College football’s 2023 regular season is over, which means we’ve seen the last of most of the nation’s best players. We’ve still got the College Football Playoffs, yes, and there will be big names who surprise by playing in their bowl games (such as Bryce Young and Will Anderson in the 2022 Sugar Bowl), but already the list of draft declarations is filling up, many of them including an opt-out.
We say all that to indicate that now’s the time to release our postseason ranking of college football’s best players, from No. 1 to No. 101. The list looks quite different than our preseason and even midseason versions, which speaks to what we love about college football’s yearly fluidity, where “best draft prospect” doesn’t always have to mean “best player.”
Here’s hoping a few of the draft-eligible studs on this list stick around for one final game, but we understand if not. elite and ridiculous level the entire season, dominating week in and week out, Daniels threw for 40 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He ran for more than 1,100 yards and 10 touchdowns while leading the nation’s most efficient offense and winning the 2023 Heisman Trophy. Daniels led the country with a 143.7 passer rating and looks like a lock to go in the early parts of the 2024 NFL Draft’s first round. I watched him play in person at the Alabama game and left thinking that he was the country’s best player, even though LSU lost.
