Ducks place 3 on ESPN Top 100, but what matters more are the ones who didn't make it

The list is dotted with Big Ten opponents. Scrolling becomes daunting after a while.

Wednesday morning ESPN released the list of the Top 100 players in college football, and three of them are Ducks, Matayo Uiagalelei at No. 20, Makhi Hughes at No. 30, transfer safety Dillon Thieneman No. 44.

Five ESPN writers compiled the list, David Hale, Adam Rittenberg, Chris Low, Paolo Uggetti and Bill Connelly, all full-time college football reporters for the website. Like all ESPN products it leans heavily on the SEC, but Penn State placed six players in the Top 100, Ohio State five.

Five from the Big Ten make college football's top 20, Jeremiah Smith at No. 1, Caleb Downs No. 3, Penn State running back Nicholas Singleton No. 15, PSU quarterback Drew Aller No. 17, Uiagalelei, the highest-ranking Duck at 20.

The junior from St. John Bosco earned All-Big-Ten honors last season after leading the conference in sacks during the regular season with 10.5, just 2.5 short of the Oregon single-season record of 13. His tough-to-block combination of strength, technique and quickness are a big reason why the Ducks' defensive line may be better in 2025 despite losing three players to the NFL.

Hughes proved to be a tackle-breaking machine at Tulane with a knack for busting chunk runs. As a sophomore he bolted and battered his way for 36 runs of over 10 yards, 7 of over 30 yards. The Ducks boast a fierce trio at running back in Hughes, Noah Whittington and Dink Riggs, a deep stable behind them with versatility and open-field explosive potential that could prove handy in the passing game.

Oddly, the ESPN honks rated Thieneman one spot behind Minnesota safety Koi Perich, though that might be a bow to Perich's all-around ability-- he's the Gophers' best deep threat at receiver and a dangerous return man, this year's Travis Hunter, seemingly.

Thieneman is just an old-fashioned slobber-knocking deep safety, 210 tackles in his two seasons at Purdue. He'll remind Duck fans of standouts like Jevon Holland, John Boyett and Chad Cota for his ability to roam the field and set the tone in the secondary.

The real hope and crucial development for the Ducks lies in the players that didn't make the list. The Ducks have talent everywhere and a host of players in college football's next 200, guys like Dante and Dakorien Moore, Isaiah World, Iapani Laloulu, Emmanuel Pregnon, Kenyon Sadiq and Bryce Boettcher.

It's a team game. Those unsung, nationally underrecognized Ducks have to win matchups against all those heralded stars from the rest of the Big Ten, to block and tackle, cover and make big plays that win on the scoreboard rather than the game of rankings and ratings, which is strictly a summertime sport.

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