Despite a boring noon slate on Saturday, Week 7 of the college football season morphed into one of the most unpredictable slates of the season. In fact, most of the drama came from the soon-to-be-defunct Pac-12.
It started on Friday with Coach Prime and Colorado blowing a 29-0 halftime lead to Stanford. On Saturday, the fun continued as #7 Washington defeated #8 Oregon in an instant classic, while #10 USC and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams were curb-stomped by rivals Notre Dame. In total, eight Top 25 teams lost this week, five of which lost to unranked or lower-ranked teams.
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Devy Risers & Fallers
If you’re unfamiliar with the format, devy (developmental dynasty league) is a type of fantasy football league that goes deeper. In these leagues, you draft and stash potential NFL prospects years before they enter the league. Scott Fish, the creator of the massively popular Scott Fish Bowl tournament, is also credited with creating devy back in the 1990s, and the format has gained popularity ever since.
Regarding risers, we refer to players whose perceived value has increased based on their on-field performance. However, when we talk about fallers, we consider several factors, such as on-field performance, injuries, playing time, and even some extenuating circumstances, which can impact a player’s value.
Risers
Rome Odunze (WR – Washington) & Troy Franklin (WR – Oregon)
With College Gameday in town, #8 Oregon’s road trip to #7 Washington was hyped up as one of the biggest CFB games of the year. Washington’s thrilling 36-33 victory might have even exceeded expectations.
We could legitimately highlight four or five risers out of this game, so it makes sense to group them together. Others are going to rightfully talk up quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix, so let’s pivot and give some love to their wide receivers.
Washington’s Rome Odunze and Oregon’s Troy Franklin were both sensational in Saturday’s Pac-12 shootout. Odunze finished with 8-128-2 TD, while Franklin had 8-154-1 TD in a losing effort. 2024 WR1 Marvin Harrison Jr. sits far above the rest of the class, but both Odunze and Franklin are fighting for their position in that next tier.
Omarion Hampton (RB – North Carolina)
With quarterback Drake Maye and the passing offense taking a slight step back this season, North Carolina is starting to run their offense through running back Omarion Hampton. The 2025 RB prospect has nine touchdowns and over 700 total yards in six contests this season.
On Saturday, Hampton rushed for 197 yards and scored two total touchdowns in North Carolina’s 41-31 victory over the Miami Hurricanes. Remarkably, that wasn’t a season-high for Hampton, as he had 234 rushing yards on Appalachian State all the way back in Week 2.
Hampton needs to be more consistent week-in and week-out but he has good size — listed at 6’0″ and 220 pounds — and is well on his way to being the next NFL running back produced by UNC head coach Mack Brown. A couple more performances like Saturday will only cement that status.
Fallers
Despite some impressive physical tools, Tennessee’s Joe Milton is struggling to meet preseason expectations thus far this year. Milton has shown off his exceptional arm strength and athletic ability a number of times this season, but the accuracy concerns haven’t gone away. If anything, they’ve been amplified as the sample size grows.
The quarterback’s play might have hit rock bottom in Week 7. Milton only completed 11 of 22 passes, was held to a season-low 100 passing yards, and had a 1-1 TD-INT ratio in Tennessee’s 20-13 victory over Texas A&M. Tennessee winning with that kind of quarterback performance says more about Jimbo Fisher and A&M than anything else.
Milton has a rocket launcher for an arm and ideal size for the wear-and-tear of the NFL, but none of that matters if you can’t consistently hit your targets. Throw in the fact that Milton is an older prospect — he’ll be 24 years old in March — and it’s hard to envision the Vols signal-caller as anything more than a mid-to-late round dart throw.
Let me preface this by saying I still fully believe in UCLA quarterback Dante Moore. Despite some recent growing pains, Moore has looked brilliant at times this season. Some struggles are to be expected for any true freshman quarterback, so I try not to overreact to these types of performances.
However, we also can’t ignore them. In UCLA’s 36-24 loss to Oregon State, Moore only managed 165 passing yards and had a pathetic 1-3 TD-INT ratio. Moore completed only 14 of his 33 pass attempts (42%) and threw a pick-six for the third consecutive week. That’s not going to get it done. Not against a good team like Oregon State.
As I said earlier, every freshman starting quarterback will have weeks like this. It’s part of the process of becoming a great quarterback. Hopefully, Moore doesn’t let this performance linger too long and he’s able to bounce back next week against Stanford.
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