College football 2018: Top 30 breakout players to watch

These players will develop into household names this college football season as the top breakout players in the nation.

Without fail, every college football season ends with a handful of All-Americans and postseason award-winners who most fans had never heard of in September.

Sometimes those players come in the form of a talented freshman arriving on campus and immediately starting, like Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor did in 2017.

Sometimes it’s a talented player who has been waiting his turn behind a future first round pick, like Clemson’s Kelly Bryant who led his team to a 12-2 record in 2017 after backing up Deshaun Watson for two seasons. Sometimes it’s a guy who has been with a program for a couple years but dealt with injuries, off-field issues, learning new systems, etc. but finally puts it together for a breakout season.

With multiple schools in every major conference breaking in first or second-year coaches, multiple new teams in the top 25 to start the season, and players like Baker Mayfield, Saquon Barkley, Sam Darnold and Roquan Smith leaving big shoes to fill, don’t expect 2018 to be any different than seasons past.

Some of the players on this list will seem like obvious choices and some may seem obscure. Not all of them are going to pan out, but they all have the physical tools and talent to be difference makes for their team and should be given more opportunity in 2018 than they’ve had to date. All are worth keeping an eye on. Time will tell which ones were right to be included and which were wrong.

UCF had the nation’s most potent offense last year, averaging 530 yards and 48 points a game in route to a 13-0 season. Of all the weapons at quarterback MacKenzie Milton disposal (and there were plenty), none was more versatile than Otis Anderson.

As a true freshman, the 5’11”, 165-pound Swiss Army knife, officially listed as a wide receiver, caught 30 passes for 351 yards and carried the ball 69 times for 494 yards. Only two UCF players had more yards from scrimmage than Anderson’s 845 and no one had better than his 7.2 yards per carry average.

Since the season ended, UCF’s returning players have been adjusting to a new offense and a new coaching staff led by former first-year head coach and former Missouri offensive coordinator, Josh Heupel. At Missouri in 2017, Heupel produced the SEC’s No. 1 offense (511 yards/game) and saw his quarterback set the conference’s single-season record for passing touchdowns with 43.

He runs a unique, up-tempo version of the spread designed to keep defenses on their heels by showing multiple formations without having to switch personnel so opponents don’t get the chance to either.

It’s tailor-made for a versatile player like Anderson, something that hasn’t taken long for his new coaches to notice. As long as he stays healthy, look for Otis Anderson to emerge as one of the focal points of another potent offense in 2018.