DE Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina
I'm not certain how NFL teams still feel about Clowney, but if I were choosing a player to build my defense around today, I'd take UCLA's Anthony Barr over the South Carolina defensive end who has just nine solo tackles and two sacks to his credit this season. Barr is a more versatile, certainly more consistent player.
Clowney hasn't played poorly this season, despite what his numbers say, but he hasn't played up to media hype, which was built around one play in last season's Outback Bowl. He's a good player, could be a great one if he works at it, but the jury is still out on that. I think he bought into the hype. He even admitted openly that he hung out this past summer, taking trips with friends instead of continuing to work out. And his poor conditioning showed early in the season.
The whole incident in which he told Coach Steve Spurrier 30 minutes before the Kentucky game a few weeks back that he wasn't playing, drawing Spurrier's ire, is a bad sign. He already had a reputation of taking plays off. He can't afford to do that at the next level.
QB Jameis Winston, Florida State
In June, the Texas Rangers drafted Winston in the 15th round of the Major League Baseball draft. He stayed in school. Good decision.
Florida State has a chance to win a national championship, and Winston has a lot to do with it. His chances of winning a national title and becoming the second straight freshman to win the Heisman Trophy will increase if he can help the Seminoles beat Tajh Boyd and Clemson on Saturday in the biggest game of the week.
Like Hackenberg, the other freshman on this list, Winston has a future in the NFL. He and his game are already mature beyond their years.
QB Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M
Tom Rossley, the ex-Packers quarterbacks coach who moved on to the same position at Texas A&M, loved what he saw from Manziel in high school. While other schools were recruiting Manziel at other positions, Rossley's fists were bleeding from banging the table so hard for Manziel to play quarterback at A&M. The man who was once Brett Favre's position coach for six years ultimately was proven right.
One season after winning the Heisman Trophy, Manziel is being forced by teams each week to throw the ball more and run less often. Take away the opener against Rice in which he was suspended for the first half, Manziel is averaging 348 passing yards per game, completing 73 percent of his throws, with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions in that stretch.
TCU coach Gary Patterson, a good friend of mine, told me he had Manziel in his high school football camp for three summers. "He wasn't the tallest, he wasn't the fastest, and he didn't throw the prettiest ball," Patterson said. "But all he did was win." That's how I still view Manziel. Put him side by side with any other top college quarterback, and 10 out of 10 NFL scouts will take the other guy. In the end, however, I'm not sure the other guy will affect the outcome of the game as much as Manziel will.
