College football Week 8: 15 players to watch

One of the best games of the week will be in Eugene, where UCLA travels up to face Oregon. Running back Zach Charbonnet has been on fire of late, especially in big games. Last week against Utah, he chugged for 198 yards and a touchdown in the win. The prior week, he ran for 124 yards, added 56 yards receiving, and scored a touchdown against Washington. He really wants revenge on the Ducks, who held him down to just 35 yards rushing in a 35-31 loss at the Rose Bowl. 

Jalin Hyatt will be talking about what he did last week to generations of his own family as well as generations of Volunteers fans. Hyatt caught just six passes last week against Alabama, but five of them went for touchdowns. Yes ... five touchdowns against Alabama. And they weren't cheap ones either -- one of his TD grabs went for 60 yards to give the Vols the lead in the 3rd quarter. Another went for 78 yards to take the lead back in the 4th quarter. And there is the 13-yard touchdown pass to tie the game, 49-49, with 3:29 remaining. All told, those six receptions went for 207 yards, torching the Crimson Tide's defense. Hyatt won't reach those types of numbers this week as the Vols take a break from their brutal SEC slate to host UT-Martin. With games against Kentucky and Georgia coming up, look for the Vols to keep hot against the Skyhawks. 

Ibrahim has had a great Golden Gopher career and 2022 may be his finest season. The senior from Baltimore has rushed for 694 yards and 9 touchdowns this season and has rushed for over 100 yards in all five games he's played in. In fact, he's hit that 100-yard mark in each of his last 14 games. His importance cannot be understated: he missed the Purdue game with an ankle injury and the Gophers' offense looked lifeless in a 20-10 loss. Minnesota travels to Penn State for a primetime affair in a battle of two of the Big Ten's best backs. Ibrahim will be ready to pull off another special night.

With Ole Miss heading to LSU for CBS's game of the week, this is a great chance to see one of the top running backs in the nation, Quinshon Judkins. The freshman has already rushed for 720 yards and 10 touchdowns this season and is coming off a huge game against Auburn (139 rushing yards, 3 total TDs). He's scored at least one touchdown in the Rebels' last five games...and multiple TDs in four of those weeks. 

Adrian Martinez has been one of the nicest reclamation projects in college football this year. He was much maligned for not reaching the lofty expectations placed on him while at Nebraska for the last four years, but he's reaching that potential at Kansas State. That's not to say it's been easy -- he had nightmare games against Missouri and Tulane (the latter, a loss) where it looked like the Wildcats were going to have the same frustrations Cornhuskers fans did -- but he's settled in nicely, and has K-State at 5-1 and the halfway point. Since that loss to Tulane, he's put up these stats in three wins: completing 63.5% of his passes for 596 yards and 3 TDs, while rushing for 396 yards and 7 TDs. He even caught an 11-yard pass last week against Iowa State. Most importantly, he hasn't turned the ball over at all this season, something that haunted him at Nebraska. Kansas State is now ranked 17th, are tied for the Big 12 lead with TCU ... their opponent this week.

The Bearcats are a few mental mistakes against Arkansas away from being undefeated, and Cincy has a great look at reaching a New Year's Six bowl game. The play of running back Charles McClelland has been a big reason for the hope. The senior has taken full advantage of his opportunity to become the 'Cats' featured back, rushing for 502 yards and 5 touchdowns this year. He was absolutely huge in Cincinnati's last game, a 28-24 win over South Florida, where he ran for 179 yards and two touchdowns -- including the go-ahead score in the middle of the 4th quarter. Cincinnati heads to SMU next for what could be a shootout. 

Bo Nix left an unstable situation at Auburn and was immediately spanked in his first game as an Oregon Duck...losing to Georgia 49-3. Instead of hanging his head, he has turned around his season and the Ducks'. Since that loss, Nix has completed 74% of his passes for 1,353 yards, 12 touchdowns, and just one interception (he threw two against Georgia). He's also been getting in done with his legs, rushing for 294 yards and 8 touchdowns in those games. In fact, he's rushed for 211 yards and 5 TDs combined in wins over Arizona and Stanford. Now Oregon has a big test against an improved and undefeated UCLA on Saturday. 

Tulane is ranked for the first time since 1998, which was the season the Green Wave went 12-0 under head coach Tommy Bowden and quarterback Shaun King. This year's team is led by Michael Pratt, who is coming off two sparkling performances. Against East Carolina, Pratt completed 27 of 34 passes for 326 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another. Last week against South Florida, he threw for 329 yards and two TDs and rushed for another two scores. This team is legit, as they gave Kansas State its lone loss of the season, and they'll close out the season with arguably the best teams in the AAC (UCF, SMU, Cincinnati). This week, they'll host Memphis. 

Oklahoma State may be coming off a heartbreaking loss to TCU, but they've been getting consistency from running back Dominic Richardson. This is Richardson's first season as a starter after being a solid backup for the last two years, and he's rewarding everyone's patience. Against the Horned Frogs, he rushed for 72 yards and a rushing touchdown -- his third straight game with a rushing TD and fifth in six games. He also was a factor in the passing game, catching three passes for 79 yards, highlighted by a 44-yard reception. Oklahoma State hosts Texas in a huge Big 12 matchup on Saturday.  

If you've followed this series all year, you know full well that I'm all about Bijan Robinson. Once again, he's a player to watch because he's just so good and just so important. Last week Robinson owned the game against Iowa State, rushing for 135 yards and even catching four passes for 36 yards. He leads the Big 12 in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns has five straight 100-yard rushing games and has scored a touchdown in all but one game. The Horns head to Oklahoma State for a pivotal matchup where the loser could find themselves behind the 8-ball in the conference championship game chase. The last time these two met, Robinson rushed for 135 yards and scored three TDs. 

There may not be a player to watch more interesting than Mississippi State's Will Rogers. Rogers is 4th nationally in passing yards and his 23 touchdown passes rank third. Needless to say, he's had some big days this season, but he's also had a couple of down ones as well. In losses to LSU and last week against Kentucky, he's averaged just 208 yards passing and threw just two TDs total. Now he gets to take on an angry Alabama defense that just let Tennessee light them up in historic fashion. Last year, Rogers did pass for 300 yards against Bama but threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. What will happen this Saturday?

Sanders was a major reason with the Cowboys were contenders for a spot in the College Football Playoff until they lost in the Big 12 title game, and he's the reason Oklahoma State could get back to play for the conference championship. Sanders may not be the most accurate passer (he's completed just 47% of his passes over the last two games), but he makes plays with his arm (he did throw for 542 combined yards in those games) and legs (and rushed for 124 yards and 4 TDs as well). Last week's double-overtime loss to TCU stings, but Texas is coming in riding a three-game winning streak. Sanders needs to come up big in this one. 

After a couple of so-so games against Boston College and NC State, Will Shipley had a great game last week against Florida State. He rushed for 121 yards on just 20 carries and also caught six passes for 48 yards. Shipley even had a 69-yard kickoff return to begin the second half that set up a touchdown. He'll need to string two good games together if the Tigers want to stay undefeated, as Clemson hosts 6-0 Syracuse on Saturday afternoon. 

I'll admit it: I've taken C.J. Stroud for granted so far this season. Part of the reason is that I expected him to have an outstanding season and be a Heisman candidate with all those weapons the Buckeyes have to work with. Another is that Ohio State hasn't really hit the power part of its schedule yet. Well, the Buckeyes welcome Iowa's stingy defense to the Horseshoe, and Stroud has been exceeding everyone's expectations. He's completing over 70% of his passes for 1,737 yards and is tied with North Carolina's Drake Maye for the national lead in touchdown passes (24). And he's done all this despite a slew of injuries to those aforementioned skill guys that have hurt some of the continuity. One thing we can count on is Stroud, who is right now the clear Heisman favorite. So let's see what he can do against that Iowa defense that has allowed under 10 points per game this season. 

The ACC's Atlantic Division has been really something, as all the contenders have been battling out over the last month. This week we get Syracuse and Clemson putting their unbeaten marks against each other. Orange running back Sean Tucker has been on a bit of a tear of late, building on his 232-yard-3-TD performance against Wagner two weeks ago by putting up 98 yards and a touchdown against NC State last week. In last year's game against Clemson, Tucker rushed for 157 yards in a 17-14 loss at the dome.