SDS’ Top 100: Ranking the best college football players in 2025 (Nos. 75-51)

The 2025 college football season will feature thousands of players on 136 FBS rosters. Here is Saturday Down South’s annual countdown of the best of the best. PREVIOUSLY: Nos. 100-76. | TODAY: Nos. 75 through 51.
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75. Malachi Fields | WR, Notre Dame

For most of last season, the wideouts as a group were arguably Notre Dame’s biggest concern. But that perception began to change with a series of breakout Playoff performances by sophomores Jordan Faison (vs. Indiana) and Jaden Greathouse (vs. Penn State and Ohio State), and with Fields’ arrival from Virginia, the receivers suddenly project as a strength. A big, dynamic specimen, Fields spent the past 4 years toiling on obscure UVA teams that went 17-29 in his tenure. For his part, he overcame sketchy QB play the past 2 seasons to haul in 113 catches for 1,619 yards and 10 touchdowns, numbers which – along with his 6-4, 220-pound frame and high-rise ball skills – made him a no-brainer target on the transfer market.

Not that the Irish are about to start airing it out with a bankable ground game and a fledgling quarterback, redshirt freshman CJ Carr, stepping into the starting job. As last year’s Playoff run proved, though, it never hurts to have an extra dude or two on hand in a pinch.

74. Aamil Wagner | OT, Notre Dame

The other glaring question mark for Notre Dame’s offense in 2024 was along the front line – specifically at tackle, where a pair of vacancies loomed following the exit of NFL-bound bookends Joe Alt (5th overall pick) and Blake Fisher (59th). Left tackle was manned by a true freshman, Anthony Knapp, who endured some predictable growing pains. Wagner, a redshirt sophomore who’d paid his dues as a backup, fared a little better on the right. He started all 16 games in the Irish’s Playoff run, led the team in snaps, and posted the best individual PFF run-blocking grade on a unit that ran roughshod over most of the schedule. The next step: Improving as a pass blocker, where Wagner was solid enough (only two sacks allowed on 529 snaps) but has the tools to follow his former teammates as an early rounder. 

73. Parker Brailsford | OL, Alabama

Officially listed at 6-2, 290, Brailsford isn’t going to blow anyone away with his stature, especially in the middle of a colossal Alabama o-line where every other projected starter is listed at least 3 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier. (Emphasis on at least.) But the runt holds his own, and then some. As a redshirt freshman at Washington, Brailsford was a fixture in the Huskies’ 2023 march to the Playoff Championship Game, earning second-team All-Pac-12. In his first season in Tuscaloosa, he started every game at center with zero sacks and only 1 QB hit allowed, per PFF. Even if his size ultimately limits his prospects at the next level, he still has 2 more years to make a compelling case otherwise. 

72. Will Lee III | CB, Texas A&M

Lee is the only player in our Top 100 who came out of the JUCO ranks, and he was far from a finished product in 2024. In addition to 4 touchdowns allowed in coverage, his scouting report also included 5 penalties and poor marks against the run, per PFF. Raw as he was, though, Lee also flashed the makings of a future pro. Blessed with a long-limbed, 6-3 frame, “The Blanket” justified the handle, holding opposing QBs to a 47.2% completion rate on passes targeted in his direction. His 10 passes defended are tied for the most of any returning SEC defender, including a 93-yard pick-6 against Texas that accounted for the Aggies’ one and only highlight in their biggest game of the year. A second-team All-SEC nod from league coaches was also a nod toward much bigger things to come.

71. Nyck Harbor | WR, South Carolina

Before he’d even set foot on campus, Harbor was heralded as a kind of mythic legend: A comic-book combination of speed and strength, a high school track champion in the body of a defensive end, the freak of all freaks. The reality, so far, has been no match for the hype. Two years in, Harbor’s NCAA Football ratings have far outstripped his IRL production. As a freshman, he played sparingly and struggled with drops. He saw more regular targets in Year 2, but failed to crack the top 40 in the SEC in receptions (26) or receiving yards (376), or to generate the kind of viral highlight that serves as a preview of the finished product.

Still, the most relevant words in the preceding paragraph are so far. A specimen like Harbor cannot be dismissed as Just A Guy. In Year 3, he remains squarely on breakout watch at the top of South Carolina‘s WR rotation, where his presence is an undeniable factor fueling the highest preseason expectations in Carolina in a decade. Is it possible to imagine the Gamecocks as serious Playoff contenders, or QB LaNorris Sellers as a serious Heisman candidate, without their most tricked-out weapon achieving liftoff? Maybe. But those scenarios are lot less compelling than the ones in which he does.

70. TJ Moore | WR, Clemson
69. Bryant Wesco Jr. | WR, Clemson

As freshmen, Moore and Wesco were virtually indistinguishable: Identical recruiting ratings, identical statures, identical stat lines. If they switched jerseys, only their mothers could tell them apart. Wesco was technically the more decorated of the two, earning consensus Freshman All-America honors by virtue of a slightly more productive regular season, but that was before Moore closed the gap with a season-high 116-yard outing in Clemson’s first-round CFP loss at Texas. As far as their respective futures are concerned, deciding which name to list first at this point is a distinction without a difference.

68. Cam Coleman | WR, Auburn

Even for a 5-star recruit, the advance hype for Coleman in 2024 was extreme – in addition to being touted as one of the highest-rated signees in school history, he wasted no time going viral in the spring, raising the bar before he’d even set foot on the field in an actual game. Instead, Auburn fans spent most of his freshman campaign wondering when the light was going to come on. Despite a couple of early flashes, in SEC play Coleman looked like, well, a freshman in SEC play. By the time the weather turned, he was just another face in the crowd with more drops (3, per PFF) than touchdowns (2) through the Tigers’ first 9 games. 

Then the light came on.

Following an open date in early November, Coleman accounted for more catches (22), yards (306) and touchdowns (6) in the last 3 games – vs. UL-Monroe, Texas A&M and Alabama – than he had over the first three-quarters of the season, resetting expectations for Year 2 to full tilt. Assuming incoming QB Jackson Arnold represents an upgrade over the pedestrian Payton Thorne (not necessarily a safe assumption, as Oklahoma fans will assure you), the breakthrough should arrive right on schedule as Coleman attempts to become just the third Tiger to record a 1,000-yard receiving season.

67. DJ Lagway | QB, Florida

If all you saw of Lagway in 2024 was his highlight reel, this position might seem suspiciously low. Big, athletic and composed, he looked every bit the part of the Next Big Thing, especially when unleashing his dynamic downfield arm strength. (Or, on more than one occasion, while delivering a strike with a defender literally wrapped around his ankles like a child.) After taking over as QB1 at midseason for an injured Graham Mertz, Lagway finished with a 5-1 record as a starter, including back-to-back November upsets over LSU and Ole Miss that abruptly altered the course of Florida’s previously doomed season. The only loss in the stretch, a 34-20 decision against Georgia, came in a game Lagway exited in the first half with the Gators in the lead. There’s a reason his Heisman odds are drawing interest among bettors.

Still, there are a couple reasons to tap the breaks on runaway optimism in Year 2. For one, the late-season turnaround had as much to do with the Gators’ defense and ground game leveling up as it did with their precocious QB coming of age. For another, when not going viral, Lagway was — predictably, for a freshman — inconsistent, finishing in the bottom half of SEC starters in completion percentage, pass efficiency and Total QBR vs. FBS opponents. Excluding an easy-pickings bonanza against FCS Samford, he threw as many interceptions (9) as touchdowns against the rest of the schedule, with all but 2 of those picks coming in the intermediate range between 10 and 19 air yards. He was, most of the time, very much a freshman.

Facing another brutal schedule, there’s a good chance that progress in Year 2 comes not in the form of hero ball but in routine decision-making – more easy completions, fewer picks, less exposure to the type of hits that resulted in nagging injuries in Year 1. (In addition to calf and core injuries last season, Lagway is also dealing with chronic shoulder soreness that sidelined him during spring practice, followed by yet another calf injury that has limited him during preseason camp.) Admittedly, that’s not nearly as dramtic as the idea of a fully operational phenom who advances directly to dropping bombs at will. But we already know he can do that. The next step to becoming a complete package is getting a firmer grip on the boring stuff.

66. John Mateer | QB, Oklahoma

Oklahoma’s offense crashed and burned in 2024. In SEC play, the Sooners ranked dead last in total offense and next-to-last in scoring, narrowly avoiding the basement in the latter column only thanks to a defense that scored 4 touchdowns. By midseason, Oklahoma benched their franchise quarterback, fired their offensive coordinator, and lost every wide receiver on the preseason two-deep to injuries. Only a miracle November upset over Alabama salvaged what was otherwise a start-to-finish disaster.

Step one in the renovation project: A new offensive coordinator, Ben Arbuckle, by way of Washington State. Step two: A new quarterback, Mateer, who’s a proven fit in the system. Mateer backed up future No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward for 2 years at Wazzu before piloting Arbuckle’s offense to 36.6 points per game in ’24 in his first turn as a starter. A dual-threat QB, he was the only FBS quarterback to eclipse 3,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing (excluding sacks), and his 44 total touchdowns led the nation. With numbers like that, dwelling on his marginal measurables – Washington State was 1 of only 2 FBS teams that offered Mateer a scholarship out of high school, along with New Mexico State – or the marginal competition he faced was a luxury a team as desperate as OU could not afford.

If nothing else, Mateer should represent an immediate upgrade over the underachieving Grayson Arnold. Beyond that, I’d advise holding off on the Heisman buzz until we see how he holds up opposite a couple of first-rate defenses from Michigan and Texas in the first half of the season. If he looks the part, well, the hits only keep on coming against a murderer’s row of a schedule in conference play. But if the Sooners stand a chance of running the gauntlet, it will be because their biggest offseason investment has paid off.

65. Aaron Anderson | WR, LSU

The top-ranked player in Louisiana in the 2022 cycle, Anderson was the object of a high-stakes recruiting battle won (as high-stakes recruiting battles often are) by Alabama. But his time in rival territory was short-lived: After an injury-plagued detour at Bama, he booked the first ticket back to Baton Rouge, bided his time on a stacked depth chart in ’23, and broke out right on schedule in ’24 as a redshirt sophomore. A shifty, diminutive slot type, Anderson was both a security blanket and an open-field threat, finishing as LSU’s leader in receptions (61), receiving yards (874) and missed tackles forced (20, per PFF), with the majority of of his output coming after the catch. As long as he’s at full speed, joining the SEC’s 1,000-yard receiving club — perhaps by a wide margin — is in the cards in Year 4 as Garrett Nussmeier’s favorite target.

64. Michael Taaffe | DB, Texas

How does a walk-on become a star on one of the country’s most loaded rosters? One step a time. Taaffe has progressed each season in Austin, from anonymous redshirt (2021) to rank-and-file reserve (’22) to part-time starter (’23) to full-time fixture (’24) on a unit that ranked No. 3 nationally in total and scoring defense. He enters Year 5 with 24 consecutive starts, 5 interceptions and a dozen PBUs over the past 2 seasons, coming off a stellar junior campaign in which he allowed a single touchdown in coverage and finished 2nd on the team in tackles. The next logical step is all-conference honors as a senior, the cherry on top of a résumé that pro scouts – whatever their lingering reservations about Taaffe’s combine traits – won’t be able to ignore.

63. KJ Bolden | DB, Georgia

Georgia’s most recent 5-star safety, Malaki Starks, was a Day-1 starter, 2-time All-American, and, as of April, a first-round pick. Bolden, the No.1 safety in the 2024 class, is off to a fine start in his bid to reenact Starks’ meteoric career arc. Although technically not a starter as a freshman, Bolden was a regular, finishing 6th on UGA’s defense in total snaps, 5th in tackles and 2nd in overall PFF grade. (His coverage grade, specifically, led the team, for what it’s worth.) With Starks and fellow starter Dan Jackson both moving on, Bolden is already the ranking vet on the back end as a true sophomore. At Georgia, which has produced 20 first-round draft picks in the past 8 years, that tends to be a very lucrative distinction.

62. Koi Perich | DB, Minnesota

A local legend in the Minnesota prep ranks, Perich is arguably the biggest fish to sign with the Gophers in the online recruiting era. The hype was real: Although he didn’t crack the regular rotation until October, Perich was an instant hit once he did, pulling down a Big Ten-best 5 interceptions on just 260 coverage snaps. He ended the year as the league’s top-graded safety per PFF, a first-team all-conference pick per B1G coaches, and a unanimous Freshman All-American in what amounted to a part-time role.

In need of playmakers, Minnesota is open to experimenting with more ways to get the ball in Perich’s hands that don’t require delivery by the opposing QB. One way is on punt returns, where he had his moments as a freshman; another is on offense, where he made a splash at wide receiver during an open practice for fans earlier this month. As it stands, Perich has fewer reps under his belt than anyone else in the Top 100 save for a certain well-pedigreed SEC quarterback, but if the dual-threat bit actually pans out he has a chance to come in very close to the top of this list in 2026. Just remember who called it!

61. Logan Jones | OL, Iowa

Jones is a cinder block-shaped mauler straight out of central casting for a Hawkeyes center. A weight-room legend who once claimed Iowa state championships in the shot put and the discus, he began his college career on the defensive line before shifting into the pivot role vacated by the highly decorated Tyler Linderbaum (another former d-line convert) in 2022. Three years and 38 starts later, Jones is among the longest-tenured players in the country at the same position and due for his share of accolades as a sixth-year senior. He was second-team All-Big Ten in 2024, ranking among the conference’s top-graded run blockers while effectively shutting out opposing rushers – 0 sacks and only 5 QB pressures allowed, per PFF. Another year at that level could send him out as the top center in America. 

60. Zane Durant | DL, Penn State

If you thought at all about Penn State’s defensive line in 2024, it was almost certainly re: the best defensive player in the country, Abdul Carter. While Carter was wreaking havoc off the edge, though, the interior DL held up its end of the bargain. First among equals on the inside was Durant, an undersized penetrator who recorded 11 tackles for loss and 28 QB pressures in his second season as a starter. When it counted, he was the iron man of the group, logging 50+ snaps in all 4 of the Nittany Lions’ postseason games as well as in their regular-season date against Ohio State. Carter’s individual presence might be irreplaceable, but that just means they’ll be be counting even more heavily on Durant’s veteran presence to help make up the difference.

59. Olaivavega Ioane | OL, Penn State

On the other side of the ball, 2024 was a transition year for Penn State’s o-line, which opened the season with 4 new starters. But the renovated front held up just fine, largely thanks to Ioane’s emergence at guard. After fending off a couple of highly-touted freshmen for the job, the 6-4, 330-pound Ioane held it down from start to finish, playing nearly every meaningful snap in the Nittany Lions’ Playoff run without allowing a sack. This time, the front projects as a strength in the Lions’ bid to win the title, and Ioane as a shoo-in to rep the unit on both December award lists and mock drafts. By that point, though, the only thing PSU fans will care about is how it acquits itself during what they expect to be another high-stakes winter.

58. Kage Casey | OT, Boise State

Ashton Jeanty has ascended to the Las Vegas Raiders. But you know, no matter how many would-be tacklers Jeanty left sprawled in his wake, somebody had to block for the guy, and no one was better in service of his gonzo production than the Broncos’ towering left tackle. Following a redshirt/beef year in 2022, Kasey emerged 60 pounds heavier and down to pound, manning the blindside in all 27 games over the past 2 seasons. He was All-Mountain West in ’23 (second-team) and ’24 (first), when he allowed a grand total of 6 QB pressures and 0 sacks on 440 pass-blocking snaps, per PFF, while also finishing as Boise’s highest-graded run blocker. It might take awhile for an heir apparent to separate himself from the committee of backs vying for Jeanty’s touches, if one ever does; either way, with Kasey anchoring a seasoned OL, conditions up front should remain stable.

57. Gennings Dunker | OT, Iowa

OK, whatever else you have to say about this list, nobody can accuse us of ignoring the big guys. Our tour of the trenches continues with another prototypical Iowa behemoth: As an underclassman, the 6-5, 315-pound Dunker announced himself by winning back-to-back titles at the annual Solon Beef Days hay bale toss, a tried-and-true rite of passage for Iowa linemen. On the field, he made good by locking down the starting right tackle job as a redshirt sophomore in 2023, then by posting a Big Ten-best 90.2 PFF grade in ’24. Despite a vacancy at left tackle, Dunker is expected to remain on the right, befitting an elite run blocker whose future at the next level is likely on the inside.

56. Gabe Jacas | Edge, Illinois

It took a little longer than expected, but Illini fans who had Jacas on breakout watch based on his 2022 Freshman All-America campaign were vindicated in ’24. Coming off a relatively quiet turn as a sophomore, Jacas made the leap in Year 3, cracking the Big Ten leaderboard in QB pressures (44), tackles for loss (13), sacks (8) and forced fumbles (3). In the process, he also boasted a beefed-up, 275-pound frame that allowed him to slide inside on passing downs, a boon to his versatility and his pro prospects. The best player on a team facing its highest preseason expectations in decades, he has an opportunity to blow up in a big way on his way out.

55. LT Overton | DL, Alabama

Once upon a time, Overton was one of the headliners of the infamous 2022 recruiting class at Texas A&M – the one that was supposed to herald the Aggies’ arrival as serious national contenders, then rapidly disintegrated along with the rest of the Jimbo Fisher administration. That group didn’t go bust, exactly, having already produced a pair of first-rounders (5-star DL Walter Nolen and Shemar Stewart went with consecutive picks in April) and more than a dozen projected power-conference starters in 2025, a few of whom are still in College Station. They just scattered to the wind before they could make any impact as a class. 

For Overton, hitting reset has already paid off. After 2 years on reserve duty at A&M, he moved directly to the top of Alabama’s rotation in ’24, leading the d-line in snaps and recording nearly twice as many QB pressures (39) as any other Tide defender. Still, based on his potential he’s barely scratched the surface. At 6-5, 280, Overton is the kind of combine-friendly specimen capable of manning any station along the front without sacrificing size on the interior or explosiveness off the edge, which is why he features prominently in so many “way too early” mock drafts despite limp numbers to date in terms of sacks and TFLs. Converting a few more of those pressures into actual production is the next step toward becoming the full-service wrecker he’s meant to be.

54. CJ Allen | LB, Georgia

Another year, another heat-seeking Georgia linebacker to add to the gallery of heat-seeking Georgia linebackers over the past decade under Kirby Smart. Allen fits the mold to a tee: Blue-chip recruit, early contributor, downhill thumper with a mean streak to spare. As a sophomore, he carved out a full-time role alongside a pair of outgoing NFL Draft picks, Jalon Walker and Smael Mondon, ultimately surpassing both in total tackles as well as PFF’s “stops” metric (defined as tackles that represents a failure for the offense based on down and distance). Checking off the “reliable in coverage” box in Year 3 will leave very little incentive to be back for Year 4.

53. Daylen Everette | CB, Georgia

For a guy as well-seasoned as Everett, he’s one of the more difficult players on this list to project. On one hand, he’s a known quantity – a senior who’s started 28 consecutive games and faced 120 targets over the past 2 seasons. On the other, he remains a work in progress. Like all corners, Everette has his scars: PFF has him down for 1,035 yards and 7 touchdowns allowed in coverage for his career, plus 5 penalties for pass interference. Not ideal, especially for a former 5-star once hyped as Georgia’s next lockdown corner. But he also offered flashes last year of the play-making ability that made him such a coveted talent in the first place, most notably in the Bulldogs’ pair of season-defining wins over Texas.

In 2 games against the Longhorns, Everette accounted for 4 takeaways – 3 interceptions, plus the strip sack above – 2 of which led directly to UGA touchdowns in a 30-15 win in Austin in October. Six weeks later, he turned in arguably his best game of the season in the SEC Championship Game, pulling down 2 picks and limiting Texas wideouts to 3 receptions on 9 targets; he followed that up with another shutdown effort against Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. If that’s the guy the Bulldogs get on a more consistent basis in his last year on campus, the growing pains will be forgotten in a hurry.

52. Eli Stowers | TE, Vanderbilt

Stowers was initially recruited to Texas A&M as a 4-star quarterback with the “tools to become [a] multi-year high-major starter with long-term NFL Draft ceiling,” according to 247Sports. He portaled out of College Station after 2 injury-plagued seasons without attempting a pass. But the scouting report wasn’t totally wrong – it was just assessing him at the wrong position. After he resurfaced at New Mexico State in 2023, coaches persuaded Stowers moonlight at tight end and struck gold. He hauled in 35 receptions that fall while also taking advantage of his versatility in a part-time Wildcat role; NMSU put together one of the best seasons in school history (highlighted by a memorable, 31-10 beatdown of Auburn), prompting a mass exodus from Las Cruces to Vanderbilt that included Stowers, head coach Jerry Kill, offensive coordinator Tim Beck, and, of course, irrepressible QB Diego Pavia.

The transition to the SEC’s resident doormat went better than anyone imagined, largely thanks to Stowers’ emergence as the team leader in receptions (50), yards (644), and touchdowns (5). He was indispensable in Vandy’s epic midseason upset over Alabama, finishing with 6 catches on 6 targets for 113 yards; all 6 went for first downs in a game in which the Commodores amassed a 24-minute advantage in time of possession. Opposing coaches singled Stowers out for first-team All-SEC in December, and draftniks are currently sizing him up as potentially the first tight end off the board in 2026. (I won’t quibble with the label but will point out that most of his production by far the past 2 years has come out of the slot.) In the meantime, if there’s a compelling case to be made for the ‘Dores sustaining last year’s unlikely momentum, it begins and ends with Pavia and Stowers, now the SEC’s most established pass-catch combo.

51. Jake Slaughter | OL, Florida

Slaughter arrived in Gainesville in 2021 as a developmental prospect, and spent 2 full years developing before he finally cracked the lineup on a part-time basis in 2023. The wait was worth it: Promoted to full-time starter in ’24, he seized the opportunity, starting all 13 games at center and earning multiple All-America notices in the wake of Florida’s late-season resurrection. Notably, he was 1 of only 3 SEC linemen with 80+ PFF grades as both a run blocker and pass blocker; the others, Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr. and Missouri’s Armand Membou, were both top-10 draft picks. Slaughter, as a workmanlike interior OL, doesn’t have that kind of ceiling. But as workmanlike interior OL go, he has a very bright future ahead of him.

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TOMORROW: The countdown continues with Part 3 (Nos. 50-26).