More impactful true freshman: Clemson’s Bryan Bresee or Alabama’s Bryce Young?

Who will be a better true freshman in 2020: Bryan Bresee or Bryce Young?

Bryan Bresee and Bryce Young were the two best recruits in their high school class for a reason.

Bresee was the No. 1 overall player in the 247Sports Composite for 2020. The 6-foot-5, 290-pound defensive end from Damascus, Maryland committed to Clemson University and projects to be the next Ndamukong Suh. The Clemson Tigers have had a rich history for sending top-flight talent in the trenches to the NFL for generations. In three years, maybe Bresee goes top-10?

Young was the No. 2 overall play in the 247Sports Composite for 2020. The 5-foot-11, 197-pound dual-threat quarterback from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California committed to the Alabama Crimson Tide. He projects as the next Russell Wilson. Alabama has had great success of late at quarterback with Tua Tagovailoa, Jalen Hurts and A.J. McCarron a few years before that.

On FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff webcast on Wednesday, the college football analysts gave us their combined top five true freshman who will be the most impactful this season. Once again, Bresee beats Young for the top spot, as Oregon Ducks linebacker Justin Flowe, TCU Horned Frogs running back Zachary Evans and Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Julian Fleming round out the top five.

Will Bryan Bresee or Bryce Young be more impactful as true freshmen?

From this other graphic tweeted out by FOX College Football, you can see the six analysts associated with Big Noon Kickoff are split right down on the middle on who’ll be the best. Joel Klatt, Urban Meyer and Rob Stone are big believers in Bresee, while Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn think Young will be the best true freshman in the country. The fans picked Bresee.

It should be noted the two former star college quarterbacks, Leinart and Quinn, picked Young over Bresee. Add in the fact he’s a California kid like Bush and Leinart, no wonder he got the Heisman Trophy winners from the USC Trojans’ top vote. Quinn was the only one to not have Bresee in his top five. Young didn’t even make Klatt, Meyer or Stone’s top five. What are we missing here?

What this really comes down to is variance with Young. Given that he’s not expected to start Week 1 at Alabama, as Mac Jones is certainly good enough to be the Alabama starter for at least a good bit of the season, that may be a contributing factor to why he’s not on Klatt, Meyer or Stone’s top five. It should be noted Young didn’t crack the top-five of the fan vote either.

Even though Bresee may not have 10 sacks as a true freshman playing for Dabo Swinney, he’s too talented to not at least crack the defensive line rotation and make more than a handful of plays. The ceiling may not be as high for a true freshman campaign coming from a defensive end as it would a quarterback, but the floor is considerably higher in Bresee’s favor.

From the early jump, it feels like Bresee is the safer bet to have a more impactful true freshman season than Young, strictly on the belief he’s more likely to see earlier action than his counterpart. It should be noted Evans got three second-place votes, Flowe appeared on six of the seven top-fives and Fleming landed on five of the top-fives. Maybe one of them will be most impactful?

Despite being a quarterback, Young will have to wait his turn, while Bresee gets to play right away.

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