Stars of The First Few Games
By Alexandra Wade - March 26, 2023

Looking at the college football season early on can be a little misleading. When a team enters conference play, they may start strong before swiftly losing steam. But every year, a few breakouts seem to have lasting power at the beginning of the year. A couple of those players are what we’re examining today.

Few athletes in college football better exemplify the “Forever-Eligibility” period than Michael Penix. Penix transferred to the University of Washington, where he met DeBoer, determined to start over. DeBoer and Penix’s union has given the quarterback new life. Through two games, Penix has passed for 682 yards, six touchdowns, and just one interception while completing 69.7% of his passes and averaging 10.3 yards per attempt. Even though it’s true that the competition hasn’t been great, it’s challenging to overlook this kind of resurgence. When he first appeared in 2019, Penix was supposed to perform what he currently does. However, to reach his full potential, all he needed was a few years and a change of environment.

Getty images/The Washington Post/ The Washington Post/ Contributor

Since 2000, the following quarterbacks have started their careers as proper or redshirt first-year students and have completed at least 70% of their passes while throwing at least 900 yards and ten touchdowns through three games: They are Drake Maye and Spencer Rattler. There you go. It’s arguable that Maye, who replaced Sam Howell as North Carolina’s starting quarterback this spring, has performed better. For the time being, Maye is the FBS’s top passer in terms of yards and scores. However, the success of Maye’s deep ball passing has been the season’s most impressive feature. For a quarterback to routinely complete and makes some of the most challenging throws appear simple.

Looking at the standard breakup phrase, “It’s not you, it’s me?” Charlie Jones is blooming on his new squad, so it was undoubtedly you, Iowa. Jones served mainly as the Hawkeyes’ return specialist. He was a great receiver but was virtually overlooked. As a result, only 21 passes were caught by him during the 2021 season. But in just two games this season as a Boilermaker, Jones has caught 21 passes!