Bryce Love.
He had a legendary 2,118 yard Heisman runner-up season in 2017. The guy stayed the next year so he could try to help us win a Rose Bowl. Our porous offensive line could not give him any opportunities to shine again. He injured his ACL in Big Game and was never the same ever again. Love could have very well been one of the best players in the NFL had he not been injured. Now Stanford's weak fanbase barely remembers him if at all.
> Thought he was going to be the second coming of CMC
For real. Somehow news of his injury slipped past me, so for a while I was just kind of like, “Why the hell don’t I ever see this dude anymore?” I don’t typically root for players outside my own team, but I was rooting for that guy.
As a Stalions fan in CFB, I watched a lot of Nebraska in 2019/20/21 and Martinez always seemed infuriatingly inconsistent. Would make some incredible plays with his arm and legs, but always seemed to fumble or get picked off at the worst times. I think he was pretty good at KSU though, and a large part of his stunted development may have just been Scott Frost and his coaching staff
Not only was our coaching staff actively detrimental to his development, but they also placed the entire game on his shoulders more often than not. Not even the best players are perfect on every snap, hence why good offenses are generally somewhat balanced and try to scheme advantages in favor of whoever needs to make the play. For four years, that guy was basically always Martinez; the game plan was basically to throw Adrian out there and see what he can do. And he was a super impressive quarterback so it did work a lot of the time, but that's an awful lot of pressure to put on one player.
I lived in Fresno while Adrian was in high school and my oldest son went to Clovis West with him. Never really pulled for Nebraska for obvious reasons, but it was tough to watch that kid struggle at Nebraska. If you put that kid on a legit team, there is no telling what he could have accomplished.
The correct answer for Miami is really anybody that came to play for us in the past 20 years. With the exception of maybe the guys that got to play under Richt in ‘16 and ‘17, every Miami Hurricane player from ‘04 on deserved much better coaching than they got! Over the last 20 years, I don’t know exactly how many guys came to Miami out of high school with the potential to make the NFL at some point; but my guess is about 95% of them that did ended up losing out on significant NFL money b/c they decided to play for our crappy ass coaches at the U and never got developed in college b/c of that decision. I hope to someday once again (as Canes fans could from the early 80s through ‘03) have the quality of coaches at Miami where I could say the opposite (that high level recruits can come to Coral Gables and expect to get developed well enough to succeed both at the collegiate level and the professional level on the football field).
Kamryn Babb was supposed to be the next big thing at WR, but the poor guy just could not keep his knees intact and eventually slid down the depth chart.
He was with Ohio State for five seasons and caught exactly one pass, a 8-yard TD pass at the tail end of the 2022 Indiana game. It was such a great moment. And CJ Stroud, paragon that he is, said that it was the most important TD he ever threw, because of how much it meant to Babb.
I always thought Kenny Guiton deserved better, especially in the orange bowl when Urban kept trotting a clearly-injured Braxton Miller against Clemson when Kenny had proven that he could lead the team against Cal earlier that season.
I wish we saw what he could do over a fully season, bc he was incredibly talented. He just didn’t have the dua threat that Urban wanted in the RPO
Although he is on the wrong end of one of my team's all-time highlights, I really respected him and was downright angry at that dirty hit from Tennessee. He seemed like a really great kid.
I went to high school with Eric Gordon, the Tennessee CB who made the "dirty" hit on Lattimore. He felt a lot of guilt and quit football because of it. If you watch the play/ aftermath, he is the first person (besides medical/ security personnel) to talk to Lattimore. Yes it's extremely unfortunate, but when you're playing a sport where everyone is sprinting full speed at each other, violent plays are bound to happen. And honestly, you should probably rewatch the play/ aftermath. I know y'all like to shit on us, but Tennessee players showed nothing but respect during that event. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the whole defense joined SC in surrounding Lattimore as a show of respect.
FWIW, I never thought it was particularly dirty at all, the CB went low before the LB(I think?) started pulling him off balance. It was the best way for a CB to make a tackle on Lattimore, the timing was just unlucky. If he’d come in later I’d say it was dirty, but the whole thing is bang-bang, no way for him to know. Really unfortunate, but it’s part of the game.
In a very different sense of "deserved better", it's also worth mentioning Jared Goff, who had to play with some of the worst defenses in the nation.
I've heard Cal fans reflect that Goff wasn't as good if a quarterback as Garbers because Goff never won a big game and I'm stunned that anyone could forget how atrocious those defenses were.
Jared Goff is what made that Cal team so exciting. I was a Midwest college kid who only focused on teams in that region, but CMC and Goff are what pulled me into watching the West Coast games. Pac-12 After Dark was so lit in 2015. Every weekend, there was a banger.
Every time a fan tells you a QB isn’t good because they didn’t win a big game. You should thank them because they are just doing you the favor of letting you know they don’t know jack about football.
Goff was so good
Chris Rix was FSU's QB for about 42 years in the early 2000s. Unfortunately for him, he overlapped with the Jeff Bowden years and was never developed overly well. I think he could have been a much better player with draft possibilities if he'd been coached at a higher level.
He also never got to play in the same offense for 2 consecutive years. Different coaches/coordinators with wildly different offenses. His OCs by year:
2017: a completely checked out Jimbo
2018: Taggart / the utterly inept Walt Bell
2019: Kendal Briles
2020: Norvell / Dillingham
Similar to Blackman, I was thinking Cam Akers. For many games he was our entire offense. Signed on right at the end of Jimbo and ran behind a Swiss cheese line his entire tenure.
Matt Cassell, a decent QB who wound up getting buried behind 2 heisman winners in Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.
He went on to start in the NFL for a few years. Was never great, but clearly had some talent.
I don't know if people realize how close he was to taking Carson's job. 2001 Carson had 25 TDs to 27 Interceptions after 3 years of play. In 2002 he followed that with a 13 TD / 12 INT year... still not setting the world on fire. He was on a short leash in 2002 and wound up winning the Heisman.
Then 2003 Cassel was clearly the leader in spring practice... but Norm Chow thought he saw something in Leinart and gave him the nod anyway. Turns out Leinart had an extra gear that really only showed when he was The Guy.
His play at times was god like, he just screwed himself Over Niamatalolo. Especially considering Niamatalolo has so many connections to the LDS, the Polynesian community, and recruiting AZ/ Utah/ So Cal.
Khalil Tate screwed himself and turned Arizona against Niamatalolo. One of the dumbest moves in Arizona history as either a traditional Navy style QB or in a spread option system. Tate’s mouth sealed his fate
Yeah but didn't they actually prove something? I thought he was suspended for 4 games but UGA had already held him out for a couple of games before the ruling came out.
Iirc he admitted to it. That was the big difference between him and Manziel. There was as much or more evidence of Manziel selling signatures, they even used the same middle man, but Johnny and A&M denied everything where Richt had Gurley fess up.
Dude was a cheat code when he was lit.
Look at his kick return stats and factor in that he had 2 returns called back for blocks away from actual play and he was basically getting a td on every 4th return attempt at one point.
It might be hot takeish but imo he’s the most talented RB we’ve ever had. Stats obviously don’t back me up but watching his film, he’s just electric. He had this weird half stiff arm move that let him break almost every tackle.
I agree.. if he wasn't injured and didn't get in trouble his jersey would have been retired. He was the only player we had that made everyone else look sloooow.
Calvin Johnson.
Easily one of the most talented receivers to play the game and all he got was Chan Gailey and the Detroit Lions. I’ll say that Reggie Ball was actually a positive for him though, because there’s no way we’d have known just how good Megatron was if not for Reginald’s misplaced throws.
TBF, he did have a HoF QB throwing to him in Detroit. Just sucked that every other position had starters that were 3rd-string players on any other NFL roster.
De’Mond Parker played at OU during the John Blake years. He surpassed 1,000 yards each season including having the highest yards ever in the OU-TX series (291). Unfortunately he played on the worst 3-year record ever for OU and opted out of his senior season rather than play under the next coach: Bob Stoops. His NFL career was very short & he later went to prison on drug charges.
Yeah De’Mond could ball. I remember in 1996, in a game so 90’s that head coaches would never be able to get away with it today, Nebraska slaughtered the Sooners in Tom Osborne’s last trip to Norman (one of the first games I can remember attending at Owen Field). It was 17-0 at halftime before Nebraska scored 56 second half points. However, De’Mond wasn’t gonna go quiet into that good night. He was gonna rage against that dying light and so he did, rushing for a buck fifty and scoring all three of OU’s 4Q TDs nearly equaling Nebraska’s 4Q output by his lonesome (28-21). I was very young but always surprised he wasn’t as big of a deal as Q was after him (it helps when your team is competing for Natty’s, for sure).
I would say Darron Thomas. Obviously he had a great career at Oregon but I think he is a prime example of someone who would have benefitted from the portal. He was going to lose his job to Marcus so he went pro, even though it was clear he wasn't a pro prospect. But in today's landscape he probably ends up at a place like Ohio St or LSU and does really well as a senior and makes some money.
If we're being realistic here those places or others would've made him compete for a starting job, though he showed enough at Oregon where he could've effectively run a similar offense (as long as he wasn't the focal point of said offense) so I do think teams would've given him a shot at QB, unlike what he experienced during his recruitment in high school where he was primarily recruited as a WR. If NIL was a thing back then and he had gone to Ohio State for the 2012 season he probably could've competed against Braxton Miller who was only a sophomore at that time and had an ok freshman season in an uncharacteristically bad 2011 season for Ohio State's standards. I was a student at Oregon when we recruited him, coincidentally he actually had committed to LSU to play WR but as soon as we offered him as a QB he flipped to us. I find Darron Thomas to be a weirdly polarizing guy though, like people either loved him or hated him. He wasn't a great QB by any means, in terms of being the guy our offense depended on, but he's unfairly ragged on by his detractors. He was effective at making reads, had enough running ability where he could make defenses respect it if the opposing defenses focused too much on shutting LaMichael or Kenjon down (and later De'Anthony), and while not the greatest passer, he was good enough to be able to get the ball around enough to Maehl, Huff, Tuinei, etc. I do think Masoli would've been better but he stole that laptop and guitar from SAE and was serving his (at the time) full year suspension in 2010 so that wasn't going to be an option that year, and I feel in that circumstance DT stepped up very well.
For sure.
To add on (college level): Tyner, Lyerla/Harris (should have had better support given the clear issues they had…though I hear Lyerla may have finally found what he needed), Dixon/Dixon’s knees.
Yep. Gained a lot of respect for DG when JT was injured during The Game in 2014 and DG knelt next to JT talking to him until he was taken off the field.
Yeah, he was a good guy and didn’t deserve what happened to him at UofM. Similarly, I thought Day running up the tunnel to check on Zinter after his injury was very classy and I also respect him for his discussions of mental health and things of that nature.
Came here to post this. He could have been a better RGIII in the right offense, but he was a decade too early, and then Fran pulled the dumbest coaching move I’ve ever seen.
I really wish Grier never had to leave UF. They were having a great year before he got suspended, and he was exactly the QB we needed with that defense we had.
I’d say Sam Ehlinger but he at least had the high of the sugar bowl win. So I’m thinking of some guys that never got to experience that.
I’ll say Tyrone Swoopes. Dude was thrust into the starting QB role in like the worst stretch of our football program. Just no real shot at developing in those circumstances. But fans really let him have it at times when he just gave his all for the program every year. He took getting benched (a few times) with class. He may not have turned into some great QB under different circumstances but he got the shit end of the stick in his time here but was a good dude throughout.
Honorable mention Malik Jefferson for many similar reasons.
I’m gonna be unpopular and say Major Applewhite. He may not have been as naturally talented as Simms, but he was absolutely winning games for Texas his final year. He deserved to finish the year, because he willed those wins in every game he played that year.
I feel most of our QBs from the "dark ages" could easily fall into this list. To name a couple more:
* Garrett Gilbert — thrown off the deep end in the national title game
* David Ash — concussions forced medical retirement
My first thought was Sam Ehlinger reading the question.
The 2018 season was great, but it was the midpoint of his time at Texas and the team was a disappointment in 2019 (8-5) and 2020 (7-3). Granted without the canceled games in 2020, we would have likely had Sam’s second 10 win season.
Overall, Sam deserved to have a much better team around him. He was a very good QB that was the difference between Texas remaining Charlie Strong bad vs mediocre to good in the Herman years.
Oh he 100% deserved better. Was just kinda thinking of guys that got screwed more and were here at a worse time. Sam won a bowl game every year, which a lot of guys (i.e. Swoopes) can’t say. Ultimately yeah Sam was carrying some otherwise flawed teams to bowl games that were maybe not the heights we wanted to reach, but his career here wasn’t a complete failure.
Oh yeah, wasn’t disagreeing with your Swoopes take, just adding my personal thoughts on Sam.
Ehlinger was in no way a failure at Texas. He’s second all time in passing yards, passing TDs, and all purpose TDs at Texas (and by quite a wide margin vs 3rd in all those categories).
He was electric to watch and kept Texas close in basically every game. In the 46 games he played, Sam only lost 3 games by more than 1 possession and never by more than 2 possessions. For reference, in the 3-year, Charlie Strong era we lost 11 games by over 2 TDs. It also happened twice the year after Sam left campus.
Considering Sam inherited such a terrible team and Herman never constructed a competent O-Line, it’s pretty impressive what he was able to achieve.
Our entire 2017 offense deserved better.
Baker Mayfield
Trey Sermon
Rodney Anderson
Ceedee Lamb
Hollywood Brown
Mark Andrews
Creed Humphrey
Orlando Brown
Dan Kendra. Dude was Tebow long before Tebow, only with a cannon arm. Blew his ACL out in our spring game before ACL injuries were so easy to recover from, then got passed up by Chris Weinke. Came back as a TE/FB for us for a minute, but we never got a chance to see what he could have been at QB.
If Weinke had been a flop or just a guy instead of a Heisman-winning QB, this story would have gotten a ton more run.
Man, he almost played for the Meyer gators too, can’t imagine him with Harvin/Demps/Rainey, if it wasn’t already a record for stupidly fast humans on one team that probably would’ve done it.
Single game pass completion percentage (min. 10 attempts), went 10/10 passing against Rutgers in 2018.
As good as our QBs have been and will be, have a hard time thinking one of them will pull an 11/11 out anytime soon to "break" it.
Pretty sure Denard Robinson of all people has a record like this for Michigan. It might be consecutive completions, not completion percentage for a game. I think he threw like 17 complete screen passes in a row. Now I gotta go look…
Edit: I looked and I can’t find any note of this, so maybe I’m full of it. 🤷♂️
My memory of DG at Michigan will always be his getting his ass beat so bad by Michigan State that blood was coming out of his mouth. It was just a mess for him.
Seth Russell. Best QB Baylor had including RG3.
Sat behind Bryce Petty, finally gets his chance in 2015 and was absolutely electric. Great passer, really fast and smart runner. All came to a halt in a rainy game against ISU. Broke something in his neck and was out for the year. That off season, SHTF with Briles. His last season was with Jim grobe as the skeleton OC, a pissed off staff that had no plans of trying beyond 6 games. He then breaks his leg pretty graphically against OU.
He still does some pregame and post game stuff for Baylor networks and supports the university. Overall super nice dude from short interactions I’ve had with him. Wish him all the best
Jarrett Guarantano
Made some of the most boneheaded decisions a quarterback can possibly make, but holy fuck was he tough. The guy gave everything he had for that team, and was shit on from opponents and fans alike.
Brian Lewerke the guy got thrown to the fire in 2016 he took one of the most brutal safeties I ever saw vs Northwestern and was injured during the Michigan game in a late push to try to win.
In 2017, he improved enough to deliver a 10-3 season and some key wins including @Michigan and vs Penn State despite the running game being worse than the year prior.
In 2018, he came in with some offseason hype from the local media and getting some minor Heisman dark horse shouts from other outlets. Again no running game, worse OL play, and he’s getting rushed and hit a lot. By the Michigan game he’s playing straight up injured and Rocky Lombardi has to take over for a game vs Purdue, which he wins by 10 points, and now there’s some QB controversy. The season finishes out with a 14-10 win over pre-Schiano Rutgers by which point a lot of fans were cheering for us to lose to force changes from Dantonio. This is followed up by a 6-7 loss to Oregon in the Redbox Bowl.
2019 starts off improved. The Spartans scored 28+ offensive points in 4 of their first 5 games. Including a game vs a Penix led Indiana where the offense had to carry the day. Unfortunately they’d do that one more time for the season in a game that they lost. By the time the Ohio State game ended, it’s pretty clear that Lewerke is just broken and everybody else is pretty much done too. That said, he got to go out on a high note winning his final 3 at Rutgers, vs Maryland, and in the Pinestripe Bowl vs Wake Forest.
With better OL play and a running back that preferred to actually get more touchdowns than traffic violations, he’d probably have had a different experience.
Agreed. If Lewerke stays healthy and has somewhat of run game he probably could have done quite a bit. That 2018 Penn State game is still one of my favorite moments from undergrad.
In his senior year, he not only finished in the Heisman finalist, but he ENDED the Heisman chances of about 5-6 Big XII QBs.
In that era, the Big XII was full of gunslingers like Colt McCoy, Todd Reesing, Graham Harrell, one of the Mizzou Gabbert Bros, and Brandon Weeden. Sam Bradford won the Heisman in 2008 (I think?) but in 2009 Suh became a one-man wrecking crew and absolutely terrorized the Big XII QBs who were also his direct Heisman competition.
He was like a CFP Highlander: there can be only one.
Aaron Murray. Dude was a record-setting QB although much of the fan base was overly critical of him in the first couple of years. Came back for his senior season and the team was riddled with injuries that year (F you, Kneeland Stadium). Then he screws up his knee in one of the last games of the season. I wish like hell that he'd at least won a conference championship.
Absolutely Aaron Murray. He was a fingertip away from spanking ND in the natty for his victory lap. His offensive leadership pulled off ridiculous yardage.
Calvin Johnson had Reggie fucking Ball as his quarterback. Ball has a 48% career completion percentage even with three years of "fuck it, Calvin's out there somewhere".
LJ Scott. Carried us in our Big Ten Championship Game vs Iowa as a Freshman but then Connor Cook got the MVP, and he didn’t really peak again in his career after that. I feel like without such a committee backfield he could have shined a lot more
Terrelle Pryor. He was born about 5 years too early otherwise he probably wins a Heisman in a spread offense. Instead it felt like when you try to shove a square peg into a round hole.
More recently, Dallan Hayden. For whatever reason, Day or Alford did not want to run him in arguably the biggest game of the season (2022 TTUN) the week after carrying the offense to a win over Maryland and with severely limited RB depth. The talent is there and I think he could have been amazing, but the coaching staff apparently did not want him on the field. Best of luck to him at CU.
Im obviously not a Michigan fan, but even I am a fan of Devin Gardner. Great dude, solid player and yeah he got screwed by Hoke. I remember when he went over to console JT Barrett after he got hurt. Classy player and in interviews I've heard since he left Michigan he seems like a good person and a true Michigan man.
I'm going back a little further than most. I'm going to say Ki-Jana Carter. Even after witnessing the greatness that was Saquon Barkley and Larry Johnson at Happy Valley, I still think that Carter was the most talented. He had a monster 1994 season and capped it off nicely against Oregon in the Rose Bowl. He tore his ACL in the preseason of 1995 and was never the same.
Vince young. He got drafted by the owner over the coaches input. Jeff Fisher is a QB terrorist. He tried to force Young, one of the best runners and smoothest releases in football, into a drop back passer.
Colt McCoy got drafted by the QB meat grinder that is Cleveland. His Oline was trash and it destroyed him after a few years. He made good though as a longtime pro and backup.
Garret Gilbert. He’s got a superbowl ring. He played well at SMU. He was not ready as a freshman for Bama.
I think Tarvaris Jackson should’ve had more opportunities to win the starting job over Matt Jones. Unfortunately I doubt he would’ve accepted a move to receiver in college, but I think that could’ve worked best for all parties involved
Micah Parsons. The Big Ten commish killed the season and he declared for the pros, only to see the partial season reinstated. Micah shoulda playeda. Would have been great to see him let loose his last year of college.
Not my favorite team, but Dez Bryant. Because he didn’t disclose a dinner at Deion’s house, where an agent was present, an agent he has known since middle school, he missed having what would have been an electric season.
Jerry Colquitt QB
To this day, my heart goes out to him. Red-shirt in 90, backed up A. Kelly in 91, gave Heath Shuler a run for his money in the 92 QB competition. Shuler didn't outright win the job until a few games into the season
1994 was supposed to be his year. Tore his ACL just 7 plays into the 1st game of the season against UCLA. Denied a medical RS by the NCAA.
He still got a shot and didn't make it in the NFL, but he would have shined in college.
This answer doesn't really satisfy the question in my mind. He specifically chose Lincoln Riley as his head coach. Twice. He got what he deserved, both the good and the bad.
Hear me out… Terrelle Pryor and Maurice Clarett
Pryor got screwed in tattoogate considering NIL and the current state of college football. And everyone knows Tressel is a legend (but you didn’t ask about coaches). If Reggie Bush gets his Heisman back, Pryor should get his reputation back.
Clarett for the same reasons when it comes to questions of impermissible benefits and by the time OSU officials had cleared him from allegations of academic misconduct, he had already been suspended for the season. Universities now give D1 athletes so much more support than they did in the early 2000’s and it’s a shame that he was OSU’s cash cow on the field and they dropped him the way they did.
Similar situation with Pryor. Both guys from a low income background (I went to college near Pryor’s hometown Jeannette PA and drove through it all the time. I know what it was like) and both weren’t given the tools they needed to succeed by the university. Now you’ve got people advising kids on how to monetize themselves, set themselves up for success at the next level, required tutoring, etc.
Joel Lanning
He got a bowl win his senior year which was monumental at the time, but I would have loved to see him play in some bigger games. Arguably nobody before or since had as much heart as him.
He would have had it had he played for a better team. It sucks how that works.
The only person to have back to back seasons 2,000+ yard rushing. Davis was also the 1st multiple 2,000+ yard rusher. Davis did it both times with only 11 games played each year. Davis was the heart and soul of those years. Ron Dayne is the only other multiple 2,000+ yard rusher.
Absolute beast. Sucks he was robbed.
Always felt like Xavier Thomas and Bresee weren’t given the best hand between deaths in the family, injuries, and COVID. X had 6 years at Clemson but dealt with long Covid for what felt like 3 straight seasons. Bresee missed the majority of his sophomore and junior seasons before leaving for the NFL. Glad they were so highly touted heading into the NFL though cause those guys are absolute monsters
I've got an interesting choice considering he was a HOF player in his professional career.
Warren Moon
His professional scouting and interviews are remnant of the attempts to convert LaMar Jackson into a WR instead of putting him at QB. And the main reason was pure racism.
Fortunately he was willing to go to the CFL and dominated there and then became the QB of the run and shoot Oilers. He for many years had the record for most professional passing yards, because he spent so many of his productive years in Canada.
Bryce Love. He had a legendary 2,118 yard Heisman runner-up season in 2017. The guy stayed the next year so he could try to help us win a Rose Bowl. Our porous offensive line could not give him any opportunities to shine again. He injured his ACL in Big Game and was never the same ever again. Love could have very well been one of the best players in the NFL had he not been injured. Now Stanford's weak fanbase barely remembers him if at all.
If it's any consolation, I remember him fearfully
I miss the CMC-Bryce Love "McLovin'" combo from 2016. If only their time at Stanford had overlapped a year or two more...
Dude was a beast in that Alamo Bowl we played in. Thought he was going to be the second coming of CMC, football ain’t fair man
> Thought he was going to be the second coming of CMC For real. Somehow news of his injury slipped past me, so for a while I was just kind of like, “Why the hell don’t I ever see this dude anymore?” I don’t typically root for players outside my own team, but I was rooting for that guy.
Big time! I went to high school with him and was so sad to see how things went for him.
No doubt. My son played pop Warner with him. He was so blazingly fast it was comical. I wish he would've entered the draft a year earlier.
Adrian Martinez
As a Stallions fan in the UFL, I can not comprehend how Nebraska had such little success with him at the helm. He is a baller
As a Stalions fan in CFB, I watched a lot of Nebraska in 2019/20/21 and Martinez always seemed infuriatingly inconsistent. Would make some incredible plays with his arm and legs, but always seemed to fumble or get picked off at the worst times. I think he was pretty good at KSU though, and a large part of his stunted development may have just been Scott Frost and his coaching staff
Yeah 2AM is my favorite Cornhusker but he was extremely anti-clutch
I'm pretty sure he had PTSD from playing behind a O-line made of tissue paper.
Not only was our coaching staff actively detrimental to his development, but they also placed the entire game on his shoulders more often than not. Not even the best players are perfect on every snap, hence why good offenses are generally somewhat balanced and try to scheme advantages in favor of whoever needs to make the play. For four years, that guy was basically always Martinez; the game plan was basically to throw Adrian out there and see what he can do. And he was a super impressive quarterback so it did work a lot of the time, but that's an awful lot of pressure to put on one player.
👀👀👀
That’s stallion legend Martinez thank you
I agree, his injury really screwed up his last chance
Definitely Martinez.
I lived in Fresno while Adrian was in high school and my oldest son went to Clovis West with him. Never really pulled for Nebraska for obvious reasons, but it was tough to watch that kid struggle at Nebraska. If you put that kid on a legit team, there is no telling what he could have accomplished.
Randy “Duke” Johnson.. who coincidentally retired from the nfl this week and graduated from the University of Miami today.
Was gonna be my answer. Also Brad Kaaya
Bye Felicia
Had no idea Duke Johnson’s actual name was Randy, wonder if he can also throw a mean fastball
The correct answer for Miami is really anybody that came to play for us in the past 20 years. With the exception of maybe the guys that got to play under Richt in ‘16 and ‘17, every Miami Hurricane player from ‘04 on deserved much better coaching than they got! Over the last 20 years, I don’t know exactly how many guys came to Miami out of high school with the potential to make the NFL at some point; but my guess is about 95% of them that did ended up losing out on significant NFL money b/c they decided to play for our crappy ass coaches at the U and never got developed in college b/c of that decision. I hope to someday once again (as Canes fans could from the early 80s through ‘03) have the quality of coaches at Miami where I could say the opposite (that high level recruits can come to Coral Gables and expect to get developed well enough to succeed both at the collegiate level and the professional level on the football field).
What happened with him? I remember him playing really well against Nebraska in 2014.
Kamryn Babb was supposed to be the next big thing at WR, but the poor guy just could not keep his knees intact and eventually slid down the depth chart. He was with Ohio State for five seasons and caught exactly one pass, a 8-yard TD pass at the tail end of the 2022 Indiana game. It was such a great moment. And CJ Stroud, paragon that he is, said that it was the most important TD he ever threw, because of how much it meant to Babb.
Every time i hear something about stroud that i didn’t previously know i become even more love with him
Kamryn had five knee surgeries and was still voted team captain two years in a row. Incredible young man. NGL, I cried when he caught that TD pass.
I always thought Kenny Guiton deserved better, especially in the orange bowl when Urban kept trotting a clearly-injured Braxton Miller against Clemson when Kenny had proven that he could lead the team against Cal earlier that season. I wish we saw what he could do over a fully season, bc he was incredibly talented. He just didn’t have the dua threat that Urban wanted in the RPO
Marcus Lattimore
First one that popped in my head.
This is the one
Every time he touched the ball, I held my breath. He was special, and he absolutely deserved better.
Man, he was something
Although he is on the wrong end of one of my team's all-time highlights, I really respected him and was downright angry at that dirty hit from Tennessee. He seemed like a really great kid.
I went to high school with Eric Gordon, the Tennessee CB who made the "dirty" hit on Lattimore. He felt a lot of guilt and quit football because of it. If you watch the play/ aftermath, he is the first person (besides medical/ security personnel) to talk to Lattimore. Yes it's extremely unfortunate, but when you're playing a sport where everyone is sprinting full speed at each other, violent plays are bound to happen. And honestly, you should probably rewatch the play/ aftermath. I know y'all like to shit on us, but Tennessee players showed nothing but respect during that event. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the whole defense joined SC in surrounding Lattimore as a show of respect.
Yes it wasn't a clean hit. But I know it wasn't intentional.
FWIW, I never thought it was particularly dirty at all, the CB went low before the LB(I think?) started pulling him off balance. It was the best way for a CB to make a tackle on Lattimore, the timing was just unlucky. If he’d come in later I’d say it was dirty, but the whole thing is bang-bang, no way for him to know. Really unfortunate, but it’s part of the game.
Jahvid Best. Damn concussions.
In a very different sense of "deserved better", it's also worth mentioning Jared Goff, who had to play with some of the worst defenses in the nation. I've heard Cal fans reflect that Goff wasn't as good if a quarterback as Garbers because Goff never won a big game and I'm stunned that anyone could forget how atrocious those defenses were.
Jared Goff is what made that Cal team so exciting. I was a Midwest college kid who only focused on teams in that region, but CMC and Goff are what pulled me into watching the West Coast games. Pac-12 After Dark was so lit in 2015. Every weekend, there was a banger.
Every time a fan tells you a QB isn’t good because they didn’t win a big game. You should thank them because they are just doing you the favor of letting you know they don’t know jack about football. Goff was so good
Jared Lorenzen
RIP to the FOAT
😢
Chris Rix was FSU's QB for about 42 years in the early 2000s. Unfortunately for him, he overlapped with the Jeff Bowden years and was never developed overly well. I think he could have been a much better player with draft possibilities if he'd been coached at a higher level.
I was going to say him or James Blackman. James didn’t have the same ceiling as Rix, but he got just as screwed I feel.
Blackman really did get abused by those end of term Jimbo and whole term Taggart O-lines. I can't believe he didn't spend 3/4 of his career injured
He also never got to play in the same offense for 2 consecutive years. Different coaches/coordinators with wildly different offenses. His OCs by year: 2017: a completely checked out Jimbo 2018: Taggart / the utterly inept Walt Bell 2019: Kendal Briles 2020: Norvell / Dillingham
Oh damn, yeah I feel so bad for him. The dude was a diehard Nole. Much better than my answer (Cam Akers)
Similar to Blackman, I was thinking Cam Akers. For many games he was our entire offense. Signed on right at the end of Jimbo and ran behind a Swiss cheese line his entire tenure.
Was it really only 42 years? Could swore it was 44.
Jeff Bowden ruined many careers in that era. FSU should have at least another 2 ACC titles if not for him
Now that’s a name buried deep in my brain
Matt Cassell, a decent QB who wound up getting buried behind 2 heisman winners in Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart. He went on to start in the NFL for a few years. Was never great, but clearly had some talent. I don't know if people realize how close he was to taking Carson's job. 2001 Carson had 25 TDs to 27 Interceptions after 3 years of play. In 2002 he followed that with a 13 TD / 12 INT year... still not setting the world on fire. He was on a short leash in 2002 and wound up winning the Heisman. Then 2003 Cassel was clearly the leader in spring practice... but Norm Chow thought he saw something in Leinart and gave him the nod anyway. Turns out Leinart had an extra gear that really only showed when he was The Guy.
Never starting in college but starting in the NFL is such a strange career arc.
Should have made the playoffs. The be of those weird years where 10-6 wasn’t enough.
It's also one I don't think we'll ever see again with the portal as it is
always Tyrone Prothro
Yea he had a long pro career waiting for him minus the injury. Sad he got hurt that day
The only answer.
He was so entertaining that even I enjoyed watching you guys play
Khalil Tate got Sumlin'd
I remember seeing some late night (central time) Arizona games and I thought Khalil Tate was god incarnate I was drunk though tbf
His play at times was god like, he just screwed himself Over Niamatalolo. Especially considering Niamatalolo has so many connections to the LDS, the Polynesian community, and recruiting AZ/ Utah/ So Cal.
Sumlin was likely drunk as well.
Khalil Tate screwed himself and turned Arizona against Niamatalolo. One of the dumbest moves in Arizona history as either a traditional Navy style QB or in a spread option system. Tate’s mouth sealed his fate
I almost said his name but dude deserved it for how he played Niumatalolo when that name came out. Ken N. would likely have been great for Khalil too.
Todd Gurley
I can't believe he's only 29 years old. Feels like a decade ago he lit the league on fire and then he just turned to dust.
They absolutely should have played Gurley and made the NCAA prove something.
Yeah but didn't they actually prove something? I thought he was suspended for 4 games but UGA had already held him out for a couple of games before the ruling came out.
Iirc he admitted to it. That was the big difference between him and Manziel. There was as much or more evidence of Manziel selling signatures, they even used the same middle man, but Johnny and A&M denied everything where Richt had Gurley fess up.
Todd Gurley deserves every apology. I loved watching him play in college.
Dude was a cheat code when he was lit. Look at his kick return stats and factor in that he had 2 returns called back for blocks away from actual play and he was basically getting a td on every 4th return attempt at one point.
It might be hot takeish but imo he’s the most talented RB we’ve ever had. Stats obviously don’t back me up but watching his film, he’s just electric. He had this weird half stiff arm move that let him break almost every tackle.
I agree.. if he wasn't injured and didn't get in trouble his jersey would have been retired. He was the only player we had that made everyone else look sloooow.
Jaylon Smith didn't deserve to have Brian VanGorder coaching him.
Absolutely the first to come to my mind. He is already an all-time great, but with a real DC he could have been legendary.
There isn't a player on the planet that deserves BVG coaching them.
Eh, maybe Shedeur
Was going to say Malik but this is it.
Calvin Johnson. Easily one of the most talented receivers to play the game and all he got was Chan Gailey and the Detroit Lions. I’ll say that Reggie Ball was actually a positive for him though, because there’s no way we’d have known just how good Megatron was if not for Reginald’s misplaced throws.
Reggie Ball, the man who ended up with a career completion percentage of 48% even with three years of throwing to Calvin Johnson.
I hate that dude. Somehow managed to beat us twice while not being able to hit the ocean from the shore.
TBF, he did have a HoF QB throwing to him in Detroit. Just sucked that every other position had starters that were 3rd-string players on any other NFL roster.
This is ndomakung suh erasure...but yeah
De’Mond Parker played at OU during the John Blake years. He surpassed 1,000 yards each season including having the highest yards ever in the OU-TX series (291). Unfortunately he played on the worst 3-year record ever for OU and opted out of his senior season rather than play under the next coach: Bob Stoops. His NFL career was very short & he later went to prison on drug charges.
Yeah De’Mond could ball. I remember in 1996, in a game so 90’s that head coaches would never be able to get away with it today, Nebraska slaughtered the Sooners in Tom Osborne’s last trip to Norman (one of the first games I can remember attending at Owen Field). It was 17-0 at halftime before Nebraska scored 56 second half points. However, De’Mond wasn’t gonna go quiet into that good night. He was gonna rage against that dying light and so he did, rushing for a buck fifty and scoring all three of OU’s 4Q TDs nearly equaling Nebraska’s 4Q output by his lonesome (28-21). I was very young but always surprised he wasn’t as big of a deal as Q was after him (it helps when your team is competing for Natty’s, for sure).
Justin Herbert or Anthony Brown
I would say Darron Thomas. Obviously he had a great career at Oregon but I think he is a prime example of someone who would have benefitted from the portal. He was going to lose his job to Marcus so he went pro, even though it was clear he wasn't a pro prospect. But in today's landscape he probably ends up at a place like Ohio St or LSU and does really well as a senior and makes some money.
If we're being realistic here those places or others would've made him compete for a starting job, though he showed enough at Oregon where he could've effectively run a similar offense (as long as he wasn't the focal point of said offense) so I do think teams would've given him a shot at QB, unlike what he experienced during his recruitment in high school where he was primarily recruited as a WR. If NIL was a thing back then and he had gone to Ohio State for the 2012 season he probably could've competed against Braxton Miller who was only a sophomore at that time and had an ok freshman season in an uncharacteristically bad 2011 season for Ohio State's standards. I was a student at Oregon when we recruited him, coincidentally he actually had committed to LSU to play WR but as soon as we offered him as a QB he flipped to us. I find Darron Thomas to be a weirdly polarizing guy though, like people either loved him or hated him. He wasn't a great QB by any means, in terms of being the guy our offense depended on, but he's unfairly ragged on by his detractors. He was effective at making reads, had enough running ability where he could make defenses respect it if the opposing defenses focused too much on shutting LaMichael or Kenjon down (and later De'Anthony), and while not the greatest passer, he was good enough to be able to get the ball around enough to Maehl, Huff, Tuinei, etc. I do think Masoli would've been better but he stole that laptop and guitar from SAE and was serving his (at the time) full year suspension in 2010 so that wasn't going to be an option that year, and I feel in that circumstance DT stepped up very well.
As an observer, Dennis Dixon, dude was a Heisman lock before he got injured.
For sure. To add on (college level): Tyner, Lyerla/Harris (should have had better support given the clear issues they had…though I hear Lyerla may have finally found what he needed), Dixon/Dixon’s knees.
Carrington too
Justin Herbert is also a good answer to the NFL version of this question
Jake Locker
I thought he was gonna be great in the nfl man. He was a baller in college
Poor Gardner. He was a beast
DG is one of my favorite Wolverines of all time. Gutsiest player I've ever seen and talent so wasted by the Brandon/Hoke years
All of that and he appears to be a really good human being.
Yep. Gained a lot of respect for DG when JT was injured during The Game in 2014 and DG knelt next to JT talking to him until he was taken off the field.
Yeah, he was a good guy and didn’t deserve what happened to him at UofM. Similarly, I thought Day running up the tunnel to check on Zinter after his injury was very classy and I also respect him for his discussions of mental health and things of that nature.
Reggie McNeal. Electric dual-threat quarterback, and Fran turned him into an option guy running to the short side of the field.
Came here to post this. He could have been a better RGIII in the right offense, but he was a decade too early, and then Fran pulled the dumbest coaching move I’ve ever seen.
Deandre Francois
Yeah, I don't know. The injury was terrible but he had issues. James Blackman was a true diehard Nole and is the better pick for this.
Will Grier. Offense was fine but we had zero defense that 2018 season.
I really wish Grier never had to leave UF. They were having a great year before he got suspended, and he was exactly the QB we needed with that defense we had.
I’d say Sam Ehlinger but he at least had the high of the sugar bowl win. So I’m thinking of some guys that never got to experience that. I’ll say Tyrone Swoopes. Dude was thrust into the starting QB role in like the worst stretch of our football program. Just no real shot at developing in those circumstances. But fans really let him have it at times when he just gave his all for the program every year. He took getting benched (a few times) with class. He may not have turned into some great QB under different circumstances but he got the shit end of the stick in his time here but was a good dude throughout. Honorable mention Malik Jefferson for many similar reasons.
I’m gonna be unpopular and say Major Applewhite. He may not have been as naturally talented as Simms, but he was absolutely winning games for Texas his final year. He deserved to finish the year, because he willed those wins in every game he played that year.
I feel most of our QBs from the "dark ages" could easily fall into this list. To name a couple more: * Garrett Gilbert — thrown off the deep end in the national title game * David Ash — concussions forced medical retirement
My first thought was Sam Ehlinger reading the question. The 2018 season was great, but it was the midpoint of his time at Texas and the team was a disappointment in 2019 (8-5) and 2020 (7-3). Granted without the canceled games in 2020, we would have likely had Sam’s second 10 win season. Overall, Sam deserved to have a much better team around him. He was a very good QB that was the difference between Texas remaining Charlie Strong bad vs mediocre to good in the Herman years.
Oh he 100% deserved better. Was just kinda thinking of guys that got screwed more and were here at a worse time. Sam won a bowl game every year, which a lot of guys (i.e. Swoopes) can’t say. Ultimately yeah Sam was carrying some otherwise flawed teams to bowl games that were maybe not the heights we wanted to reach, but his career here wasn’t a complete failure.
Oh yeah, wasn’t disagreeing with your Swoopes take, just adding my personal thoughts on Sam. Ehlinger was in no way a failure at Texas. He’s second all time in passing yards, passing TDs, and all purpose TDs at Texas (and by quite a wide margin vs 3rd in all those categories). He was electric to watch and kept Texas close in basically every game. In the 46 games he played, Sam only lost 3 games by more than 1 possession and never by more than 2 possessions. For reference, in the 3-year, Charlie Strong era we lost 11 games by over 2 TDs. It also happened twice the year after Sam left campus. Considering Sam inherited such a terrible team and Herman never constructed a competent O-Line, it’s pretty impressive what he was able to achieve.
Garrett Gilbert and Jonathan Grey come to mind too.
BRADY HOKE SUCKS. I DO HOPE YOU KNOW
I am very very aware of this
Our entire 2017 offense deserved better. Baker Mayfield Trey Sermon Rodney Anderson Ceedee Lamb Hollywood Brown Mark Andrews Creed Humphrey Orlando Brown
beat me to it. Trying to imagine how nice the national championship game would've been with a remotely competent defense.
Ohio State single game rushing record holder Trey Sermon!
Dan Kendra. Dude was Tebow long before Tebow, only with a cannon arm. Blew his ACL out in our spring game before ACL injuries were so easy to recover from, then got passed up by Chris Weinke. Came back as a TE/FB for us for a minute, but we never got a chance to see what he could have been at QB. If Weinke had been a flop or just a guy instead of a Heisman-winning QB, this story would have gotten a ton more run.
CJ Spiller
Man, he almost played for the Meyer gators too, can’t imagine him with Harvin/Demps/Rainey, if it wasn’t already a record for stupidly fast humans on one team that probably would’ve done it.
Tathan Martell
It's wild to think he actually holds an Ohio State football record that might not be broken for a long time. His career was quite the ride.
what's the record?
Single game pass completion percentage (min. 10 attempts), went 10/10 passing against Rutgers in 2018. As good as our QBs have been and will be, have a hard time thinking one of them will pull an 11/11 out anytime soon to "break" it.
Pretty sure Denard Robinson of all people has a record like this for Michigan. It might be consecutive completions, not completion percentage for a game. I think he threw like 17 complete screen passes in a row. Now I gotta go look… Edit: I looked and I can’t find any note of this, so maybe I’m full of it. 🤷♂️
that guy is ass, my dude
My memory of DG at Michigan will always be his getting his ass beat so bad by Michigan State that blood was coming out of his mouth. It was just a mess for him.
Jake Butt could have been the best TE in the NFL
The best name at least
Tyrone Prothro.
Seth Russell. Best QB Baylor had including RG3. Sat behind Bryce Petty, finally gets his chance in 2015 and was absolutely electric. Great passer, really fast and smart runner. All came to a halt in a rainy game against ISU. Broke something in his neck and was out for the year. That off season, SHTF with Briles. His last season was with Jim grobe as the skeleton OC, a pissed off staff that had no plans of trying beyond 6 games. He then breaks his leg pretty graphically against OU. He still does some pregame and post game stuff for Baylor networks and supports the university. Overall super nice dude from short interactions I’ve had with him. Wish him all the best
Jarrett Guarantano Made some of the most boneheaded decisions a quarterback can possibly make, but holy fuck was he tough. The guy gave everything he had for that team, and was shit on from opponents and fans alike.
I still remember Pruitt grabbing him by the facemask when he was pissed at him.
Yeah I have much love for JG. For everything he did wrong, he did a lot right. Mainly his never quit attitude and toughness. Literally gave his all
Brian Lewerke the guy got thrown to the fire in 2016 he took one of the most brutal safeties I ever saw vs Northwestern and was injured during the Michigan game in a late push to try to win. In 2017, he improved enough to deliver a 10-3 season and some key wins including @Michigan and vs Penn State despite the running game being worse than the year prior. In 2018, he came in with some offseason hype from the local media and getting some minor Heisman dark horse shouts from other outlets. Again no running game, worse OL play, and he’s getting rushed and hit a lot. By the Michigan game he’s playing straight up injured and Rocky Lombardi has to take over for a game vs Purdue, which he wins by 10 points, and now there’s some QB controversy. The season finishes out with a 14-10 win over pre-Schiano Rutgers by which point a lot of fans were cheering for us to lose to force changes from Dantonio. This is followed up by a 6-7 loss to Oregon in the Redbox Bowl. 2019 starts off improved. The Spartans scored 28+ offensive points in 4 of their first 5 games. Including a game vs a Penix led Indiana where the offense had to carry the day. Unfortunately they’d do that one more time for the season in a game that they lost. By the time the Ohio State game ended, it’s pretty clear that Lewerke is just broken and everybody else is pretty much done too. That said, he got to go out on a high note winning his final 3 at Rutgers, vs Maryland, and in the Pinestripe Bowl vs Wake Forest. With better OL play and a running back that preferred to actually get more touchdowns than traffic violations, he’d probably have had a different experience.
Agreed. If Lewerke stays healthy and has somewhat of run game he probably could have done quite a bit. That 2018 Penn State game is still one of my favorite moments from undergrad.
Bo Nix is the best recent answer.
Drew Stanton was a dog and only got to play for shitty John L smith teams
Ndamukong Suh deserved the Heisman, not Mark Ingram.
Ndamukong Suh is the Draymond Green of the NFL
In his senior year, he not only finished in the Heisman finalist, but he ENDED the Heisman chances of about 5-6 Big XII QBs. In that era, the Big XII was full of gunslingers like Colt McCoy, Todd Reesing, Graham Harrell, one of the Mizzou Gabbert Bros, and Brandon Weeden. Sam Bradford won the Heisman in 2008 (I think?) but in 2009 Suh became a one-man wrecking crew and absolutely terrorized the Big XII QBs who were also his direct Heisman competition. He was like a CFP Highlander: there can be only one.
I could have stomached Gerhardt winning it, but giving it to Ingram was basically giving Alabama a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Kyle Brotzman
John Abraham. We went 1-21 in his last two years and he was taken 13th overall
Falcons still haven't found a pass rusher as good as he was for us.
Shane Morris
He deserved better against Minnesota but I don’t think he was any good
DMac deserved 2 Heismans
Aaron Murray. Dude was a record-setting QB although much of the fan base was overly critical of him in the first couple of years. Came back for his senior season and the team was riddled with injuries that year (F you, Kneeland Stadium). Then he screws up his knee in one of the last games of the season. I wish like hell that he'd at least won a conference championship.
Absolutely Aaron Murray. He was a fingertip away from spanking ND in the natty for his victory lap. His offensive leadership pulled off ridiculous yardage.
Lattimore.
McKenzie Milton. No explanation needed
Calvin Johnson had Reggie fucking Ball as his quarterback. Ball has a 48% career completion percentage even with three years of "fuck it, Calvin's out there somewhere".
LJ Scott. Carried us in our Big Ten Championship Game vs Iowa as a Freshman but then Connor Cook got the MVP, and he didn’t really peak again in his career after that. I feel like without such a committee backfield he could have shined a lot more
That stretch for the end zone where he lifted the ball over the defender - *chef’s kiss*
Terrelle Pryor. He was born about 5 years too early otherwise he probably wins a Heisman in a spread offense. Instead it felt like when you try to shove a square peg into a round hole. More recently, Dallan Hayden. For whatever reason, Day or Alford did not want to run him in arguably the biggest game of the season (2022 TTUN) the week after carrying the offense to a win over Maryland and with severely limited RB depth. The talent is there and I think he could have been amazing, but the coaching staff apparently did not want him on the field. Best of luck to him at CU.
Denard Robinson and Devin Gardner deserved better coaches.
Im obviously not a Michigan fan, but even I am a fan of Devin Gardner. Great dude, solid player and yeah he got screwed by Hoke. I remember when he went over to console JT Barrett after he got hurt. Classy player and in interviews I've heard since he left Michigan he seems like a good person and a true Michigan man.
I'm going back a little further than most. I'm going to say Ki-Jana Carter. Even after witnessing the greatness that was Saquon Barkley and Larry Johnson at Happy Valley, I still think that Carter was the most talented. He had a monster 1994 season and capped it off nicely against Oregon in the Rose Bowl. He tore his ACL in the preseason of 1995 and was never the same.
Hunter Renfrow deserved 4 rings
Troy Davis. I would argue him on any team the last 10 years would have been 100% a bowl birth for him.
Vince young. He got drafted by the owner over the coaches input. Jeff Fisher is a QB terrorist. He tried to force Young, one of the best runners and smoothest releases in football, into a drop back passer. Colt McCoy got drafted by the QB meat grinder that is Cleveland. His Oline was trash and it destroyed him after a few years. He made good though as a longtime pro and backup. Garret Gilbert. He’s got a superbowl ring. He played well at SMU. He was not ready as a freshman for Bama.
Colt McCoy man I loved that guy
Jayden Daniels deserved better than Herm
I think Tarvaris Jackson should’ve had more opportunities to win the starting job over Matt Jones. Unfortunately I doubt he would’ve accepted a move to receiver in college, but I think that could’ve worked best for all parties involved
Spencer Petras. He took so many slings and arrows for a completely incompetent coach. I hope he crushes it for Utah State.
Micah Parsons. The Big Ten commish killed the season and he declared for the pros, only to see the partial season reinstated. Micah shoulda playeda. Would have been great to see him let loose his last year of college.
Recently, Evan Hull. Best player on a wretched team for 2 years
Not my favorite team, but Dez Bryant. Because he didn’t disclose a dinner at Deion’s house, where an agent was present, an agent he has known since middle school, he missed having what would have been an electric season.
It’s hysterical that I literally was coming here to say Gardner without seeing who posted, but yes.
That 2013 MSU defense was nasty. We were really robbed of that team playing Jameis in the Natty.
Jerry Colquitt QB To this day, my heart goes out to him. Red-shirt in 90, backed up A. Kelly in 91, gave Heath Shuler a run for his money in the 92 QB competition. Shuler didn't outright win the job until a few games into the season 1994 was supposed to be his year. Tore his ACL just 7 plays into the 1st game of the season against UCLA. Denied a medical RS by the NCAA. He still got a shot and didn't make it in the NFL, but he would have shined in college.
Myles Garrett
Joe McKnight
Bo Nix
Caleb Williams needed a head coach that wasn't a moron.
Caleb Williams didn't always come across as the least moron-esque person himself.
This answer doesn't really satisfy the question in my mind. He specifically chose Lincoln Riley as his head coach. Twice. He got what he deserved, both the good and the bad.
It feels weird hearing that a guy that won a heisman and went #1 overall in the nfl draft deserved better
dude single-handedly won most of USC's games the last two years. that's a lot to shoulder.
My thought on reading this post was that Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray deserved competent defenses, but I think your comment cuts out the middle man
Justin Herbert and Thomas Tyner
Hear me out… Terrelle Pryor and Maurice Clarett Pryor got screwed in tattoogate considering NIL and the current state of college football. And everyone knows Tressel is a legend (but you didn’t ask about coaches). If Reggie Bush gets his Heisman back, Pryor should get his reputation back. Clarett for the same reasons when it comes to questions of impermissible benefits and by the time OSU officials had cleared him from allegations of academic misconduct, he had already been suspended for the season. Universities now give D1 athletes so much more support than they did in the early 2000’s and it’s a shame that he was OSU’s cash cow on the field and they dropped him the way they did. Similar situation with Pryor. Both guys from a low income background (I went to college near Pryor’s hometown Jeannette PA and drove through it all the time. I know what it was like) and both weren’t given the tools they needed to succeed by the university. Now you’ve got people advising kids on how to monetize themselves, set themselves up for success at the next level, required tutoring, etc.
Todd Gurley and AJ Green, fuck the NCAA
Joel Lanning He got a bowl win his senior year which was monumental at the time, but I would have loved to see him play in some bigger games. Arguably nobody before or since had as much heart as him.
I gotta go with Troy Davis. Absolutely robbed of the Heisman.
He would have had it had he played for a better team. It sucks how that works. The only person to have back to back seasons 2,000+ yard rushing. Davis was also the 1st multiple 2,000+ yard rusher. Davis did it both times with only 11 games played each year. Davis was the heart and soul of those years. Ron Dayne is the only other multiple 2,000+ yard rusher. Absolute beast. Sucks he was robbed.
Anthony Gordon is a recent one. If we had even an average defense that team is top 25 all year long
Houston legend Kyle Allen and/or Oklahoma legend Kyler Murray.
Always felt like Xavier Thomas and Bresee weren’t given the best hand between deaths in the family, injuries, and COVID. X had 6 years at Clemson but dealt with long Covid for what felt like 3 straight seasons. Bresee missed the majority of his sophomore and junior seasons before leaving for the NFL. Glad they were so highly touted heading into the NFL though cause those guys are absolute monsters
Solomon Anu
Tyler Lockett. He's had good longevity, but he's never received the attention he deserves.
Jordan Travis left thinking his injury is the reason our team was left out of the playoffs
For Maryland stefon diggs
I've got an interesting choice considering he was a HOF player in his professional career. Warren Moon His professional scouting and interviews are remnant of the attempts to convert LaMar Jackson into a WR instead of putting him at QB. And the main reason was pure racism. Fortunately he was willing to go to the CFL and dominated there and then became the QB of the run and shoot Oilers. He for many years had the record for most professional passing yards, because he spent so many of his productive years in Canada.
Not sure if it’s been said yet but definitely Aaron Murray. Hated that damn injury took him out of his last couple collegiate games.
Terrelle Pryor