Top Breakout Canidates for 2020 (2 Gophers)

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

College football’s top breakout candidates for 2020

Every year, a handful of players start the college football season as relative unknowns and go on to finish the season as bona fide superstars. Here, using the vast PFF database, we list the top breakout candidates ahead of the 2020 college football season.

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C JOHN MICHAEL SCHMITZ, MINNESOTA

He may not be a starter yet, but if he gets the chance to see more game time, Schmitz could blossom into one of college football’s best centers based on what we saw in 2019. Schmitz played 452 snaps in 2019 and was both the seventh-most-valuable and the third-highest-graded center of the year.

EDGE BOYE MAFE, MINNESOTA

Mafe has played only 347 snaps the past two years for the Golden Gophers but will receive far more playing time in 2020. While he never quite saw significant playing time in any particular game, he pieced together an impressive 19.3% win rate on his 207 pass-rushes as well as an 82.9 pass-rushing grade. Oh, and he can play inside, too. With reps like this, Mafe has the potential to become a top-five, if not better, pass-rusher in the Big Ten:

 

[#2Gopher]

These guys could indeed shine. Hopefully we'll get the opportunity to watch them.

 

[KoolAid]

So they replayed our Gtech bowl game 2 nights ago and I forgot how dominant Mafe was in that match (as just a freshman)

He certainly looks to have All Big-Ten written all over him

 

[btowngopher]

I think Autman Bell will break out as well.

 

[MNVCGUY]

I think Autman Bell will break out as well.

Agree the CAB has a great shot of breaking out this year as teams will no doubt load up to try and stop Bateman. He should see a lot of 1 on 1 matchups.

Really excited to see what Mafe can do. Has been a while since we have had a truly dominant defensive end.

 

[beatles]

I think Cam Wiley could break out as well. I love Mafe.

 

[Section2]

I feel like JMS broke out last year. Mafe for sure. On offense BSF seems like the most likely candidate.

 

[Otis]

I think the 6 man offensive line may be the starting offensive line against a lot of our better opponents! Those guys were very effective before Faalele went down.

Schmitz (Beer!) was clearly better than Olson at center too!