NFL Draft can wait: 5 true freshmen who are already dominating college football

In the scouting world, we are always looking for the newest sensation. This year, college football is offering plenty of options with true freshmen ranking among some of this year’s most exhilarating performers.

Before breaking down the who’s who among our October list of the Top 5 freshmen in college football — complete with scouting reports and player comps — it is worth explaining why many first-year players are making such an immediate impact.

[Related: Why Colorado’s Travis Hunter is an unprecedented NFL Draft prospect]

Certainly, the players themselves deserve a great deal of credit. Advanced training and coaching at the high school (and even earlier) levels have also made an undeniable impact.

Perhaps even more significant are the new rules of today’s college football. Coaches no longer have the luxury of redshirting supremely talented underclassmen in the hopes of saving them for future seasons. Those players now have the option of transferring elsewhere in search of more immediate playing time or NIL opportunities.

That was the case, for example, with Pitt’s quarterback Eli Holstein, who began his college career at Alabama. And while Holstein has been impressive, he and other redshirt freshmen (like Texas’ Arch Manning and Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava are technically in their second seasons at the college level and were, therefore, excluded from this article.

Only the best of the best first-year freshmen were eligible here. And much to the chagrin of NFL scouts, that means they are at least two more full seasons away from the draft. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t enjoy them.

Here is our look at the top 5 freshmen you simply have to see to believe.

Players are listed in alphabetical order by last name. Heights and weights listed were provided by their schools. 

Dylan Raiola, QB, Nebraska, 6-3, 230

Coming off of the worst statistical performance of his young career (13-for-27 for 134 yards and no touchdowns with an interception), it would have been easy to drop Raiola from this list. To do so, however, would be to ignore the excitement that the Husker legacy has brought back to Lincoln, guiding Nebraska to a 5-1 start, including Saturday’s conference win over a gritty and previously undefeated Rutgers squad. Through six games, Raiola is completing 66.9% of his passes for 1,358 yards and nine touchdowns with three interceptions.

The five victories already equal last year’s total for a once-proud Nebraska program that has not enjoyed a winning season since 2016. His father, Dominic, was a center at Nebraska from 1997-2000, helping the Huskers win the national championship as a redshirt freshman.

It remains to be seen if the young Raiola can match his father’s success in the NFL. Dominic was the 50th overall selection in 2001 and started 203 games over 14 seasons for the Detroit Lions.

Scouting report: Dylan already possesses a pro-caliber frame with plenty of arm strength. He really layers the ball nicely on throws that require touch, feathering the ball over the top of defenders and leading his receivers to open space. For a young quarterback, he shows impressive awareness as well, deftly looking off coverage before firing accurate lobs downfield. 

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