Who will be college football's best players for the 2026 season?
Josh Pate gives his thoughts on the best players to watch in college football for the 2026 season that are not named Jeremiah Smith. Subscribe to "Josh Pate's College Football Show" on YouTube .
Video Transcript
Darian Mensah at Miami.
Darian Mensah I'm looking very much forward to watching because I think he's kind of of a blend of the best aspects of Cam Ward and Carson Beck.
And I think he's in a perfect situation.
He gets to play in an offense that can really, really mold itself around his full skill set.
And man, he's not there alone.
He brought Barcate, who was his number one receiver from Duke, he brought him down to Miami with him, but also he just walks onto the same roster as Malachi Tony.
They've got really, really good tailback talent.
it's o- it's an overall loaded roster, but just the wide receiver group that he's gonna throw to and the overall leadership piece that I think he walks in with, he walks in with a much different vibe about him than Carson Beck.
And he, he's not walking in just grabbing everyone by the throat like Cam Ward did, but it's a really, really good blend of what's worked down there at Miami so far.
He is one of the main reasons I think they could end up being a better team than the team that played for a national title last year.
Leadership plus fit, plus overall talent roster.
Dylan Stewart still at South Carolina.
Looking forward to Dylan Stewart this year.
It was kind of a regression last year on his stat sheet, and he only had four and a half sacks last year, but that was kind of South Carolina's story as a team.
They've gotta have him explode.
I remember watching him in person as a freshman, and it's really, it's amazing when you get that high a level of player.
It's, you look-- I remember Myles Garrett, like when Myles Garrett was at A&M, seeing him in person as a freshman and saying, "That person looks different than everybody else in the field."
Dylan Stewart's that way.
Dylan Stewart just looks different than everybody else on the field, and he's 6'5", 245, and he's entering his third year, and it's kinda him and Colin Simmons as those big time game-wrecking edge presences.
One of them, though, is at Texas, where they're expected to do a lot.
Dylan Stewart's at South Carolina, where everyone's asking, I mean, can they make a bowl game?
Will they win seven games?
If they win seven games, they go over the win total.
So I look forward to watching him.
I just wonder, is the context him going off and having a great year in the middle of South Carolina having a bad year?
Or does he go off as Lenore Sellers goes off, and all of a sudden South Carolina's this surprise team?
So there are two different compartments there.
Leonard Moore at Notre Dame I think is the best corner in the country entering the season.
And you look at him, like when they played USC last year, Jesse Makai Lemmon didn't do a whole lot against Leonard Moore.
And you know what's gonna happen this year?
They're gonna play Miami.
They're gonna play Miami in week 10 in South Bend.
And so Notre Dame's schedule might not be loaded, so you might not see Leonard Moore against a ton of future first-round draft talent, but you will see him in premier matchups when they end up playing Miami.
That we can pretty much promise ourselves
