I’ll be putting together an article showing the top-performing college players each week. I have a table for each position organized by draft eligibility and below each table, I’ll note things I find interesting. Week 1 will be a little crazy since it’s a low sample and outlier weeks will be exaggerated.
P5 Performances
Quarterbacks
The best metrics for year-over-year correlation at the QB position are QBR, ExpectedPointsAdded/Play, AverageYardsAttempt, and Completion %.
Bo Nix – No doubt played the best game of his entire life
Phil Jurkovec – Played great and has some fantastic rushing upside
Matt Corral – Also is a player with a big arm and high rushing upside
Bryce Young – I honestly expected a higher rushing share, but when you dominate as much as they did you don’t have to run much
Hudson Card – Card dominated the Ragin’ Cajuns, we’ll see if he can keep it going next week against Arkansas
C.J. Stroud – Had a poor first half and then showed up in the second half. Fingers crossed it’s just first-week jitters
This table is ridiculous and the only thing I can take from it is that Caleb Williams and Jordan Moore ran the ball well. Once these freshmen start getting more run the table will start to fill in.
Running Backs
The best metrics for RB’s are Yards per Team Play which is a measure of volume and efficiency, Backfield Dominator Rating which is the share of the backfield production – rushing and receiving that an RB earns, Dominator Rating which is the share of the total team rushing and receiving production, and Reception Share which tells you how big of the reception pie the RB earned.
Kenneth Walker III – Had a day – 23-264-4!
Mataeo Durant – Also had a day! But also earned receiving work which I like to see
Zonovan Knight – Saw the work he needed to in order to be on track for a breakout
Mohamed Ibrahim – Had a great day until his Achilles injury :(
Zach Charbonnet – Absolutely destroyed. We’ll see what happens when he faces tougher competition
Jashaun Corbin – a site target earned his way to a big day and dominated the backfield in the process
Sean Tucker – He dominated the work but you can’t see it due to the NaN in the table. That will populate once the team scores a rushing touchdown. Just a weird quirk for the first week
Deuce Vaughn – Picked up where he left off last year and pulled a 97.9!!! BDR with a 22% Rec Share. Insane
Bijan Robinson – Another big day with a 22% Rec Share and 43% of the team’s total production
Tank Bigsby – The team dominated so handily that he only needed a 36% BDR
Jo’Quavious Marks – I like to see the 88% BDR with a 23% Rec Share. He’s owning that backfield
TreVeyon Henderson – Really the only rookie to get excited about here this week, but boy was he electric
Wide Receivers
The most important stats for a WR are their Reception Yards per Team Pass Attempt and their Weighted Dominator Rating. Ideally, you want a value over zero for both of these metrics.
Erik Ezukanma – No clue who this is but he came on strong with efficiency. DeVonta Smith had a great RYPTPA OE last year and he was only at 1.16. These numbers are bound to regress.
Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson – I have a feeling they’ll be passing the crown back and forth all year deciding who the most productive receiver is
Zay Flowers – One of my calls from this offseason paying off. He was productive in his first two years and I expect nothing less this year
Drake London – I’ll be honest, I was fading him. He showed out nicely and if he keeps this up I’ll have to rethink my position on him
Ronnie Bell – Had one big catch but it looks like he’ll be out for the season now :(
Wan’Dale Robinson – Another one of my offseason loves. He went 5-125-2 and it looks like Kentucky is actually using him correctly and I’m here for it
Josh Downs – We see who Sam Howell’s favorite target is. He’s going to eat this year and be another must-have player in the 2023 class.
Rakim Jarrett – He had a 6-122-1 line. He cannot be stopped
Kayshon Boutte – Had a 9-148-3 line. He CANNOT be stopped
Marvin Mims – He’s great but will inevitably be overshadowed by elite receivers in his class
Daniel Jackson – One to keep an eye on. Tanner had trouble connecting with him downfield and his air yards were insane. If one of those connected he’d have had a huge day
It’s nice to see some big-name freshmen like Xavier Worth, Mario Williams, and Jojo Earle on the board.
Tight Ends
The most important metric I’ve found for TE’s is Reception Yards per Team Pass Attempt.
G5 Schools Included
Quarterbacks
Desmond Ridder and Grayson McCall had similar performances with a good rush share, comp %, AYA, and QBR.
Bailey Zappe – had a similar game to Ridder and McCall but dominated with a 22% rush share
Running Backs
Wide Receivers
Kyle Williams – Had a great opening game in the context of the rest of his team. UNLV didn’t score a receiving TD so his WDom is NA, but his reception yards share was 62%!
Corey Rucker – One of my favorite G5 players coming into the season and he came out of this game with a 9-138-3 line. Big game and
Tight Ends
