Instant Impact Freshman for 2022
Every season there are freshmen that are an instant impact on their respective college football teams. Helping them win games, racking up individual stats, and or accolades. This would very well describe players such as Texas' Xavier Worthy, Andrew Mukuba of Clemson, and Ohio State's TreVeyon Henderson. Today we will take a crack at naming three true freshmen who are believed will have an immediate impact! No redshirts allowed! That's cheating!
RB Jovantae Barnes, Oklahoma
Courtesy of Sooner Wire
Stop me if you have heard this before, but Oklahoma went to Las Vegas and snatched up a very talented one-cut back with a body profile of 6' and 190 lbs. Oklahoma RB coach and former NFL offensive player of the year Demarco Murray fit this mold coming out of Las Vegas back in the day for Bob Stoops. As was seen in the Oklahoma spring game, Barnes has quite an array of attributes that make him stand out as a youngster. He is quick, and physical and understands how to set up his blocks. It's hard not to see the comparison to Murray, who is the Sooner's all-time touchdown man. The Sooners return Eric Gray, who had a pretty quiet first year in Norman mostly serving as Kennedy Brook's backup, and Marcus Major also returns. Major is a talented young man, who came to Oklahoma with a ton of hype but for one reason or another has not seen the field as much. Barnes took the bulk of Oklahoma's spring carries and I believe he could be the Sooner's lead back by midseason.
LB Jaishawn Barham, Maryland
courtesy of Testudo times
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Jaishawn Barham is quite the specimen as a young linebacker as he was already 6'3 230 lbs coming out of high school, and is sure to have added some more weight with a college weight program. Maryland lost some depth in the linebacker room, and to be honest, the room was not very strong, to begin with. Barham played outside in high school but with his size and range is expected to move inside. Barham is likely to be a starter right off the bat for the Terrapins and should be able to rack up quite a few tackles. He could impact in the way Manti Teo once did for the Irish as a young freshman. Teo was able to rack up over 60 tackles for Notre Dame as a freshman, and Barham should be in line for that kind of impact, possibly greater. Jaishawn was all over the place in the Polynesian Bowl in route to winning MVP.
QB Kade Clubnik, Clemson
courtesy of GreenvilleOnline
It's often too early to give up on a player who didn't perform as a redshirt freshman. However, if Spencer Rattler can be replaced while leading his conference in passing yards and completing 74% of his passes, the job DJ Uiagalelei last year with Clemson was less than stellar. Certainly, expectations are high at Clemson because of how good their QB play has been for about a decade now starting with Taj Boyd to Trevor Lawrence. But throwing just nine touchdown passes and then tossing ten interceptions is going to get you some time on the pine at just about any college institution in the FBS.
Dabo Swinney has a history of pulling the plug for the better man, showing no loyalty to senior Kelly Bryant who had just led the Tigers to the College Football Playoffs. Trevor Lawrence was the better player, so he was given the job. DJ Uiagalelei has plenty of natural talent, there is a reason he was on Heisman watch during the last pre-season. However, if there is no sizable improvement shown it's unlikely he is able to hold off 5-star elite 11 winner Cade Klubnik. He is 6'3 with a ridiculous deep ball, some compare his arm talent to former BYU stand-out Zach Wilson who is the QB of the New York Jets. Clemson's defensive prowess is sure to have them in the mix for playoff contention
