College football championship bonus coverage …

December 3, 2016

In addition to the college football conference championship games previewed by our GBN colleague Pigskin Paul Guillemette yesterday, there are some interesting players to watch in Saturday’s other title games. One guy to watch in the Big Ten title game between #6 Wisconsin and #7 Penn State (8 PM ET; FOX) is the Badgers junior LT Ryan Ramczyk (#65, 6-5, 315), a rising star at the position who could get some late first-round consideration this coming April, particularly given the fact that 2017 doesn’t look to be very strong at OT. Meanwhile, the Mountain West championship game between Wyoming and San Diego State (7:45 PM ET; ESPN) features two of the best backs in the country in Cowboys’ junior Brian Hill (#8, 5-11, 220) and State’s Donnel Pumphrey (#19, 5-8, 180), the second leading rusher in all college football this year, although he isn’t very big by NFL standards. For good measure, SD State CB Damontae Kazee (#23, 5-10, 190) and OG Nico Siragusa (#56, 6-4, 330) also have second-day potential. Temple, which plays Navy in the American Conference championship game (Noon ET; ABC), also has a couple of second-day prospects in emerging OLB Haasan Reddick (#58, 6-1, 230) and LT Dion Dawkins (#66, 6-5, 320). And while he won’t be going to the NFL next year, Navy QB Will Worth is one of the best stories in college football this year. An afterthought who wasn’t expected to play at all this season, Worth was forced to take over at QB for the Midshipmen when incumbent starter Tago Smih was injured early in the season opener; all Worth did was run for almost 1,200 yards and 25 scores, while passing for another 1,300 yards and 8 TDs to lead Navy to the brink of the non-power 5 conference Cotton Bowl bid. While Worth will likely be on a frigate somewhere when NFL training camps open next August, rangy, big-play Navy WR Jamar Tillman (#4, 6-3, 215) could very be in a camp on a free-agent tryout if he isn’t actually drafted by new England. Have a great day!