OSU’s Jeremiah Smith Dethroned From No. 1 Spot in Prestigious College Football Ranking

Heading into the 2025 season, Jeremiah Smith was on top of the world. Ohio State was the defending national champion, and he was coming off a freshman year that earned him the label of a ‘generational’ talent. His performances also earned him the No. 1 spot on Bruce Feldman’s Freak List. Unfortunately, he no longer possesses that spot in the latest list.

Feldman released his annual CFB Freak List on August 10, and we have a new No. 1. South Carolina’s WR Nyck Harbor took the No. 1 spot in Bruce Feldman’s 2026 list.

“I’ve done this for almost a quarter century, and Harbor was the first back-to-back No. 1 Freak,” Feldman said on The Athletic. “It took a generational talent like Jeremiah Smith to bump him from the top spot, but Harbor is back at No. 1. To be this big and this blazing fast is truly rare.”

Don’t let the name of the list fool you. The Athletic’s “Freak List” evaluates college football players strictly on their raw physical tools, weight room metrics, and track times. It is a different evaluation than their on-field football production.

Nyck Harbor, after operating as a dual-sport athlete for his first two seasons, is now strictly focused on football, and it shows. He recently announced that his competitive track career is over. Harbor possesses a rare blend of massive size and Olympic-level speed, which landed him back at the No. 1 spot.

His measurements are what set him apart from the other athletes. Harbor is 6-foot-6 and 243 pounds. He has an 82½-inch wingspan and over 35-inch arms. Despite his heavy frame, he has clocked a 23.8 mph top speed on GPS tracking and maintains just 5% body fat.

Feldman gave Harbor the top spot for two consecutive years (2023 and 2024), but Smith surpassed the SC wide receiver last year. Otherworldly athletic anomalies are what give Harbor the edge in the race. Jeremiah Smith ended up in second place. Harbor’s sheer physical size gives him a slight edge over Smith in “freakish” metrics.

“He’s the best player on this list and in the country,” Feldman added. “Last year’s top Freak, Smith, won’t turn 21 until the day after the regular season ends.

Last year, Smith topped out at 23.5 mph on the GPS. Feldman was highly impressed. Hitting track-star speed at nearly 230 pounds was incredibly rare for the analyst. He even benched 225 pounds for 20 reps.

Others who made it on the list

The 3rd-ranked player on Feldman’s list is A’Mauri Washington, a defensive tackle for the Oregon Ducks. He moved up a spot this season. Washington stands as the highest-ranked interior defensive lineman in the country. He went viral after executing a Hatfield squat with a staggering 855 pounds for two reps.

Washington boasted a 765-pound back squat and a 365-pound power clean.
Head coach Dan Lanning told The Athletic, “We limited even how much A’Mauri can squat now. He can probably squat more than we’re even putting on the bar. He’s strong enough.” 

Then comes offensive tackle Jackson Cantwell from Miami, in the No. 4 position. He stands at a towering 6-foot-8 and 330 pounds. His power numbers stem directly from his lineage. Both his parents are Olympians in the shot put category.

His father, Christian Cantwell, was a silver medalist, and his mother, Teri Cantwell, was a two-time NCAA shot put champion and Olympian. At just 15 years old, Cantwell was already bench pressing 405 pounds for four reps. By age 16, his max bench press reached 505 pounds. 

Jayden Woods of the Florida Gators, ranked No. 40 last season, climbed to No. 5 this season. The new head coach, Jon Sumrall, also praised the young edge and raved about his raw talent to The Athletic.

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