ESPN. Top 100 players in CFB

Submitted by robbyt003 on

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They have only announced 80-100.

Tied 83

Jake Ryan
Michigan Wolverines
Linebacker
Redshirt senior



After an injury-shortened 2013 season, Ryan could put himself among the Big Ten's elite defenders this fall. Poised for a surge after his sophomore year, when he earned All-Big Ten honors, Ryan has had a tackle for loss in 25 of his past 30 games.

Champeen

July 28th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^

they will still have Johnny Football number 1.  Maybe for the next 10 years.  The only person i can think of who ESPN would put above him is LeBron James.

JayMo4

July 28th, 2014 at 11:58 AM ^

Ryan at #83 is actually pretty generous given his injury-shortened season last year and his move to a new position.  I'll take it!

BlueKoj

July 28th, 2014 at 12:23 PM ^

Given past performance, I still view JMFR as the best player on UM's team. Therefore, I'd predict no one ahead of him. However, I think Funchess-hype (and NFL-potential) may put him ahead. DG may also get a nod as a 5th year QB with great talent. I don't think Clark or Countess make the list...nor should they at this point. Hopefully, by end of year, this list features many more in the winged helmet.

I Like Burgers

July 28th, 2014 at 1:47 PM ^

There's no way he's one of the top 50 best in CFB.  If that top 50 was evenly split between offense in defense, you're saying Ryan is one of the top 25 defensive players in CFB, and there's just no way that's true.

chatster

July 28th, 2014 at 1:20 PM ^

Because of ESPN’s SEC-centric attitude, I wouldn’t expect any other Michigan players besides Jake Ryan to make the Top 100 list.  Keep in mind that the list was created by having “32 of ESPN's college football writers and editors rate players based on their expected contributions for this upcoming season.”
 
However, Devin Funchess might be on the list because, other than Jake Ryan, he’s the one Michigan player who has been receiving most of the pre-season, first-team, all-conference votes and there's that hurdle over Ohio State's Doran Grant that still makes the 2013 college football highlight reels.
 
Devin Gardner also might deserve mention on the list, because he's one of the nineteen seniors among the 39 quarterbacks on the Davey O'Brien National Quarterbcak Award Watch List  and he's also one of thirty-four quarterbacks on the Maxwell Award Watch List.
 
But there’s one other Michigan player who might make the list, and that’s Jabrill Peppers, because, for that ESPN list, freshmen are eligible, and eleven of the fourteen Big Ten writers who voted in the media poll expect Jabrill Peppers to be the Big Ten's Freshman of the Year in 2014.
 
On the list, tied at 93 is one-time Michigan prospect and LSU freshman Leonard Fournette of which it is said:  He might be just a true freshman, but Fournette has already generated plenty of buzz with his blend of size, speed and explosiveness. Even some in the NFL, after seeing his high school tape, have said he's talented enough to play in the pros right now.

I Like Burgers

July 28th, 2014 at 1:52 PM ^

When you're putting together a list of the top players in CFB, its a little tough to fault someone for going heavy on the SEC a year after they just had 63 players drafted into the NFL  -- more than double any other conference.  And over the past decade+ the SEC has had far more drafted into than any other conference and its not even close.

So unless you think the talent scounts in the NFL have an SEC bias too, get out of here with this ESPN = SEC homer crap.  They are the best confernce.  Get over it.

chatster

July 28th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^

You’re correct.  Sorry for not stating the obvious reasons why ESPN should be SEC-centric, and maybe SEC-centric was a poor choice of words.
 
I don’t deny that the SEC produces most of the nation’s elite college football players.*  I can’t complain about anyone looking first at the SEC to find the nation’s top 100 college football players.  I would expect that the SEC would have the most players on that list.
 
I’d also expect the SEC, Big XII and Pac-12 to have more players than the Big Ten or ACC on ESPN’s Top 100 College Football Players list and its Top 100 College Baseball Players List (though I’d expect that the ACC would have quite a few of the nation’s top college baseball players, too.)
 
I can’t fault ESPN for focusing its attention on the SEC.  They’ve paid a lot of money to have the rights to broadcast SEC games and help create the new SEC Network.  Maybe it's their heightened promotion of the SEC in recent weeks that caused me to refer to an "SEC-centric attitude."
 
What will be interesting for me will be to see how ESPN treats the SEC compared to the Big Ten and ACC when it comes to making the Top 100 College Basketball Players List.
 
* I looked at the 2013 Associated Press NFL All-Pro Teams.  SEC players honored were Peyton Manning - Tennessee (first team QB), Eddie Lacy - Alabama (second team RB), A. J. Green - Georgia (second team WR), Jason Peters - Arkansas (first team OT), Evan Mathis - Alabama (first team OG), Greg Hardy - Mississippi (second team DE), Gerald McCoy - Alabama (second team DT), Justin Smith - Missouri (second team DE), Karlos Dansby - Auburn (second team ILB), Patrick Peterson - LSU (first team CB), Joe Haden - Florida (second team CB), Eric Berry - Tennessee (first team SS), Cordarrelle Patterson - Tennessee (first team KR), Dexter McClusker - Mississippi (second team KR).
 
That’s fifteen out of the 62 players who received All-Pro mention, so that’s also a high percentage of the elite NFL players.

Wolfman

July 29th, 2014 at 12:52 AM ^

but it' not due to any tie=ins of any nature. It is, however, due to the recruiting practices that allow, if necessary, any SEC team to get a fresh 25 every year. Of course due to the need for experienced players and some players proving their worth early, this does not happen. However, very few fifth year players, unless they were just waiting for the underclassmen to get drafted, on a percentage basis when compared to other conferences are asked to stick around. 

If you can, and they can, flirt a total disregard for the numbers handed down by the NCAA, they are certainly going to take advantage of them.  When, if they should do a poll of bb players, don't look for 100 because you only have five starters per game, and don't look for SEC heavy choices. They will get more fb players for the above reasons. BB, on the other hand, allows players to leave earlier, if they decide to attend at all, so there won't be a like list. This is an honest assessment of a dishonest practice.

LSAClassOf2000

July 28th, 2014 at 1:24 PM ^

Like others, I would agree that if not for the injury, Ryan is probably in the discussion for being somewhere in the upper half of this list simply because he has shown that he is an excellent linebacker.

I am pretty confident in the switch to MLB though because I think Ryan is what yuo would perhaps want there in the new alignment, so it will be interesting to see if this is perhaps a case of Ryan being underrated on this particular list, I would think.

However, considering that there might be perhaps 10-15 Big Ten players (guessing, of course) on the list, it's a relatively high compliment from this standpoint. 

Space Coyote

July 28th, 2014 at 1:26 PM ^

As essentially the 1st team all conference, except a little better because it will surely have 1st and 2nd team All-SEC because they are that much better than everybody ever. So, they consider Jake Ryan to be one of the best ~14 players in the B1G.

Michigania

July 28th, 2014 at 1:46 PM ^

so all this nonsense about msu "developing" players....

well...   Ryan is likely gonna get drafted in the top 3 rounds....  Bullough even with his HGH, didn't....

and didn't RR burn Ryan's redshirt?   Imagine if we did what msu does, and redshirt everyone.   

Space Coyote

July 28th, 2014 at 1:49 PM ^

He's a redshirt senior this upcoming year. And naming one player compared to another one player doesn't really mean a whole lot. Both coaching staffs have some "3-stars" (Bullough was a 4-star, FWIW) that they can claim they developed, and 4-stars the others didn't. Regardless, Bullough was a hell of a college football player, which is what most of us care about.

Perkis-Size Me

July 28th, 2014 at 1:57 PM ^

If Braxton Miller is anywhere in the top 10, which I imagine he will be because of all the Urban Meyer love, I will vomit with rage.



The kid's ability to throw a football is maybe a step above Denard's. That's obviously not saying much

Tyrone Biggums

July 28th, 2014 at 10:37 PM ^

I was referencing two things, russale2012's assertion that Miller's throwing was/is only marginally better than Denard and that Miller is probably in the top 25% of this best 100 list. To answer your question yes it could. Denard regressed as a passer, Braxton has gotten better every year. Miller's first two years passing statistics are comparable to Denards last two, they've trended in opposite directions. 

I would take Devin over Braxton any day of the week for what it's worth. Denard is one of my all time favorite players at UM, but his passing acumen left a lot to be desired. I actually think that both Devin's will make an appearance on this list. They both have huge pro potential and as others have noted are on numerous cfb award watch list.

beerleaguestar21

July 28th, 2014 at 4:38 PM ^

All because of injury he is this low... However I am interested to see if and where Funchess is on the list, he is a special talent that should be one of the if not the best in the country