ESPN dishes on the most exciting player on each of college football's preseason top 25 teams. What are TKP's thoughts? Also, How many more days until kickoff?
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Hard to argue with JJ getting the nod in an article like this since we're only returning a couple of guys who got their name called more than once or twice per game last year. Those who pay closer attention to the program would probably say Ricky Walker though.
- Phyllis, maybe
Oscar Bradburn.
I'm only half joking. I'm very excited to have a good punter.
Good call, he runs a pretty good fake punt and if that's not exciting then I don't know what is.
By standing on the sidelines hiding?
Chase "mow mow" 😂
Most exciting for one play.
Rick Pitino?
That's what my gf says about me.
Ricky Walker is the best player on the team... by a significant margin IMO...
Agreed although I think Trevon Hill isn't too far behind, Mihota can ball too
In reverse order...
#25 South Carolina WR Deebo Samuel
#24 Oregon QB Justin Herbert
#23 Texas A&M RB Trayveon Williams
#22 Texas WR Lil'Jordan Humphrey
#21 Boise State DE Curtis Weaver
#20 TCU WR Kevontae Turpin
#19 Auburn WR Devan Barrett
#18 UCF QB McKenzie Milton
#17 USC RB Stephen Carr
#16 Mississippi State QB Nick Fitzgerald
#15 Virginia Tech QB Josh Jackson
#14 Stanford RB Bryce Love
#13 Penn State QB Trace McSorley
#12 Notre Dame RB Dexter Williams
#11 West Virginia RB Alec Sinkfield
#10 Michigan LB Khaleke Hudson
#9 Michigan State WR Felton Davis
#8 Miami S Jaquon Johnson
#7 Wisconsin RB Jonathan Taylor
#6 Washington RB Myles Gaskin
#5 Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray
#4 Georgia RB DeAndre Swift
#3 Ohio State RB J.K. Dobbins
#2 Clemson DE Christian Wilkins
#1 Alabama QB Tuo Tagovailoa
There. No need to click, now.
Bless you, child
Just waiting for the Key & Peele .gifs
Is FSU not going to be ranked come Labor Day?
so...
WVU isn't will grier
bama is someone who played a half of football over a ton of other people on O or D but...
Clemson is a DE (not named KJ henry) and not Kelly Bryant
Penn St aka RBU has a QB listed...
I feel like Miami should be homer. hes really underrated IMO
I don't watch enough of these teams to know that much but
Its like ESPN just picks random names out of a hat.....
I'm with you on it being odd that Tua is included and Grier is not but there rest I have no gripe with. Why would you put a Clemson player that hasn't even taken a snap in college or the QB who might not even win the starting job over one of their All-American defensive lineman? Penn States QB is expected to be a top rated QB this season and their next starting running back is mostly an unknown. Picking a defensive player makes sense for Miami because that's where their strength is.
yeah I was joking about henry. but I think forsure Bryant (or whoever wins the starting QB job) is the most exciting player on that team. you have a QB that took them to the national championship, you saw what happened when he went out against Syracuse, and he if doesn't win the job then that must mean the dude taking it has to be exciting.
as for UM id agree with the D being its strength but I think shaq quarterman is more qualified than the safety.
I was kinda half kidding abount the QB at penn st. to be honest idk much about penn st but I never really looked at them as a QB school or to have much excitement at that position.
WVU should be David Sills...this guy is a playmaker.
Who came up with these rankings? What have we done to deserve the #15 spot after losing so much talent from last year's #24 9-4 team? What were they smoking when they put WVU at #11? Why is Auburn so low at #19? How are TEXAS and OREGON, both fresh off of uninspiring 7-6 seasons, top-25 teams?
The rankings are of exciting players, not of teams.
But they are quite subjective for the reasons you mentioned.
Because E$PN is lazy and only wants to write about the "Top 25 teams" in the offseason. However, if they went with a real top 25, it would leave out the larger fanbases (i.e. Texas) that love to click into these articles whenever they see their team mentioned.
Therefore (off season logic):
mediocre team + large fanbase = ESPN TOP 25
Felton Davis for Michigan St.....RVA guy 🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️
9 out of the 25 are RB's.
Thinking future NFL Draft Picks - could this lead to a very talented draft class for RB's?
I would have gone with Savoy..........
I don't think many people would argue that Ricky Walker isn't the most talented player on the team. The article is titled the most "exciting" player, and clearly the list favors the offense heavily, specifically RB and QB. As VT_Fencer already pointed out, I think JJ is the obvious answer here.
I would like to know which player TKP community is the most excited to watch this season? My answer would probably be Devon Hunter. I just have a feeling he is going to ball out at the whip.
I'm going with Josh Jackson. He had a solid first year as a starter. The offense looked better running the ball at the end of last season and all the receivers should have more experienced. I'd really like to see how the H-Backs factor into the passing game.
Caleb Farley
I'm really excited to see what Dalton Keene can do. The longer the season went on the larger the role he played in the offense. We could see a breakout in production from him.
Plus he was a true freshman last year. I have a feeling he will show vast improvement this season and it is very exciting.
I'm still haunted by that block he whiffed on so badly in the WVU game. But as you mentioned, he was getting the hang of things and with last year's growing pains comes a pretty promising 2018.
I watched Keene closely suring the spring game. He does seem much more confident and improved in technique. I think he breaks out this year.
im going with this guy, someone has to step up and be the 1. im selling the hype. and im buying my own hype.
Phil Patterson? At WR I'd be more excited for Hazelton since he's been hyped up by his teammates and coaches, but relatively unknown by the rest of us.
yeah. to be honest I really like all of our WRs I think we have the most balanced talent weve had in a long time. like 1-7 can all be that guy on any given day. I hope we can spread the ball around to them all. but I think that Paterson is going to emerge as a Isaiah ford type I don't know why its just a hunch.
ESPN is about to get an "anonymous" 1000 word essay on why it should have been Coleman Fox
And by Coleman Fox you mean Cole Beck right?
Weird, is he the only backup QB to be most exciting player on the team? /s
Did you not see Tia on the list? /s
Happy to have JJ back, but I think I have a very different definition of the word exciting than ESPN.
ESPN tries to be objective and the best way to do that is with numbers. JJ's numbers potential is exciting.
As a fan base we complain about getting dissed by ESPN. Then when they actually like one our players we're like "meh". It's very odd.
So ESPN says one of our players is exciting, and the fan base gets all bent out of shape.
Bizarro World.
JJ has a lot of potential for excitement, since a lot of fans have some pretty low expectations.
Many of our players aren't proven. Yet. Though I could certainly see Ricky Walker getting an honorable mention.
JJ failed to display the touch and arm talent to impress me through the air vertically. He's good option at QB and he could develop into a better one, but based on last season he was not exciting as a passer.
JJ did not show a great burst of acceleration or explosiveness when attempting to escape the pocket, perhaps this was related to his rumored injuries throughout the season, but he never struck me as fast or explosive. So he was not exciting as a runner outside of the WVU game. He was an effective runner at times, but was not particularly exciting or explosive.
Simple as that, I'm okay with ESPN or any pundit liking JJ, but my interpretation of exciting usually is based around players that are some combination of explosive, physically exceptional, and/or dynamic playmakers. Also, I don't complain about ESPN dissing us, but yes that is an issue prevalent in our (and many other) fanbase(s).
Had they labeled it "Players to watch", would that have made this more palatable?
I'd say a little bit of improvement for Josh Jackson will make all the difference in the world for this team. Will need some supporting cast in order to advance as well.
If it had been "Players to watch" then yes absolutely, JJ would be an ideal choice. A lot of our offensive success, like many teams, will rely on our QB and if he can take another step forward.
I don't think that title is particularly related to exciting, though it can be in different context. For example, someone like Farley would fit both molds, if he is going to be one of our starting corners, then given the context of our sudden and unfortunate loss of corner depth, he is both a "player to watch" and probably also the most "exciting" talent on our team.
I agree. VT just didn't have that many returners where exciting is the first word that comes to mind, but I could see it being a breakout season for several players. Farley is one of them. I'd love JJ to be another.