Each and every week, players across the nation step up and put on a display. More often than not, they are the popular names from the college football world — Heisman hopefuls, stars from Power 5 school or up-and-comers. But that’s not always the case.
Every now and then, a few surprises find their way to the surface with career performances. Players become household names and stars are born.
Ultimately, there’s never a shortage of noteworthy individual performances. And with Week 2 of the season now in the books, we take a look at the top five offensive performances from across the nation.
5. Skyler Howard (Quarterback, West Virginia)
A week removed from one of his most accurate performances ever, Skyler Howard followed up with one of his most explosive performances ever.
Facing an unexpected potential upset by Youngstown State on Saturday, Howard put the Mountaineers on his shoulders and rallied them to 24 unanswered points and an eventual 38-21 victory.
Howard completed four passes that went at least 45 yards, finishing the game just shy of 400 passing yards total. His 50 yards rushing pushed him over that total yardage milestone, which is made even more impressive given that he couldn’t practice until Friday due to strained ribs.
“You’re going to be sore after game one, after not being hit all spring, all camp,” Howard told the Centre Daily Times after the game. “It’s nothing that’s not expected. You’ve got to fight through it, but it was fine today. I felt pretty good out there.”
Of the quarterbacks who passed for more than 375 yards in Week 2, Howard’s quarterback rating of 203.6 was second only to Drew Lock (and we’ll have more on him shortly).
All in all, it was a tremendous showing for the senior.
Full line: 20-of-33 for 389 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. Eight carries for 50 yards (6.3 ypc).
4. Trent Taylor (Wide receiver, Louisiana Tech)
Trent Taylor’s name won’t be as common to hear as the others on this list, but the Louisiana Tech wide receiver deserves recognition for his impressive performance in a 53-24 victory over South Carolina State nonetheless.
After a four-hour lightning delay and a relatively slow start, Taylor and Louisiana Tech eventually began to light up the sky once again, which included 11 receptions for a career-high 178 yards and three touchdowns courtesy of the senior. The three touchdowns also tied his career-high.
“They do a lot of movement and like to switch it up with blitzes and whatnot. We just thought the best way to attack that was to throw screens and get the ball to our playmakers on the edge,” Taylor told The New Star after the game. “We believe our athletes are better than theirs, so that’s what we went with.”
Although Taylor will fall back off the radar come next week, he repeatedly makes the case that he’s the most under-rated receivers in the nation. And he’ll have the opportunity to prove that again on Saturday against Texas Tech.
Full line: 11 receptions for 178 yards and three touchdowns. One kick return for 16 yards. One punt return for 12 yards.
3. Donnel Pumphrey (Running back, San Diego State)
Any time you break a record held by Marshall Faulk, it’s a big day. Needless to say, it was a big, big day for San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey on Saturday.
With a first down run mid-way through the fourth quarter, Pumphrey, who tallied 281 yards on the ground against Cal, eclipsed Faulk’s all-time Aztec rushing record of 4,589 yards.
There's the record breaker!
Donnel Pumphrey passes Marshall Faulk to become the @GoAztecs all-time leading rusher. https://t.co/nh08nmONfk
— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet) September 11, 2016
Despite his big day, which included over 300 total yards and three scores, Pumphrey credited the rest of San Diego State offense for the team’s 45-40 victory over Cal.
“I’m not really worried about the individual accolades,” Pumphrey told The Daily Aztec, “because it’s my whole offense that’s picking me up.”
Pumphrey will now likely enter the Heisman discussion, and rightfully so. He’s poised to have a tremendous season.
Full line: 29 carries for 281 yards (9.3 ypc) and three touchdowns. Four receptions for 29 yards.
2. Drew Lock (Quarterback, Missouri)
Potential, potential, potential.
Those are the words often repeated when it comes to Missouri quarterback Drew Lock, and ones he finally lived up to on Saturday.
In a 61-21 route of Eastern Michigan, Lock etched his name into the record books with a 450-yard, five-touchdown performance.
With his five touchdown tosses, Lock joins only Chase Daniel and Maty Mauk as Missouri quarterbacks who have thrown for five scores in a single game. And his 450 yards in a single game rank behind only Jeff Handy (480) and Blaine Gabbert (468) in school history.
“You look at his ability and his skill set … he has the skill set to be a really great player,” Missouri head coach Barry Odom told the Kansas City Star after the game. “I think Drew’s going to continue to get better. He’s still got a lot of room to grow, but it was exciting offensively to see those guys have success.”
Making Lock’s performance even more impressive is the fact that all five of his touchdown passes went to players who had never before caught a collegiate touchdown.
Lock still needs to find much more consistency moving forward, but the sophomore is well on his way.
Full line: 24-of-37 for 450 yards and five touchdowns. Two carries for one yard.
1. Lamar Jackson (Quarterback, Louisville)
Just how impressive was Lamar Jackson this week? To put it in perspective, his place on this list had already been written by the time Louisville finished their 62-28 route of Syracuse on Friday night. The only question left was where in the top two or three he would land.
When all was said and done, his performance under the lights of Friday night would not be matched. In fact, no one would even come close.
With his 411 yards passing and 199 yards rushing, Jackson became the only player in college football history to pass for 400-plus yards and rush for 175-plus yards in the same game. And his 610 total yards set a single-game record for Louisville.
Amazingly, the yardage numbers only tell a portion of the story. Jackson also passed for one touchdown, while rushing for another four. In total, Jackson now has 15 rushing touchdowns, which also sets another all-time Louisville record for quarterbacks.
There is no over-stating how impressive Jackson was. He was the single most dominant player on the field in any game this week, and his name will now begin to come up during Heisman discussions.
Jackson will face his biggest test to date next week when Louisville takes on Florida State.
Full line: 20-of-39 for 411 yards, one touchdown and one interception. 21 carries for 199 yards (9.5 ypc) and four touchdowns.
