Every year, Bruce Feldman releases one of the most popular columns of the offseason titled “College Football Freaks.”
Dating back to 2005, Feldman’s list brings together the most unbelievable physical feats from college football players all over the nation, and the video proof and/or locker room eye-witness accounts to back it up.
The 2024 list has something that no other list before it has, and that’s a back-to-back No. 1 freak. The honor belongs to Nyck Harbor, a wide receiver at South Carolina. Listed at 6-foot-5, 242 pounds, Harbor ran a 10.1-second 100m and 20.20-second in the 200m for the Gamecocks’ track team. His 99 speed and 99 acceleration scores in College Football 25 might not even do justice to the level of superhuman that Harbor is.
But Harbor isn’t the only impressive specimen on this list, as there are 101 “Freaks” that Feldman has a story on, and 11 of them come from Big 12 programs.
Just behind Harbor at No. 2 is Colorado WR/DB Travis Hunter, who won the Paul Hornung Award as the nation’s most versatile player in 2023. He logged 1,102 snaps for the Buffs in ’23, which amounts to 115 snaps per game, but as Feldman points out, it’s not just the incredible stamina that makes Hunter a “unicorn.”
“Reel Analytics gauged Hunter’s max speed on a touchdown-saving chase-down against TCU at 21.2 mph,” Feldman writes. “On Hunter’s 81st snap of that game in near 100-degree heat in Texas, he displayed a closing speed of 6.9 yards per second on his diving red-zone interception against TCU midway through the third quarter. That 6.9 YPS was the second-fastest time on record for nearly 8,400 defensive backs in the Reel Analytics database. As Deion Sanders is quick to tell you, Hunter is a rare talent.”
The next Big 12 player to appear on the list is Iowa State defensive lineman Dominique Orange, who checks in at No. 15 on the list. According to Feldman, he benched 450, squatted 650, and cleaned 365 this offseason, but his vertical jump of 34 inches at 6-4, 325-pound.
The other Big 12 players on the list range from No. 23 all the way to No. 94 on the list. Check them out below.
No. 23: Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Arizona
No. 31: Dontay Corleone, DL, Cincinnati
No. 37: Jonah Savaiinaea, OT, Arizona
No. 41: Monaray Baldwin, WR, Baylor
No. 47: Savion Williams, WR, TCU
No. 69: Jack Dingle, LB, Cincinnati
No. 86: Garrett Greene, QB, West Virginia
No. 92: Caleb Rogers, OL, Texas Tech
No. 94: Ty French, OLB, West Virginia
