With the 2025 college football season right around the corner, analysts are starting to break down their favorite players for the upcoming year.
ESPN’s Greg McElroy shared his top 10, which included stars from the Big Ten, ACC, and SEC, and his number one running back, Jeremiyah Love, from Notre Dame. He especially liked Penn State’s backfield, giving Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton the number three and four rankings, respectively.
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Love starred for the Fighting Irish last year, picking up 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns on the ground in 163 rushes — a whopping 6.9 yards per carry. His crowning moment came in the first round of the College Football Playoff, where he scored the first-ever touchdown in the history of the 12-team playoff, taking a 98-yard run to the house.
Oregon’s Makhi Hughes sits at No. 2 on McElroy’s list after an All-AAC first team performance with Tulane last year, his second in as many years. The 5’11”, 210-pound running back racked up 2,779 yards and 22 touchdowns in two years with the Green Wave, becoming the first player in school history to rush for over 1,000 yards as a freshman.
Allen and Singleton look to continue the lineage of elite Nittany Lion running backs as the team goes championship hunting. Both running backs topped the 1,000-yard mark last year and look to improve on their marks in their senior seasons.
Pittsburgh’s first-team All-ACC running back Desmond Reid holds down McElroy’s number five spot in his first year after transferring from Western Carolina. He ran for 966 yards and five touchdowns, adding another 579 yards and four touchdowns through the air and a punt return touchdown.
McElroy rounded out his list with Georgia Tech’s Jamal Haynes, Texas’s Quintrevion Wisner, Louisville’s Isaac Brown, Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy, and Oklahoma’s Jaydn Ott at No. 6-10, respectively.
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Just off the list, Florida’s Jadan Baugh, Texas’s CJ Baxter, Washington’s Jonah Coleman, Texas A&M’s Le’Veon Moss, Notre Dame’s Jadarian Price, Minnesota’s Darius Taylor, Baylor’s Bryson Washington, and West Virginia’s Jahiem White all received honorable mentions from McElroy.
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