College football Championship Week: 15 players to watch

It's rare for a quarterback to have led a team to a national championship and then be second in their conference in passing yards and yet stay under the radar. That's Stetson Bennett, who has become a sort of rags-to-riches story of college football. Bennett was a walk-on at Georgia in 2017 (the last time the Dawgs were SEC champs) but left the program when Justin Fields committed to the program. After a season at Jones County Community College, Bennett was recruited back to Georgia when Fields left for Ohio State and became Jake Fromm's backup. In 2020, Bennett ascended to starter status before losing his job to JT Daniels, and then took over for Daniels when the latter went down with an injury at the beginning of the 2021 season. The rest is history. Bennett is looking to be the first quarterback to win back-to-back championships as a starter since A.J. McCarron a decade ago.

Daniels is the unquestioned star for the Tigers this season. He leads LSU in both passing (2,566 yards, 15 TDs) and rushing (824 yards, 11 TDs). Daniels has played big in the Tigers' biggest games of late: he threw for 248 and 2 TDs while rushing for 121 yards and 3 TDs against Ole Miss; threw for 300 yards against Tennessee; and threw for 182 and rushed for 95 and totaled three touchdowns against Alabama. That bodes well for the Tigers' showdown with defending national champion Georgia in the SEC title game. 

Most people think of Michigan as a great defense and a powerful running game led by Blake Corum. Corum carried the ball just twice last week against Ohio State as he was nursing a knee injury which meant his backup Donovan Edwards needed to make plays ... and he certainly did. Edwards carried the ball 22 times for 216 yards and 2 TDs in the blowout win over the Buckeyes. Those two touchdown runs were back-breakers in the 4th quarter: he broke off a 75-yard TD run to give the Wolverines a 15-point lead and then followed it up with an 85-yard touchdown rump. Corum deserves all the praise, but Edwards has had some big games in the biggest moments, most notably 173 yards and 2 TDs against Penn State back in October. 

Franklin leads Conference USA in receiving touchdowns (11) and is third in receiving yards (956), and is the best receiver in Roadrunners history. He's also done it against Power 5 competition -- he caught 10 passes for 100 yards against Houston and had 6 receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown against Texas. Franklin is also coming off the best game of his season, piling up 126 yards and a touchdown against UTEP. However, his worst game of the season came against UTSA's opponent in the C-USA championship game, North Texas (6 catches, 21 yards). 

Haener's outstanding Fresno State career is winding down with a shot at winning a Mountain West title against Boise State on Saturday. Despite missing several weeks with a high ankle sprain suffered in a loss to USC, Haener is still among the league leaders in several passing categories, and the Bulldogs haven't lost since he returned to the lineup in late October. He's averaged 315.6 yards per game passing in the five games post-injury and has totaled 15 touchdowns, and his only two picks were in his first game back. Haener missed Fresno's 40-20 loss to Boise State and would love nothing more to light up the blue turf and bring home the Bulldogs' first Mountain West title since 2018.

Kurtis Rourke has been one of the MAC's top players all season, leading the conference in passing yards (3,256), and has thrown 25 touchdowns to just four interceptions. However, he suffered a knee injury two weeks ago against Ball State and is done for the season. His replacement, sophomore CJ Harris, had a choppy performance against Bowling Green last week. His passing stats weren't jaw-dropping -- 10 of 21, 196 yards, and a touchdown -- but he rushed for 65 yards and 3 TDs in the win. Harris is a different style quarterback than Rourke but is capable of leading the Bobcats to their first MAC championship since 1968. 

Purdue may be the least-known team that will be competing for a Power 5 championship this weekend, but wide receiver Charlie Jones is a name worth remembering. Jones led the Big Ten in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns (12, tied with Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr.). Quite a career for a guy who began his college career at Buffalo for two years before transferring to Iowa. He transferred to Purdue for his extra year of eligibility this season and has been crucial to the Boilermakers winning the Big Ten West division. Interestingly enough, this will be the second straight season Jones will face Michigan in the Big Ten title game. With the Hawkeyes last season, he caught just two passes for 41 yards in the 42-3 loss. 

During North Carolina's 9-1 start, redshirt quarterback Drake Maye was one of the most talked about up-and-comers in college football. He was considered a rising contender for the Heisman Trophy and the Tar Heels were getting some buzz as a team with an outside chance at getting into the College Football Playoff. The last two weeks have been unkind to Maye and the Heels as they blew a 17-point lead in a loss to Georgia Tech and then missed an overtime kick to lose to rival NC State last week. Here is some context: against Wake Forest three weeks ago, Maye threw for 448 yards and 3 TDs in a win. In their two losses since Maye combined for 435 yards and 1 touchdown pass. As tough as that may be, the Heels need to shake that off as they have a legitimate shot at winning their first ACC championship since 1980. Let's see if we get the old Drake Maye back.

Miller's best game of the season was in TCU's first meeting against Kansas State back on October 22nd. Miller led an 18-point comeback with 153 rushing yards and two second-half touchdowns to give the Horned Frogs a 38-28 win. That was the second of five straight 100-yard games (and seven for the season) for Miller, who has cooled off of late. He's only carried the ball 25 times over the last two games and totaled 113 yards, though he's scored three touchdowns. In fact, Miller has scored a touchdown in every game this season so expect the junior to find the endzone at least once in Arlington.

Utah is the lone team to beat USC this season, and they get another chance to do so with a Pac-12 title on the line. In that win over the Trojans, QB Cameron Rising threw for 415 yards and 2 touchdowns while also rushing for 60 yards and 3 TDs. The play of the game came with 48 seconds remaining in the game as Rising snuck in for a touchdown to cut the lead to 42-41. Instead of kicking the extra point to tie the game, the Utes went back to the well as Rising ran in the two-point conversion to win the game. More recently, Rising followed up an awful loss to Oregon (170 yards, 0 TD, 3 INT) with a nice bounce-back against Colorado (17 of 19, 234 yards, 3 TD). 

Spears led the American in rushing touchdowns (14) and is coming off a masterful performance against Cincinnati in the Green Wave's regular-season finale. He carried the ball a season-high 35 times for 181 yards (his sixth straight 100-yard game) and two touchdowns in the win. When Tulane lost to UCF three weeks ago, Spears carried the ball just eight times but gained 130 yards, buoyed by a 70-yard run. He's had an amazing comeback from suffering an ACL injury two years ago. 

It's rare that you have two teams limping into a conference championship game, but that's what we have in the ACC. While the Tar Heels have had an overall outstanding season despite their two-game losing skid, Clemson comes into the game with a lot of questions after another disappointing season. Sure, the Tigers finished undefeated in conference play, but losses to Notre Dame and, last week, against South Carolina have put some doubt in this program. A lot of that doubt sits squarely on quarterback DJ Uiagalelei's shoulders. Uiagalelei completed just 8 of 29 passes against South Carolina -- you read that right: 8 of 29 passes .  There's really no way to describe that kind of performance, but Dabo Swinney is sticking with his yearlong starter. Will he continue to do so if he has a rough start to the ACC title game? And is this the beginning of the end of the Uiagalelei era at Clemson? One of the more interesting storylines to watch this Saturday and beyond. 

Vaughn is coming off a brilliant game against Kansas, where he rushed for 147 yards, had 82 yards receiving, and scored a touchdown in a 47-27 victory that put the Wildcats in the Big 12 championship game. He has nearly rushed for 1,300 yards on the season and has scored a TD in his last six games. In Kansas State's earlier meeting with TCU, he rushed for 83 yards (47 of it came on a touchdown run), and last year he popped off 109 yards and 2 TDs against the Frogs. 

Troy's Kimani Vidal is coming into the Sun Belt championship game against Coastal Carolina on a tear. Two weeks ago, Vidal rushed for 242 yards and 2 touchdowns in a win over ULM. Last week, he piled up 208 yards and 4 TDs against Arkansas State. His performance against ULM has just a couple of yards shy of the school record and maximized the Trojans as a strong defensive team that can now run the ball all over you. 

Quarterback Caleb Williams has had quite a 16 months. He replaced Spencer Rattler at Oklahoma last season and then had his own ups and downs. When Lincoln Riley left the Sooners for USC, Williams followed, and it has been one of the best decisions he's ever made. He enters the final week before the Heisman voting begins as the clear favorite. Last week against Notre Dame, Williams threw for 232 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for 35 yards and 3 TDs. That gives Williams 3,712 passing yards, 44 total touchdowns, and just three interceptions on the season. Williams and Riley took a team that was 4-8 a year ago and has them not just playing for the Pac-12 championship but for their first berth in the College Football Playoff.  The Trojans' lone loss this season was to Utah back in October ... and they get to avenge that defeat. Despite that loss, if Williams plays as he did on that day (381 yards, 5 TDs), then he would likely wrap up the Heisman.