Welcome back for the sixth edition of The Devy Notebook. This was the week of upsets in college football and was truly the most exciting week of the season to this point. We have already established some elite devy assets through the first five volumes of this article series, and I don’t want to waste anyone’s time by beating a dead horse week in and week out. Instead, I will briefly tell you that Ashton Jeanty, Tetairoa McMillan, Jeremiah Smith, and Ryan Williams all remained elite this weekend. You can lock them in as top devy assets until further notice. With that being said, let’s check out who made the latest edition of The Devy Notebook.
- In the spirit of Halloween, I would like to say RIP to Ollie Gordon. We have only painted him in a bad light this season, and that won’t stop this week. He put up another stinker against West Virginia this week, carrying the ball 13 times for 50 yards. In four separate games against poor competition this season, he has been held to 50 or fewer yards and less than 4 yards/carry. He is my devy RB18, and I am not sure that that is low enough. If you roster Gordon for Devy, I advise finding the nearest league mate who still has hope and trading him for max value.
- Jordan James is an extremely physical runner. He looked explosive, and I haven’t seen him run with this type of physicality thus far this season. He also looks faster on tape than some of his athletic metrics would imply. I get reminded of Ronald Jones when watching him, but with a bit more run-finishing ability. He rushed for 166 yards and one touchdown against Michigan State and would have had a ton more had this game been competitive.
- Welcome back, Ricky White. As I said in last week’s edition of The Devy Notebook, he is one of my favorite deep sleepers for the 2025 WR class. In two games with new quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams, White has had 20 receptions for 262 yards and three touchdowns. He projects as a field-stretching receiver that would pair on a team with an already established WR1 in the NFL. Look for him to continue to put up big numbers for the remainder of the college football season and give himself a very good chance to make it into day 2 of the NFL draft.
- This is a public service announcement to not give up on Evan Stewart. I have no idea why Oregon brought him in this offseason because what they want to do on offense doesn’t fit with Stewart. Tez Johnson and Traeshon Holden are going to dominate the target share between the 20s, and the Ducks will likely use Stewart more in the redzone. The Oregon offense is middle of the road with 8.5 yards per pass attempt and is throwing a ton of balls on shorter routes between the numbers. This is not a strength of Evan Stewart. His stock is going to drop dramatically between now and rookie drafts, and it sets up for him to be a steal in the second round.
- Cam Cook is just a guy, I fear. I’ve been tracking him as a potential sleeper at the position, but he has been very inefficient and doesn’t do anything at an above-average level. He has broken 80 yards only once this season (81) and is averaging 3.9 yards per carry. Every time I watch him live, he leaves me wanting more.
- Abu Sama was relegated to RB3 on the Iowa State depth chart this week. He received only eight carries compared to 15 carries for both Carson Hansen and Jaylon Jackson. We are always looking for the RB1 in the Matt Campbell offense, as he was the coach behind both David Montgomery and Breece Hall. Unfortunately, Abu Sama does not appear to be the next great Iowa State running back as we had hoped. He is rapidly approaching drop territory in most league formats.
- The freshman running back at Louisville, Isaac Brown, has had double-digit carries in back-to-back weeks. In a competitive game against SMU this weekend, he rushed 10 times for 117 yards and no touchdowns. In his first four career games, he has 292 total yards on 8.4 yards/carry, eight receptions, and two touchdowns. Coach Jeff Brohm has already stated that Brown is a guy they want to give more touches. He is smaller than I like for running backs, but he plays bigger than his size and has performed well against good competition.
- Conner Weigman returned for Texas A&M this week against a highly-ranked Missouri defense. He looked very solid in this game and had an 82% completion percentage. We need to see him string more of these weeks together, especially when they face ranked opponents in LSU and Texas later this season.
- The number one receiver for Texas A&M was originally thought to be Noah Thomas, but Terry Bussey has emerged as the better talent in limited time. He is a freshman for the Aggies this season who was originally supposed to be on the defensive side of the ball. He has 119 snaps on offense and 1 snap on defense, so we now have a bit more clarity. Now that he is playing full-time on offense, he is a guy we need to keep tabs on for devy purposes. He is extremely athletic and is more impressive than any other player on the Texas A&M offense.
- Emeka Egbuka caught three touchdowns this weekend and showed off exceptional ball-tracking skills on two of them. It looks like he has returned to the 2022 form that had many of us excited for his potential moving toward the NFL. He may not be an exceptional separator, but he has great hands, is creative after the catch, and has a good catch radius. He has also shown his ability to be a great blocker, which many NFL teams are going to love. He is one of five receivers that I have going in the first round in the 2025 NFL draft.
- Elijah Sarratt has been a huge beneficiary of the improved Indiana offense in 2024. He transferred in from James Madison after having over 1,000 yards last year and looks to be on pace to exceed that production for the Hoosiers. He has back-to-back games of 7 catches and over 125 yards. He has a good frame at 6’2” and 210 lbs. I currently project him to get day 2 draft capital. Assuming he continues to perform this way for the rest of the season, he should be a popular name throughout the draft process. As a fun aside, he is currently going by “Waffle House” because he is open 24/7.
- Trevor Etienne is back. He received the majority of the touches for Georgia this week and went for 88 yards and two touchdowns. He should continue to get more work as the season progresses, and we can truly assess him as a prospect when Georgia goes up against Texas, Ole Miss, and Tennessee in the coming weeks. He currently slots in as my RB5 in the 2025 class.
- Darius Taylor is the entire offense for Minnesota. In a huge win for the Golden Gophers over USC this weekend, Taylor rushed the ball 25 times for 144 yards while also catching 5 passes for 56 yards. He struggled with efficiency on the ground the last two weeks against Iowa and Michigan (not surprising) but caught 12 passes between the two games. I absolutely love to see college running backs catching balls out of the backfield, as it projects well for scoring fantasy points at the next level. As it stands currently, Taylor is my RB1 in the 2026 class.
- Jonah Coleman has impressed me again, this time against a stout Michigan run defense. If you exclude a 65-yard run from Woody Marks in the USC game, Coleman was the first running back to rush for >4.0 yards/carry against the Wolverines. He had 80 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries this weekend, and we saw good vision, decisiveness, and burst from the junior.
- Demond Williams is the next great dual-threat quarterback in college football. He gets about 15 snaps per week for Washington in preparation for taking over the starting role in 2025, but he looks eerily similar to Kyler Murray when he plays. There were a few times in the game against Michigan that he got outside and showed the speed to run away from the Wolverine defenders.
- Xavier Restrepo continues to impress me as a slot receiver for Miami. He is clearly Cam Ward’s go-to guy. He is a good route-runner, has reliable hands, and excels after the catch. He also holds the record for most 100-yard games in Miami (Fl.) history. Day two draft capital is expected at this point by me, and he will be a highly sought-after player in the late second round for me if that happens.
What I am looking for heading into Week 7
- Oregon vs. Ohio State is going to be a showcase of offensive and defensive talent on every possession. This should be the game of the weekend, but which players will emerge on the biggest stage?
- Penn State travels to USC. The Nittany Lions must travel across the country for this matchup. I want to watch Allar and Singleton in this one closely, and also see if Branch can do anything vs a stout PSU defense.
- Jonah Coleman has another chance to impress. If he can do well against Iowa, it may be time to go all-in.
- Texas goes to Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry. Similar to the OSU/Oregon game, this game will have tons of talent on both sides. Let’s see who shines.
- Eli Holstein has been fantastic for Pitt and is reviving his devy stock. Cal’s defense did excellent for 3.5 quarters against Cam Ward and I want to compare.
- Kaden Feagin needs a big game, and Purdue’s run defense has been a siv. If he can’t do it this week, it may be time to move on.
- We get another chance to see Caden Durham against good competition. I’m also going to have a microscope on Tre Harris in the LSU vs. Ole Miss game.
Thank you for reading the sixth edition of The Devy Notebook. If you have any thoughts or questions regarding any of the players mentioned, or if you would like my opinions on a player who is not mentioned in this article, you can reach out to me on Twitter @Evan_Kerr_. #DFFArmy #AlwaysBeBuilding
