons will lead a Lane Kiffin offense that includes nine new starters. He's played a total of 81 snaps in his career.
10. Utah's Devon Dampier: The Utes are a strong candidate to bounce back after stumbling to a 5-7 mark last season. The optimism centers around the arrival of Dampier and the return of all five starters on the offensive line. Dampier ran for 1,166 yards and threw for 2,768 and 12 touchdowns last season at New Mexico.
(Photo of Makhi Hughes: Matthew Dobbins / Imagn Images)
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