The tusks of the past dull, the hooves of the future sharpen—such is the way of the sty.
– Anonymous
Ian Strong (RU) — If you just look at what Strong did from November onward last year, you’d think this guy would be getting more buzz this year. Then consider that the same QB is returning, and this team is losing its alpha WR Dymere Miller, who takes with him 111 targets. DT Sheffield and others will help offload some of those, but I’d imagine a percentage will make its way over to Strong, who himself already had 78 in 2024.
Eric McAllister (TCU) — EMac was one of the most productive players in CFB in 2023 with Boise State, and then he became essentially the WR3 at TCU last year. This TCU team has a tendency to spread targets around, as even last year’s Savion Williams really made his hay in the run game rather than as a pure receiver. Nonetheless, between him and Bech, there are over 170 targets vacating the room, and starting QB Josh Hoover returns. In TCU’s bowl game, where both Williams and Bech did not play, EMac caught eight of nine targets for 87 yards and a score (22 points).
De’Zaughn Stribling (Miss) — Expecting a Tre Harris-like transformation for Stribling wouldn’t be fair. In fact, Harris himself took a second year in the program to unlock his nuclear option in 2024. Strib is a similar player and is actually transferring from a better starting point than Harris did, so maybe he can hit the ground running immediately. Harris averaged 17 PPG in his first season; that seems a reasonable goal for the 6’2”, 200-pound Strib. The fifth-year player from Oklahoma State averaged 15 PPG already in 2024, but there will be a big step up in competition in the SEC.
Joseph Williams (CU) — We’ve seen successful CFF WRs under Coach Prime at CU during his first two seasons, but this year is different: Shedeur Sanders is no longer at the helm throwing passes. They brought in a different kind of player in Kaidon Salter, who will probably use his legs more than Shedeur did based on what we know of him from his time at Liberty. It’s also important to note that last year’s lead receiver, Travis Hunter, is a special talent. Is Joseph Williams a special talent? He might be, probably not as good as Hunter was, though. Williams was part of the true freshman wave sweeping across CFB last season and finished his first year averaging over 10 PPG, but here’s the thing: he didn’t really start playing regular minutes until November, where he ended the year with scores of 23, 38, 24, and 10 points.
Emmett Mosley (Stanford) — It’s hard to find a more productive player in CFB over the last three games of the season than Mosley. The freshman stud put up scores of 48, 18, and 23 points. These were not isolated incidents. In fact, in his first collegiate game ever, he caught seven passes for 48 yards and a score (17 points) vs. Clemson. He was even mentioned as a “future Biletnikoff winner” by one of his teammates. The concern I have is about QB play, but then again it wasn’t great last year either.
Chase Sowell (ISU) — Sowell was a solid player at ECU last season, averaging 13.5 PPG. The primary selling point of his profile is that he now enters a room at ISU that loses Jayden Higgins (136 targets) and Jaylen Noel (128). Drafters will be expecting him to fill in the Higgins role on the boundary, but he probably won’t average 20 PPG like Higgy did.
