Ranking college football’s top 25 players of the 2000s: Cam Newton tops Reggie Bush at No. 1

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Editor’s note: All week, The Athletic is looking back at the best of the first 25 years of the 2000s in college football. Read the top 25 teams here and check back for the top 25 coaches, games and programs.

Over the past few weeks, I reached out to around three dozen coaches, TV analysts and NFL scouts. I had a simple question to ask that proved to be more complicated than expected: Who do you think is the best college player over the past 25 years?

My experts came at it from a bunch of different perspectives. Can one amazing season overshadow an excellent body of work? How much should stats, level of competition or the players around them factor in? How do you compare offensive linemen to quarterbacks or defensive tackles to wide receivers? One of my experts, a Heisman Trophy winner himself, told me at the end of our conversation that his top-25 ranking “probably needs to be a top 100” because of how many deserving players would get left out.

As we look back at the best of the first 25 years of the 2000s in college football, here’s my ranking of the top 25 players:

25. Quenton Nelson, G, Notre Dame

A 6-foot-5, 325-pounder from New Jersey, Nelson redshirted his freshman year in 2014 before becoming a standout three-year starter at guard. In his senior season, Nelson in 2017, Nelson was a unanimous All-American and a big reason why the Irish averaged 6.25 yards per carry — third-best in the nation — despite not having a star running back.

CBS analyst Aaron Taylor, a former Notre Dame great, heads the committee for the Joe Moore Award, which honors the nation’s top O-line. He called Nelson “a neanderthal throwback,” describing him as “blunt force trauma wrapped in ballet slippers. Brute strength, bad intentions, and just nimble enough to force you to question your love of football out on the perimeter.”

24. Tyrann Mathieu, DB, LSU

Career: 133 tackles, 16 TFLs, 4 INTs, 11 FFs, 4 total TDs

Best season: 2011; 76 tackles, 7.5 TFLs, 2 INTs, 6 FFs, 2 defensive TDs, 2 PR TDs

The 5-8, 183-pound New Orleans native was one of the most dynamic defensive players we’ve ever seen. He actually started only 14 games in his career with LSU from 2010-11, but he caused relentless havoc and was a playmaker on both defense and special teams. He came from everywhere, starting 10 games at cornerback, three at nickel and one at free safety. When some teams prepared for LSU, they saw him as a strong-side linebacker because of how he was often deployed.

“He was a beast,” said former Fox Sports analyst Mark Ingram, the 2009 Heisman Trophy winner at Alabama.

In 2011, Mathieu finished fifth in the Heisman voting as the centerpiece of a defense that gave up 11.3 points per game in leading LSU to the BCS title game. His career with the Tigers ended earlier than expected when he was dismissed from the team before the 2012 season due to a violation of team rules. He’s gone on to become a three-time All-Pro in the NFL.

“I know it didn’t end well for him at LSU, but that year, he was exceptional,” said Nebraska offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, a former head coach at West Virginia and Houston. “He just made play after play after play — gimme that! The Honey Badger just doesn’t give a f—, right? He just makes plays.”

23. Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia

Career: 175 catches, 2,538 yards, 26 TDs; 19 carries, 193 yards, 5 TDs

Best season: 2022; 63 catches, 942 yards, 7 TDs; 9 carries, 109 yards, 3 TDs

The Napa, Calif., native proved to be a unique weapon for the Bulldogs almost from the moment he arrived in Athens in 2021. The 6-4, 240-pound athlete was part tight end, part wideout, part running back, part utility knife, allowing him to create mismatches all over the field. He led national champion Georgia with 56 catches as a freshman. The next year in Georgia’s national title win over TCU, Bowers had seven catches for 152 yards and one TD.

Bowers was the Dawgs’ go-to guy whenever they really needed something. He’s the only two-time winner of the John Mackey Award, given to the nation’s top tight end.

22. Sean Taylor, S, Miami

Career: 188 tackles, 14 INTs, 3 TDs

Best season: 2003; 77 tackles, 10 INTs, 3 TDs

A 6-2, 230-pound former Florida state 100-meter champion, Taylor was perhaps the most intimidating safety who has ever played football. He was one of only four true freshmen who saw the field on the 2001 Hurricanes — ranked Monday by Stewart Mandel as the best team of the century so far — making 26 tackles. In 2002, as a starter, he had 85 tackles and four interceptions, including two in the national title game loss to Ohio State. In his third season, he led the nation in interceptions and set a school record with three pick sixes.

Sean Taylor was the Big East’s defensive player of the year in 2003. (Al Bello / Getty Images)

21. Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU/Arizona State

Career: 12,749 yards, 66.3%, 89 TDs, 20 INTs, 158.4 rating; 617 rushes, 3,307 yards, 34 TDs

Best season: 2023; 3,812 yards, 72.2%, 40 TDs, 4 INTs, 208.0 rating; 135 rushes, 1,134 yards, 10 TDs

Daniels didn’t lead LSU to a national title in his second act in college football, but he capped a five-year college career with a spectacular senior season in Baton Rouge. He played three seasons at ASU and had some good moments, including a 17-to-2 TD-to-INT ratio as a freshman in 2019, but in his last year with the Sun Devils, who were falling apart under Herm Edwards, he threw as many interceptions (10) as touchdowns.

At LSU, Daniels flourished. He had a couple of elite receivers (Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr.) and bought into how cutting-edge technology could transform how he saw the game. The German VR “flight simulator” that Daniels trained with helped the QB make staggering improvement. He averaged 11.7 yards per attempt and set a single-season FBS record with a pass efficiency rating of 208.0 en route to winning the 2023 Heisman Trophy.

20. Aaron Donald, DT, Pitt

Career: 181 tackles, 67 TFLs, 29.5 sacks, 10 PBUs, 6 FFs

Best season: 2013; 59 tackles, 29 TFLs, 11 sacks, 3 PBUs, 4 FFs

Everything Donald was doing in the NFL for the Rams he first did for Pitt. He had at least 16 tackles for loss in three consecutive seasons, capping his career by winning just about every college award a D-lineman can get in 2013: the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award, Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award.

“His production was off the charts,” said NFL Network’s Bucky Brooks, a former NFL scout. “It was ridiculous for a D-tackle to have that kind of stuff. He dominated.”

In all, his 67 tackles for loss lead all defensive tackles in the 2000s.

19. Julius Peppers, DE, North Carolina

Career: 177 tackles, 53 TFLs, 30.5 sacks, 5 INTs, 2 INTs, 5 FFs, 3 TDs

Best season: 2000; 2000; 64 tackles, 24 TFLs, 15 sacks, 1 INT, 2 TDs

There’s been a remarkable run of freakish, super-sized power forwards coming off the edge in college football the past 25 years — Jadeveon Clowney, Myles Garrett and Chase Young to name a few — but the 6-7, 285-pound Peppers was actually a legit power forward on the basketball court for the Tar Heels. (In one NCAA tourney game, Peppers had 21 points and 10 rebounds.) But it was in football where he really shined.

He led the nation in sacks and had a school-record 24 TFLs in 2000 before winning both the Bednarik Award and Lombardi Award in 2001. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2024.

18. Roy Williams, S, Oklahoma

Career: 287 tackles, 34 TFLs, 9 INTs, 44 PBUs

Best season: 2001; 107 tackles, 14 TFLs, 5 INTs, 22 PBUs

A standout on the Sooners’ 2000 national title team, the 6-1, 220-pound California native set a BCS national title game record for most tackles by a defensive back with 12 as Oklahoma shut down Florida State 13-2.

The next season, as a junior, Williams became the first player to win both the Nagurski Trophy, as the nation’s top defensive player, and the Thorpe Award, honoring the country’s best defensive back.

Williams’ signature play happened in the 2001 Red River Rivalry game with Texas pinned deep near its goal with two minutes remaining and OU clinging to a 7-3 lead. Williams crowded the line before the snap, backed up, then blitzed, racing in and leaping over Longhorns running back Brett Robin, nearly swiping the ball out of Chris Simms’ hand. The ball bounced into the hands of Teddy Lehman, who grabbed the fluttering ball and scored to propel Oklahoma to a 14-3 win.

17. Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford

Career: 632 rushes, 3,922 yards, 21 TDs; 99 catches, 1,206 yards, 10 TDs; 26.4 yards per KR, 11.2 yards per PR, 2 return TDs

Best season: 2015; 337 rushes, 2,019 yards, 8 TDs; 45 catches, 645 yards, 5 TDs; 28.9 yards per KR, 8.7 yards per PR, 2 return TDs

The son of former Cardinal soccer player Lisa McCaffrey and wide receiver Ed McCaffrey had a solid debut season in 2014, but he really cranked things up as a sophomore, smashing Barry Sanders’ NCAA all-purpose yardage record of 3,250 yards with 3,864 yards as a runner, receiver and return man (he even threw two TD passes too). McCaffrey finished second to Alabama’s Derrick Henry in a close Heisman vote. In 2016, the 5-11, 202-pound Colorado native led the country in all-purpose yards again with 212 per game.

16. Chase Young, DE, Ohio State

Career: 99 tackles, 43 TFLs, 30.5 sacks, 8 PBUs, 9 FFs

Best season: 2019; 46 tackles, 21 TFLs, 16.5 sacks, 3 PBUs, 6 FFs

The Buckeyes have had almost as impressive a run of elite D-linemen as they have had with stud wideouts. The 6-6, 270-pound Young was at his best in 2019 when he became a legit Heisman contender after he dominated a top-15 Wisconsin team that had allowed only 10 sacks in its first seven games. Ohio State got half of that in a 38-7 blowout win, with Young producing four of those sacks and five TFLs.

According to Pro Football Focus, Young produced five of the top nine highest-graded games by a pass rusher in the FBS in 2019, including the top three. He won the Bednarik Award and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and keyed the nation’s No. 1 defense that allowed fewer than 260 yards per game, and he finished fourth in the Heisman race despite missing two games.

15. Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon

Career: 10,796 yards, 66.8%, 105 TDs, 14 INTs, 171.8 rating; 337 rushes, 2,237 yards, 29 TDs

Best season: 2014; 4,454 yards, 68.3%, 42 TDs, 4 INTs, 181.7 rating; 135 rushes, 770 yards, 15 TDs

A three-star recruit from Hawaii, the soft-spoken 6-4 220-pound Mariota was bigger than you think — and faster too. He made everything look easy. In three seasons, Mariota totaled 134 touchdowns with just 14 interceptions. He took home the 2014 Heisman Trophy, earning over 88 percent of the first-place votes while leading Oregon to the national title game.

In the CFP semifinals against FSU, Mariota threw for 338 yards to go with 62 rushing yards as the Ducks blew out the Noles 59-20. But Oregon lost in the title game, 42-20, against Ohio State. In his career at Oregon, Mariota was 12-3 in games against ranked opponents. All 12 of those wins came by double digits, with the Ducks averaging 48.5 points in those games.

Baker Mayfield had three consecutive top-four Heisman finishes. (Andy Lyons / Getty Images)

14. Baker Mayfield, QB, Oklahoma/Texas Tech

Career: 14,607 yards, 68.5%, 131 TDs, 30 INTs, 175.4 rating; 404 rushes, 1,083 yards, 21 TDs

Best season: 2017; 4,627 yards, 70.5%, 43 TDs, 6 INTs, 198.9 rating; 94 rushes, 311 yards, 5 TDs

Mayfield won the starting job as a walk-on freshman at Texas Tech in 2013 before transferring to Oklahoma, where he also initially walked on. He flourished in Lincoln Riley’s system, leading the Sooners to three Big 12 titles and two Playoff bids and finishing in the top four of the Heisman race three years in a row, including winning the award in 2017.

Mayfield was at his best when the spotlight was brightest. In his return game to Lubbock, facing all sorts of animosity from the Red Raiders crowd, Mayfield passed for 545 yards and seven TDs (with no INTs) in a 66-59 win to outduel Patrick Mahomes. In 2017, he threw for 386 yards and three TDs, completing 77 percent of his passes in a blowout win at No. 5 Ohio State. He later shredded rival Oklahoma State for 598 passing yards and five TDs in a 62-52 win in Stillwater. He threw for seven TDs and zero picks in two games against top-10 TCU that season and had No. 2 Georgia on the ropes in a 54-48 loss in the CFP semifinal.

13. DeVonta Smith, WR, Alabama

Career: 235 catches, 3,965 yards, 46 TDs

Best season: 2020; 117 catches, 1,856 yards, 23 TDs

The Louisiana native broke onto the national scene by catching a 41-yard touchdown pass on a second-and-26 in overtime to give Bama a 26-23 win over Georgia in the 2017 national title game. The spindly 6-0, 170-pounder made big strides each season after that. By 2019, his junior season, Smith was one of the best players in college football, catching 68 passes for 1,256 yards and 14 touchdowns.

The next season, Smith was the best player in college football, putting together the most spectacular season by a wideout in major college football history to win the Heisman Trophy. In the national title game against Ohio State, Smith had 12 catches for 215 yards and three TDs despite leaving early in the second half with a hand injury.

“DeVonta Smith was like watching an Olympic gymnast,” said CBS college football analyst Rick Neuheisel. “He always stuck the landing. He was incredibly graceful no matter where the ball was.”

12. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford

Career: 9,430 yards, 67%, 82 TDs, 22 INTs, 162.8 rating; 163 rushes, 957 yards, 7 TDs

Best season: 2010; 3,338 yards, 70.7%, 32 TDs, 8 INTs, 170.2 rating; 55 rushes, 453 yards, 3 TDs

When Luck committed to the Cardinal in the summer of 2007, Stanford was coming off a 1-11 season. It was arguably the worst program in the power conferences. He was Jim Harbaugh’s most important recruit in turning the program from punchline to powerhouse. The 6-4, 235-pound Luck was big, fast and accurate. The valedictorian of his high school in Houston, Luck fit in perfectly with what made Stanford so special at that time, as much off the field as on it.

After redshirting in 2008, he beat out returning starter Tavita Pritchard and led the Cardinal to wins over No. 8 Oregon and No. 9 USC in 2009, with Stanford scoring over 50 points in both games. The next season, the Cardinal went 12-1, pounded Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl and finished No. 4 in the country. Even after Harbaugh left for the NFL and David Shaw took over, Luck helped keep Stanford as a force, producing an 11-2 season.

“The only time I can remember during my scouting career where they told me, ‘This guy teaches the install on the first day of camp.’ They just let him get up there and teach it,” said NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a former NFL scout. “They give him multiple huddle calls and let him run the game at the line of scrimmage. He just had more intellectual power than anybody I’ve ever scouted.”

In his three seasons, Luck was a Heisman Trophy runner-up twice. He had a 31-7 record as a starter before becoming the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.

“He took the program where no one thought it could go, taking them to two straight BCS bowls in the height of college football,” said ESPN analyst Steve Coughlin, a Stanford tight end in the late ’90s. “He put them on the map, and (top) other players followed after they saw it could be done.”

11. Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Pitt

Career: 161 catches, 2,677 yards, 34 TDs

Best season: 2003; 92 catches, 1,672 yards, 22 TDs

The Panthers were hardly known for prolific passing attacks in the early 2000s. Fitzgerald’s QB at Pitt, Rod Rutherford, never threw a pass in the NFL. In the year before and the year after Fitzgerald’s two seasons, Pitt wideouts caught a combined 32 touchdown passes — two fewer than the 6-3, 220-pounder from Minnesota had in his record-setting two seasons in college.

In 2003, Fitzgerald often faced double and triple coverage but became the first sophomore to win the Walter Camp Award for national player of the year. He finished second in the Heisman vote to Oklahoma quarterback Jason White.

10. Terrell Suggs, DE, Arizona State

Career: 163 tackles, 65.5 TFLs, 44 sacks, 14 FFs, 2 INTs, 9 PBUs

Best season: 2002; 73 tackles, 31.5 TFLs, 24 sacks, 6 FFs, 1 INT, 3 PBUs

The 2000 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, Suggs was a menace, bursting onto the scene with 16 TFLs and 10 sacks. And that was just a taste of what he had in store for opponents. In 2001, he had 18 TFLs and four forced fumbles. As a junior, the 6-2, 265-pound edge rusher tore apart opposing offenses, setting an NCAA record with 24 sacks to go along with 31.5 TFLs and six forced fumbles, sparking ASU to its first winning season in six years. Suggs had 4.5 sacks and 6.5 TFLs in one game against Washington.

“He was unblockable,” Rick Neuheisel, the Washington coach at the time, said recently. “He was a great combination of speed, power and great hand strength, and had so much grit. He had it all.”

9. Travis Hunter, CB/WR, Colorado/Jackson State

Career: 171 catches, 2,167 yards, 15 TDs; 80 tackles, 9 INTs, 22 PBUs, 1 FF

Best season: 2024; 96 catches, 1,258 yards, 15 TDs; 36 tackles, 4 INTs, 11 PBUs, 1 FF

The five-star recruit shocked the college football world by beginning his college career with Deion Sanders and Jackson State in the FCS. Then he followed Sanders to Colorado and became the greatest two-way player in the modern era of football.

There have been a few other elite athletes who have played both ways in college, but the best of them, shutdown corners Charles Woodson and Champ Bailey, merely dabbled on offense. The 6-1, 185-pound Hunter not only won the Heisman Trophy in 2024, but he also won the Biletnikoff Award as the top receiver and the Bednarik Award as the top defensive player. In 2023, Hunter played a total of 1,102 snaps (475 on offense, 631 on defense, 32 on special teams), an average of 115 per game. He averaged 114 snaps in 2024.

His rare instincts and burst make him a nightmare for rival QBs and DBs. But it’s his gas tank that truly makes Hunter unique, and that includes all the “wow” plays he made late in games.

Travis Hunter played more than 700 snaps on both offense and defense in 2024. (Andrew Wevers / Getty Images)

8. Tim Tebow, QB, Florida

Career: 9,285 yards, 66.4%, 88 TDs, 16 INTs, 170.8 rating; 692 rushes, 2,947 yards, 57 TDs

Best season: 2007; 3,286 yards, 66.9%, 32 TDs, 6 INTs, 172.5 rating; 210 rushes, 895 yards, 23 TDs

The H-back-sized quarterback was a force, bulldozing his way upfield as a runner while also spreading the field to take advantage of the Gators’ speed and weapons. Tebow helped Florida win the 2006 national title as a change-up runner behind Chris Leak. The next year, it was his show. UF went 9-4, but he won the Heisman by accounting for 55 total touchdowns.

In 2008, he led Florida to another national title, throwing 16 touchdowns and no picks over the final six games. He was the face and leader of a talented but volatile locker room. It made for an interesting mix, but they won a ton of games and he put up eye-popping stats. The 6-3, 235-pound lefty had one of the most prolific careers in college football history, going to New York as a Heisman finalist three times.

7. Vince Young, QB, Texas

Career: 6,040 yards, 61.8%, 44 TDs, 28 INTs, 163.9 rating; 457 rushes, 3,127 yards, 37 TDs

Best season: 2005; 3,036 yards, 65.2%, 26 TDs, 10 INTs, 163.9 rating; 155 rushes, 1,050 yards, 12 TDs

Texas hadn’t won a national title in 35 years before Young got rolling. There were some growing pains with Young and the Longhorns early in his career, but coach Mack Brown ended up giving Young the keys to the offense and UT took off. He ran for four touchdowns and 199 yards in a 38-37 win over Michigan in the Rose Bowl to cap the 2004 season, then became the first player to throw for over 3,000 yards and rush for over 1,000 in the same season in 2005.

He saved his best game for last when undefeated Texas faced USC, which was riding a 34-game winning streak. The Trojans had a 12-point lead with under seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter but they just couldn’t stop Young, who ran in two late touchdowns to propel the Longhorns to the win.

“They had always had the talent, but he gave them the swagger and the confidence, which was exactly what they needed,” said CBS college football analyst Brian Jones, a former star linebacker at Texas. “He transformed that locker room. He was so special. To his credit, Mack allowed him to take control. He recognized that, ‘OK this dude is different.’”

6. Ed Reed, S, Miami

Career: 288 tackles, 21 INTs, 52 PBUs, 7 TFLs, 4 FFs, 5 TDs

Best season: 2001; 44 tackles, 9 INTs, 18 PBUs, 1 TFL, 206 INT return yards, 2 TDs

Reed was the best player and inspirational leader of the 2001 Hurricanes, who Stewart Mandel ranked as the best team of the 2000s. When Reed showed up at Miami in 1997, the Canes were reeling from hefty NCAA sanctions. He played a critical role in the rebuild. They went from No. 20 to No. 15 to No. 2 to No. 1 in his four seasons after redshirting.

Reed saw the game differently than perhaps any defensive back. He was often three steps ahead of rival quarterbacks, setting traps for them. He holds UM records for interceptions with 21, interception return yardage with 389 and pick sixes with five. Reed was also a demon on special teams, blocking four punts. He sparked a Miami defense that led the nation in 2001 in interceptions (27) and total turnovers forced (45).

“You needed to know where Ed Reed was at all times,” said Rick Neuheisel, who coached against Reed twice in college and later was on the Ravens’ staff when Reed was an All-Pro. “He was fantastic. Just a special, special athlete.”

5. Lamar Jackson, QB, Louisville

Career: 9,043 yards, 57%, 69 TDs, 27 INTs, 146.6 rating; 655 rushes, 4,132 yards, 50 TDs

Best season: 2016; 3,543 yards, 56.2%, 30 TDs, 9 INTs, 148.8 rating; 260 rushes, 1,571 yards, 21 TDs

A three-star recruit from South Florida, Jackson became a spectacular one-man show at Louisville. He was as dynamic a runner as Michael Vick but a much more prolific passer.

He carried the Cardinals to a 9-4 record and No. 20 final ranking in 2016, which included a close 42-36 loss to eventual national champion Clemson in Death Valley. In that game, Jackson ran for 162 yards and two touchdowns and passed for 295 yards and another touchdown. In one dazzling breakout performance at Syracuse, he ran for 199 yards and passed for 411 yards with eight total touchdowns. The week after the Syracuse game, he led Louisville to a 63-20 romp over No. 2 FSU behind his four rushing touchdowns, putting up the most points the Noles had ever allowed in a game.

Vick, watching it all, tweeted: “Lamar Jackson 5x better than I was at V-Tech.”

Jackson ran away with the Heisman Trophy in 2016, getting 80 percent of the first-place votes to become the youngest player to ever win it at 19. The next year, Jackson rushed for 1,601 yards and 18 touchdowns despite defenses being so geared up to slow him down. When Jackson left, the Cardinals fell to 2-10 and 0-8 in the ACC and Bobby Petrino was fired.

4. Joe Burrow, QB, LSU

Career: 8,852 yards, 68.8%, 78 TDs, 11 INTs, 172.4 rating; 258 rushes, 820 yards, 13 TDs

Best season: 2019; 5,671 yards, 76.3%, 60 TDs, 6 INTs, 202.0 rating; 115 rushes, 368 yards, 5 TDs

The pilot of the most explosive offense in college football history, Burrow was the perfect QB at the perfect time for the Tigers. He was passed over at Ohio State but blossomed in Baton Rouge, where he wowed coaches with his remarkable grasp of football when they did a film session with him. He exuded leadership and competitiveness and had a commanding presence far beyond any college quarterback I’ve ever seen. The expression “like a coach on the field” gets thrown around a lot. In Burrow’s case in 2019, it was a real thing. The son of a former college defensive coordinator, Burrow seemed like a 30-year-old NFL QB.

In his first season with the Tigers, Burrow was good, but neither he nor LSU was quite ready. Late in that season, LSU went to more empty sets and bought into the run-pass option game, giving the QB the keys to the team. It unlocked everything.

“Joe studied football like a coach,” said Ed Orgeron, LSU’s coach. “He also really knew his guys’ personalities. He knew what they did well and what they didn’t do so well. He knew what everybody else was supposed to be doing, which is rare for a college player. And our guys really were dialed into him because they had so much respect and trust in him because they’d seen the toughness and character he’d displayed.”

In 2019, Burrow completed 76.3 percent of his passes for 5,671 yards with 60 touchdowns and just six INTs. In the Tigers’ three postseason games, LSU faced three other star quarterbacks: Georgia’s Jake Fromm, Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts and Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence. LSU blew all three out. Burrow threw 16 touchdowns and zero interceptions against those three top-four opponents. Fromm, Hurts and Lawrence combined for one touchdown and three picks. Burrow’s Tigers faced five teams ranked in the top eight, beat all of them and blew out four of the five.

Yes, Burrow had an elite group of receivers, led by Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase, and a veteran O-line, but the QB was magnificent in how he operated everything.

“Burrow was unique as hell,” Rick Neuheisel said. “He was a savant. He had the acumen for an offensive guy that would rival anybody but he also had the acumen for the defensive side because his dad was a defensive coordinator.”

3. Ndamukong Suh, DT, Nebraska

Career: 215 tackles, 50 TFLs, 24 sacks, 4 INTs, 3 FFs, 2 TDs

Best season: 2009; 85 tackles, 21 TFLs, 12 sacks, 1 INT, 1 FF

The Huskers were a good team in 2009 but hardly a national title contender, finishing 10-4 and No. 14. But thanks in large part to the 6-4, 310-pound Suh, Nebraska held eight of its opponents to 10 points or fewer.

Suh destroyed offenses like no player we’ve seen over the past quarter-century. He led Nebraska in tackles for the second consecutive season with 85, the most by a Huskers D-lineman in 35 years. His performance in the Big 12 title game against a Texas team that came in averaging 43 points per game was jaw-dropping.

“You saw on film him get off of blocks, destroy double-teams and saw how disruptive he was,” said then-Texas running backs coach Major Applewhite, now the head coach at South Alabama. “You could slide your line to him, it didn’t matter. At the end of the day, it got back to one-on-ones, and he was gonna whip people’s asses.”

With Suh disrupting everything the Longhorns tried, Texas managed just 13 points, eking out a 13-12 win. Suh’s stats — 12 tackles, seven for loss and 4.5 sacks — don’t even tell half the story of the problems he caused UT that day.

“Your double teams don’t move him,” Applewhite said. “What he did that day was exactly the definition of ruining a game.”

Suh finished fourth in the Heisman voting. He won the Lombardi Award, Nagurski Award, Outland Trophy and the Bednarik Award. He became the first defensive player to win the Associated Press College Player of the Year Award since it was created 11 years earlier.

2. Reggie Bush, RB, USC

Career: 433 rushes, 3,169 yards, 25 TDs; 95 catches, 13,01 yards, 13 TDs; 4 return TDs

Best season: 2005; 200 rushes, 1,740 yards, 16 TDs; 37 catches, 478 yards, 2 TDs; 1 return TD

Arguably the most electrifying player in college football history, Bush helped the Trojans win national titles in his first two seasons and then won the Heisman in his third. In 2005, he averaged 223 all-purpose yards per game, including a memorable Saturday night when he went for 513 against Fresno State. His knack for game-changing plays was uncanny.

“He single-handedly won us some games,” said Orgeron, a former USC assistant.

When I asked experts for their take on the best player of the 2000s, Bush’s name came up by far the most.

“The only perfect grade I ever gave to a college player was Reggie,” Daniel Jeremiah said. “He was a jaw-dropping college player. He was so much better than everybody else on the field, it wasn’t even close. You went out of your way to watch him. He was literally must-see TV.”

1. Cam Newton, QB, Auburn

FBS career: 2,908 yards, 65.4%, 30 TDs, 7 INTs, 178.2 rating; 285 rushes, 1,586 yards, 24 TDs

Best season: 2010; 2,854 yards, 66.1%, 30 TDs, 7 INTs, 182.0 rating; 264 rushes, 1,473 yards, 20 TDs

He was college football’s Superman. He spent only one year at Auburn, transferring from Blinn College in Texas after starting his career at Florida, but it was the most remarkable single season by a major college quarterback in the history of the sport — enough to put him atop this list.

The towering 6-5, 250-pound Newton ran through the hardest conference in college football, leading the Tigers to a 14-0 record. The most remarkable detail of Newton’s dominance that year was he led Gene Chizik’s Auburn squad — ranked No. 23 in the preseason — to a perfect record and did it shouldering a load unlike any other national champion QB we’ve ever seen. He didn’t have a single skill player drafted. Only tackles Brandon Mosley (fourth round) and Lee Ziemba (seventh round) were picked on the O-line. The entire starting defense had only two players drafted.

“He played with nobody,” Bucks Brooks said. “He was just a force of nature.”

In his first game with the Tigers, Newton set an Auburn QB rushing record with 171 yards against Arkansas State. He ran for over 170 yards in five of the Tigers’ first seven games. In the Iron Bowl against Alabama, Newton carried the Tigers to a 28-27 victory in Tuscaloosa after being in a 24-0 hole. In the SEC title game rout of South Carolina, he threw four touchdown passes and ran for two more, accounting for 408 yards.

Asked how many games this Auburn team would’ve won in 2010 without Newton, ESPN analyst Cole Cubelic, a former Auburn center, said: “Six, maybe seven.”

Auburn was 8-5 the year before Newton arrived and 8-5 the year after he left. With Newton, the Tigers ran the table, winning five games by three points or fewer, including the national title matchup with Oregon. They scored over 50 points six times, something they did only three times in Chizik’s other three seasons combined at Auburn. They also won as many SEC games in that one season with Newton (nine, including the conference title game) as they did in the two seasons before Cam and the two after him combined.

“He just dragged a bunch of average college players to the national championship,” Daniel Jeremiah said. “We always talk about the difference between trucks and the trailers — the quarterbacks that get pulled by the team versus the ones who pull the team. From a college football standpoint, there was no bigger truck than Cam Newton.”

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Robert Beck / Sports Illustrated / Getty, Rich Barnes, John David Mercer, Dale Zanine / Imagn Images)

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Top-50 prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft

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NHL playoff predictions 2025: Conference final winners, Stanley Cup champion and MVP

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