Austin Gayle | Pro Football Focus
Hawaii quarterback Cole McDonald’s stunning performance last Saturday served as the soft opening to college football, but Week 0 has now turned to Week 1, signaling the official start of the 2018 season.
To preview the much-anticipated slate of games, we’ve taken the time to dive into the numbers and display the week’s top matchups.
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LSU CB Greedy Williams vs. Miami WR Ahmmon Richards
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, ABC
The stage is set for LSU redshirt sophomore cornerback Williams to overtake Georgia’s Deandre Baker as the top cornerback in college football, and the curtains open with a premier talent across from him in Arlington, Texas. Williams, who tied for fourth in overall grade (88.2) among returning FBS cornerbacks with 400-plus defense snaps, will be asked to blanket Miami’s Richards in the Tigers’ season opener on Sunday.
Although Richards earned just a 67.9 overall grade across his 349 offensive snaps in 2017, the 6-foot-1, 192-pound speedster presents a unique challenge to Williams. Richards was at his best speeding down the sideline on go routes with the Hurricanes a year ago, catching seven of his 17 fly routes for 178 yards and two touchdowns. Williams allowed just a 32.3 passer rating when defending go routes a year ago, but picking up where he left off across from Richards in Week 1 would be quite the feat.
Virginia Tech DL Ricky Walker vs. Florida State C Alec Eberle
When: 8 p.m. Monday, ESPN
Florida State redshirt senior center Eberle, a 39-game starter for the Seminoles over the past three seasons, will have his hands full against Virginia Tech’s 6-foot-2, 300-pound Walker. Eberle is undoubtedly the underdog in the fight, but it will be hard-fought nonetheless.
Walker finished his redshirt junior campaign as the sixth-ranked defensive interior player in terms of overall grade (86.0), while also ranking 10th in run-defense grade and ninth in pass-rush grade (76.4). He has all the means necessary to turn his duel with Eberle into a one-sided affair, but he’ll need to bring his best to the line of scrimmage to do so, especially when rushing the passer. Eberle ranked 27th among 91 qualifying centers in pass-block grade (78.3) a season ago.
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UNLV RB Lexington Thomas vs. USC LB Cameron Smith
When: 4 p.m. Saturday, Pac-12
Kept away from the national spotlight as an undersized running back in the Mountain West Conference, UNLV’s Thomas (5-foot-9, 170 pounds) is in a position to make a name for himself early at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Thomas earned an 82.0 rushing grade with the Rebels in his breakout campaign a year ago, averaging 6.3 yards per carry and scoring 17 touchdowns in the process.
Smith earned just the 46th-ranked overall grade (76.8) at his position with the Trojans in 2017, but his run-defense grade (81.2) still stood out among the conference’s best. The 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior flies to the football when defending the run, helping him to a whopping 47 total run stops. He’ll have his work cut out for him with the quick and shifty Thomas.
Louisville OT Mekhi Becton vs. Alabama Edge Anfernee Jennings
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, ABC
Alabama’s Jennings, one of several NFL talents within the Crimson Tide’s defensive front seven, is a name seldom heard in the conversation for best edge defender in college football largely because he is steps behind his colleagues (i.e. Nick Bosa, Rashan Gary) as a pass-rusher. Although Jennings earned the 10th-ranked overall grade (86.4) and fifth-ranked run-defense grade (88.7) in 2017, his 79.0 pass-rush grade will need to improve significantly for his potential in the NFL to move upward. And the road to improvement starts against a strong pass protector in Louisville offensive tackle Becton.
A 6-foot-7, 355-pound sophomore, Becton doesn’t get pushed around easily. Though he struggled as a run blocker, as evidenced by his 61.8 run-block grade a year ago, Becton exceeded true freshman expectations in pass protection. He allowed just 16 total pressures across 444 pass-block snaps en route to a 74.7 pass-block grade in 2017.
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Ole Miss WR A.J. Brown vs. Texas Tech CB Justus Parker
When: Noon Saturday, ESPN
Slotted as PFF’s top-ranked receiver entering the 2018 season, Ole Miss’ Brown will square off against one of college football’s top slot cornerbacks in Parker.
Running a stark majority of his routes from the slot, Brown earned an 82.5 receiving grade with the Rebels in 2017, ranking 15th among qualifiers. He led all returning FBS receivers who ran at least 200 routes from the slot last season in yards per route run (3.25), touchdowns (10) and yards after the catch (650).
Receivers like Brown torched defenses from the slot alignment, but Parker was one of few FBS defensive backs capable of stopping such receivers in their tracks. He earned a 74.2 coverage grade and allowed just a 55.3 passer rating when covering slot receivers in 2017, ranking 11th and seventh, respectively, among returning FBS cornerbacks with 150-plus slot coverage snaps.
Notre Dame LB Te’Von Coney vs. Michigan RBs Chris Evans and Karan Higdon
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, NBC
The Michigan defense and its surplus of future NFL talents will draw attention away from Notre Dame’s defensive standouts, but Coney won’t have to wait long before attention shifts in his direction on Saturday. Coney, a former four-star Florida prospect, enters his junior season off the back of a breakout year in 2017, earning career-high defense (87.1) and run-defense (89.5) grades. He was also one of two returning FBS linebackers with fewer than 300 run-defense snaps who totaled 40-plus run stops this past season.
Set to take the heart of Notre Dame’s defense head-on, Michigan’s lead duo in the backfield, senior Karan Higdon and junior Chris Evans, will test Coney’s run defense early and often. Both Evans and Higdon earned 75.0-plus offense grades and forced a combined 62 missed tackles in 2017.
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About the PFF grading system
PFF’s team of more than 300 staff members takes every player on every play of every game and grades them on a sliding scale between -2.0 and +2.0, with a 0.0 being an expected play. The +/- grades on every play are then transferred to an aggregate grade of 0.0 to 99.9. All areas of the game are taken into account to come up with a player’s overall grade. On defense: pass rush, run defense and coverage. On offense: run grade, pass grade, pass-block grade and run-block grade. PFF grading also takes into account the quality of the play needed to generate the result. A glossary for PFF’s Signature Statistics can be found here.
Austin Gayle is a senior analyst for Pro Football Focus. For more from the team at PFF, go to profootballfocus.com.