Ohio State’s Carnell Tate, Georgia’s Joenel Aguero lead college football’s second-year breakout stars in 2024

College football players often take their biggest jump between their first two years in a program. Given the sport’s expedited timeline, in which athletes can transfer at any time if their current situation is undesirable, second-year leaps have become an expectation. 

There’s plenty of talent from the 2023 recruiting class poised to make a huge impact this year. Some of 2023’s top prospects, like USC wide receiver Zachariah Branch and Miami offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa, have already made a tangible difference for their respective teams and are penciled in as surefire difference-makers. 

Beyond prolific names like those, several top quarterbacks from that cycle are expected to step into starting jobs all across the country, but we’ve already analyzed the 2024 outlook for a star-studded crop of second-year quarterbacks. This list aims at identifying some players beyond the quarterback position entering their second year that can breakout as stars on the national scale. 

A lot of these 2023 signees will have an impact on the race for a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff. Here’s a look at college football’s second-year players that can take the biggest leap entering the 2024 season. 

Georgia has a lot of secondary depth to replace after NFL and transfer portal departures. Included is a vacancy at the STAR position, which has big holes to fill with a history of standouts like Javon Bullard and Tykee Smith. While there’s still an open competition, Aguero worked with the first team at STAR in spring and started there in Georgia’s spring game. It will be hard to take the 5-foot-11 Aguero off the field; the former five star’s development will be key for Georgia’s defense as a whole. 

Given how well Georgia recruits the…


Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ohio-states-carnell-tate-georgias-joenel-aguero-lead-college-footballs-second-year-breakout-stars-in-2024/

Author : Will Backus

Publish date : 2024-06-17 18:19:10

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