Top 10 College Football Players for 2025 by Joel Klatt: Smith or Downs? Arch or Klubnik?

The best college football player I’ve ever seen will take the field again on Saturdays in 2025, making him the surefire No. 1 player in the sport for this upcoming season. But who joins him in the elite of the elite players in college football?

As I continue to preview the 2025 season, I shared my top 10 players for the season on the most recent episode of my podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show.” There are several talented players this year who I expect will be top-10 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft, but this list is just focused on their play for the upcoming season

This list might also be a strong indicator of who will make a run in 2025. One team has three players on this list (and almost could’ve had four), while another team has who I believe are the top two players in college football.

That said, let’s take a look at my top 10 players for the 2025 college football season.

I love the idea of Clemson running through the ACC and getting back to the mountaintop. I don’t know if it will win the national championship, but I’m really toying around with the idea that Clemson could play in the title game. I think Dabo Swinney could have the last laugh around this “the game passed him by narrative” that swirled in recent years. 

Part of that is because the Tigers are great on defense. Their interior defensive line is great. I’m a big believer in building your defense from front to back and inside out. That can be very old school, as some NFL people will tell you that you have to be great on the outside. That’s true, but to be fundamentally good at the college level, you’ve got to be good right down the middle. That’s why Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State have won the last three championships.

Anyway, Woods is that. I think he’s the best defensive tackle in the country. He’s excellent, and he has also played on the edge, so you know he’s got that athleticism. He can be dominant up front, disrupting the timing of opposing offenses by stuffing the run and getting after the quarterback. You’re going to be hearing Woods’ name quite a bit, and I think you’ll be hearing it early in the 2026 NFL Draft.

We started off this list with the best defensive tackle. Now, we move to the best offensive lineman. Proctor has been a starter at left tackle since the day he stepped foot in Tuscaloosa. He really came into his own, though, last season. 

When I was preparing for Alabama’s game against Wisconsin last season, I came away really impressed by Proctor’s film — and that was pretty early in that year. He hadn’t matured into the great player that he became late in the year, based on the film I watched. Proctor is great in pass protection and really dominant in the run game. He’s also a massive player, standing at 6-foot-7 and weighing 366 pounds. He can be dominant in all stages. 

We remain in the trenches, but we’re back at Clemson for the No. 8 player on my list. I thought about putting cornerback Avieon Terrell here, but Parker can really play. Watch out for this Clemson defense, which I believe could end up being the best in the country. 

Parker can be a game-changer. He was a freshman All-American two years ago and followed that up by recording 19.5 tackles for loss, 11.0 sacks and six forced fumbles last year. That’s really impressive. At 6-foot-3 and 265 pounds, he has got the combination of size and athleticism to be a game wrecker along the edge. I also think incoming defensive coordinator Tom Allen can help Parker in the way that he helped Abdul Carter at Penn State last season. 

Hill was an All-American last season, and he did it all for defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski’s unit. Hill is back for his junior season, and I think he could have one of those years when he pops to become a Butkus Award winner.

Statistically, Hill had over 100 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss and 8.0 sacks, so he’s not just a tackle machine; he can also make plays behind the line of scrimmage. He’ll be the focal point of that defense in 2025.

We’ll get a chance to see how good Hill can be in his junior season right away when Texas takes on Ohio State in Week 1. That game will be really tough for the Buckeyes’ offense because of players like Hill. He’s outstanding and is easily a top-10 player, serving as the epitome of what Steve Sarkisian has built in Austin. 

I’m not afraid to admit that I was late boarding the Notre Dame train. Its fans certainly remind me of that, but that early loss to Northern Illinois really spooked me. I didn’t love that Notre Dame wasn’t great at throwing the ball, and I think I even picked Navy to beat the Fighting Irish at one point because of that. That was a bonehead pick. 

What I was really late to party with, though, was how dynamic of an athlete Love is. Notre Dame is great up front along the offensive line. It plays big-boy football, and it pushed Georgia around in that College Football Playoff win. But Love is a running back that we haven’t really seen at Notre Dame. Brian Kelly’s teams were strong in the run game until they had to face SEC competition late in the year, struggling in those games because they didn’t have a dynamic running back. Love gives Notre Dame the ability to compete at the top end of the sport. He wasn’t even really able to show his full capabilities late in the year last season due to an injury, but that didn’t stop him from rushing for a 98-yard touchdown against Indiana in the CFP last year. 

I don’t think we’ve seen the best of Love yet. He rushed for over 7.0 yards per carry and is a home run threat every time he touches the ball. Those types of running backs who can change the game with one touch are really special.

Williams would’ve been one of the best true freshmen I’ve ever seen had it not been for another player I’ll have on this list soon. Now 18, Williams was named first-team All-SEC as a 17-year-old. That’s wild to think of. To be as good and dominant as he was in that conference at that age is something else. It wasn’t like Williams was beating up on lower competition either. That 75-yard touchdown vs. Georgia was one of the plays of the year. He had 177 yards that night.

Williams is dynamic and fast, but his body control is outstanding. The way he can understand his position on the field and where he’s at in relation to his defender is special for a player of his age. How many times did you see Williams win 50/50 balls by contorting himself in the air in a unique manner? He’s also sure-handed and electric. Williams is really one of my favorite players to watch. 

I know Manning hasn’t been a full-time starter and people might get tired of the hype, but he deserves a spot on this list. Just look at the way he played when he got his chances to play. It was dynamic. In the two starts Manning made last season, he really showed us his potential. He actually reminded me a lot of Trevor Lawrence at Clemson. In those two starts, Manning beat those teams with his arm. He had 13 total touchdowns and two interceptions on the season.

I get it, people roll their eyes because of Manning’s name, but he’s really that good. If you watch the film, Texas can be a more dangerous offense with Manning because of the way he moves and the throws he can make. Manning attacks the field in a different way than Quinn Ewers did. He’s a stronger athlete than Ewers, and defenses have to account for his ability to take off for long runs. Ewers was a great player, but Manning makes throws that scare defensive coordinators. He can complete passes down the field to a greater extent than Ewers, threatening defenses with his ability to hit receivers outside the hashes. 

Manning will really stretch out opposing defenses, and I think Texas will really look to make more plays downfield than it did in recent years. That’s a scary thought as well when you think about Texas’ talent at wide receiver. 

Clemson has the most players on this list with three. Klubnik is also the highest-ranked quarterback entering the year, as I believe he has a great chance to win the Heisman. Klubnik really grew in a major way last year, and he’ll now be a rare third-year quarterback who has spent all three seasons playing the same system. I know Clemson’s got questions at running back, but it has recruited well, and I trust offensive coordinator Garrett Riley along with its wide receivers. Clemson also brings back four starting offensive linemen.

As Clemson had some mid-season bumps, I didn’t buy into the idea that Klubnik was responsible for them. He played really well in Clemson’s playoff loss at Texas last season, which is obviously tough to do. Klubnik finished with 36 passing touchdowns, seven rushing touchdowns and just six interceptions. He’s athletic — maybe not to the extent that Manning is — but he can make plays with his legs while protecting the ball. Things are really lining up for Klubnik and Clemson to have a great year in 2025. 

Downs is unbelievable. If you talk to anyone who watches this sport for any extended period of time, they’ll talk about Downs’ overall instincts, ability to tackle in space and what he can do from an athletic perspective. He has shown off that athleticism as a punt returner, taking one back for a touchdown against Indiana last season.

It’s Downs’ play as a safety that makes him a special player, though. He’s so good that Ohio State switched its defense in the middle of last season in order to allow Downs to impact more plays than he would’ve otherwise. The Buckeyes changed the structure to put Downs in the middle of the field, allowing him to be more impactful. Ohio State’s pass rush got better as a result, too. 

On a personal level, Downs is one of my favorite people to talk to, even though we’re always bothering him in the lunchroom when we are in Columbus for “Big Noon Saturday.” He has got a great head on his shoulders and is a very smart young man. His instincts are borne from thoughtful preparation. 

I think we can all agree that Smith is the best player in the nation entering the year. I played against Adrian Peterson when he was a freshman at Oklahoma and before last year I thought he was the only guy I had ever seen who could be successful in the NFL right out of high school. Smith joined Peterson in that territory for me last season. 

Very rarely do we see a player come in with the hype that Smith had and exceed it. He was always the best player on the field last year, no matter who Ohio State was playing. When I asked opposing coaches what their plans were to slow Smith down, they would just reply that you can’t really build a plan for that. 

Smith basically has a body that was built in a lab. He’s listed at about 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, but I’ve heard from some people in Columbus that he’s bumped his weight up to 220 or 225 pounds. They also think he’s faster than he was a year ago. He’s got unbelievable hands and can catch everything.

When trying to think of a comp, I thought of Calvin Johnson, but Smith is more athletic than him at this point. I think Smith’s more fluid than Julio Jones was at Alabama. I thought about Randy Moss, but I can’t get there quite yet because Moss and Jerry Rice are at the top echelon of wide receivers. However, for the first time in my career calling games, there’s a player that I think could join Moss and Rice in that echelon someday. We, as a college football community, have to enjoy watching Smith play on Saturdays. He’s the best college football player I’ve ever seen. He’s the only guy who I’ve covered that I have a strong feeling is on the trajectory to be one of the greatest of all time. 

On the most important play of Ryan Day’s coaching career last season, he trusted the true freshman to make a play that would seal Ohio State’s national championship win. That’s all you need to know about how special Smith is. 

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Joel Klatt is FOX Sports’ lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast “The Joel Klatt Show.” Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the “Joel Klatt Show” on YouTube.

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