5 college football players under the most pressure in 2020

These five players will face the most pressure in college football in 2020.

When you’re the starting quarterback of a blue-blood college football program, all eyes are on you.

That is exactly the case with this quintet of talented signal-callers. Barring something unforeseen at fall camp, these five guys will end up leading their team out of the tunnel in Week 1 of their respective seasons. While the Power 5 looks to be going the conference-only route primarily, there is at least one school in each conference worthy of pushing for one of four playoff spots.

For some programs, winning their conference championships annually are a rite of passage. Both the Clemson Tigers and the Oklahoma Sooners have won the ACC and the Big 12 titles in each of the last five seasons, respectively. However, the Big Ten, the Pac-12 and the SEC have been more up in the air, as they’ve all sent multiple teams to the College Football Playoff the last six years.

How many of these new starting quarterbacks will lead their team to the promised land? Some of them will live up to lofty expectations, while others will crack under too much pressure. These are guys in their early 20s, it happens. This is what we’ve come to grips with at the Power 5 college football level, as you either have it or you don’t. Who will rise to the occasion and who will falter?

Here are five players who will be under a great deal of pressure in 2020.

Spencer Rattler has big shoes to fill leading the Oklahoma Sooners. The last three quarterbacks to start for Lincoln Riley have either won the Heisman Trophy or finished as runner-up. Rattler is rare in that he didn’t transfer to Oklahoma like Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray or Jalen Hurts did before him. However, he does face considerable pressure to fulfill his legacy as an Oklahoma signal-caller.

As stated above, Oklahoma has won the Big 12 each of the last five years. In four of the last five seasons, Oklahoma has made it to the College Football Playoff. However, the Sooners are 0-4 in those national semifinals. Rattler may get the benefit of the doubt as a redshirt freshman to some degree, but he’ll surely be scrutinized if the Sooners don’t make it six Big 12 titles in a row in 2020.

Replacing a legend is never easy, but that’s what Myles Brennan has to do with the LSU Tigers. Last year, he won a national championship serving as 2019 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow’s backup. Maybe he picked up a thing or two by sitting next to the greatest player in LSU football history? However, he will be faced with an absurd amount of pressure to succeed the quarterback who just had the best single-season anyone has had in the sport.

With a 10-game SEC schedule, Brennan must go 8-2 and have the Bayou Bengals playing in a New Year’s Six bowl if he doesn’t want to be run out of Baton Rouge. LSU lost so much talent to the NFL, as well as two key coaches on last year’s staff. Brennan isn’t Burrow and never will be Burrow, but it doesn’t change the fact that LSU fans will demand perfection out of him this year.