Traditionally the second half of the season is much more likely to see a spike in freshmen production across the board. This makes sense as players become more acclimated, injuries create new opportunities, and the college game starts to slow down for the newbies. Well if week seven was any indicator, then we are in for a treat in the back half of 2021. As we crossed the halfway point, we saw more true freshman register statistics than any week so far.
The Freshmen
Brock Bowers
Georgia – TE – 0.9532 247 composite
Bowers put up arguably his most complete game of the season against Kentucky. His 6 targets led the nation for Freshman Tight Ends, and he caught 5 of them for 101 yards and 2 touchdowns (he had a 3rd called back). He notched his sixth and seventh touchdowns of the season. He has out produced mammoth of a human, Darnell Washington, and frankly the entire ‘Dawg receiving corps, massively. I do not see him edging out Michael Mayer for the TE1 in Devy heading into the summer, but the murmurs have already begun. The fact that he is outproducing a WR room stocked to the gills with blue chip recruits, mere months after arriving on campus, signifies that the best is yet to come. Buy high on Bowers, and turn a profit. He is an appreciating asset, who, despite being somewhat capped by playing Tight End, still has a lot of room to grow from a value perspective.
Carson Steele
Ball St – RB – UNR 247 composite
Carson Steele was one of the first frosh I wrote about, back when this section was a wee tweetling. I surmised that he would be the heir apparent following Will Jones’s graduation. Apparently, Steele had other ideas about waiting that long. Against EMU, Steele was fed the rock 18 times for 138 yards and a touchdown. He added another 27 yards through the air. The unrated recruit out-carried and out-gained veteran Will Jones with vastly better efficiency (7.7 ypc vs 3.9ypc). A changing of the guard may be on our hands in Ball St. I just picked him up off waivers in a C2C, do the same and secure a potential super producer for the next 3 years.
Caleb Williams
Oklahoma – QB – 0.9969 247 composite
Williams followed up his Red River heroics with another game that was purely the stuff of legends. Despite only throwing the ball 23 times against TCU, he completed 18 of them for 285 yards and 4 touchdowns (no picks!), and added another 66 yards and score on the ground. To call him prolific would be an understatement. Just like that everything was fixed with the OU offense, causing fans to wonder really how bad Spencer Rattler had been to start the season. It is still hard to put Williams above Ewers in the ’24 class, but he is biting on his heels and will be a top 16 pick in devy drafts this summer.
Montrell Johnson
Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns – RB – 0.8572 247 composite
The true freshman has been percolating for weeks now. He has 13 or more carries in 3 of his last four games, and five touchdowns over that span. He put up personal bests last week against App St, grinding out 103 carries and a touchdown on 14 carries, for an absurd 7.4 yards per carry. Despite very much being in a committee, Johnson featured with the most carries in the backfield this week. Another likely free player on C2C waivers that has a chance to help out for years to come. We have seen ULL support multiple NFL-caliber running backs in the past (Trey Ragas and Elijah Mitchell), and he has given us no reason to doubt his talent so far.
Dominic Lovett
Missouri – WR – 0.8946 247 composite
Lovett is making his mark in a surprisingly adept Tigers offense. I am crazy about players who are featured in all facets of the offense, and Lovett is being schemed the ball in a variety of ways. He hauled in 3 of his 4 targets for 22 yards and added another 17 yards and a score on the ground. Lovett was a borderline bluechip recruit and is another who likely sits on your C2C waiver wire. If you are rebuilding, pick him up and hope he continues to blossom and get schemed the ball.
Quick Hits
Braelon Allen – Wisc
The big fella followed up his big debut with another 16 carries for 108 and a score against Army. #OnNotice.
Phil Mafah – Clemson
In his first two weeks of action, Mafah has 17 carries for 88 yards. The hoss is stepping up in a big way. So excited to see him get experience and develop.
Keagan Johnson – Iowa
Added another two grabs for 50 yards against Purdue to build on his big 4th quarter grab against Penn St.
Rocket Sanders – Arkansas
16 rushes for 64 yards against a solid Auburn defense. While he did not do a ton with the opportunities, the fact he was fed 16 carries is strongly encouraging.
Mason Tharp – Texas Tech
The 6’8” mountain of a man reeled in another 3 grabs for 38 yards against Kansas.
Adonai Mitchell – UGA
Built on his flash from last week, by nabbing 3 catches for 48 yards against Big Blue.
De’Zhaun Stribling – Wazzu
2 grabs for 27 yards and a score against Stanford. He is a priority add. He has carved out a role and is not going away, in a decently potent offense.
