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30 college football players with the biggest shoes to fill in 2018

By Nicholas Ian Allen

DALLAS, TX - OCTOBER 14: Baker Mayfield
DALLAS, TX - OCTOBER 14: Baker Mayfield /
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PHILADELPHIA, PA – DECEMBER 09: Army QB Kelvin Hopkins Jr (8) walks the field during warmups before the game between The Army Black Knights and Navy Midshipmen on December 09, 2017 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA – DECEMBER 09: Army QB Kelvin Hopkins Jr (8) walks the field during warmups before the game between The Army Black Knights and Navy Midshipmen on December 09, 2017 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Shoes to Fill: Ahmad Bradshaw

Most of the players listed here will make it to the NFL. Several of them are quarterbacks. Ahmad Bradshaw doesn’t have a professional football future, and he wasn’t a traditional QB at Army, but he’ll be greatly missed nonetheless.

Bradshaw completed just 14 passes in 43 attempts (32.6 percent) last season for 285 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions and finished with just 1,424 career passing yards and 10 touchdowns in three seasons as the starter for the Black Knights. However, Bradshaw proved to be a dynamic playmaker with the football in his hands. He ran for 1,476 yards as a senior, which not only set the all-time single-season rushing record at Army, it also set a record among the three service academies. Bradshaw spearheaded an attack that averaged 362.3 yards per games a year ago.

But more important than yardage, Bradshaw won. Though his sophomore season resulted in a disappointing 2-10 record, Bradshaw led a turnaround in 2016 in which Army won seven games in the regular season for the first time in two decades, and won 10 games in 2017, including back-to-back victories over Navy – the first of which ended the longest losing streak for either side (14 games) in the long history in one of college football’s greatest rivalries.

Now, Bradshaw hands over the reins of the Army offense to backup Kelvin Hopkins, Jr., who saw action in seven games in 2017. Hopkins, who is a better passer than Bradshaw, but not nearly as dynamic a runner, completed six of 18 pass attempts (33.3 percent) for 76 yards, one touchdown (a 16-yard score with one second on the clock against Temple to force overtime) and one interception.

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