- Jeremiah Smith collides with Jamari Sharpe: The Ohio State Heisman Trophy favorite takes on an Indiana corner that can handle bigger wideouts.
- CJ Carr has another test at BYU: The potential top-10 pick travels to match up with an elite Cougars defense.
- Lance Heard is on the rise: The Kentucky tackle has yet to allow a sack this season and now faces off with Oklahoma‘s Taylor Wein.
NFL Draft discourse is already heating up as we near the halfway point in the 2026 college football season. Several prospects have already asserted their status as future top picks. Players like Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Texas’ Colin Simmons could walk away from college football today as guaranteed top-10 draft picks — thanks to NIL contracts, this doesn't happen anymore.
Others still have a little bit more to prove. Particularly, that’s true of this quarterback class. Some of the best prospects entering this season haven’t exactly convinced evaluators that they are worthy of their high position on the big board.
Three NFL franchises sit at 0-5 entering Week 6, and an additional five teams have just one win on the board. It’s very early for fans to keep an eye on the draft board, but every win (or loss) is equally valuable come the end of the season. For fans tired of watching their NFL team lose on Sundays, college football has one of the very best slates of the season on tap this Saturday.
Two big matchups in Ohio State vs. Indiana
Indiana has somewhat sleepwalked its way through a relatively soft start to the season with two one-score wins in its last three games. Regardless, the Hoosiers are still undefeated. Ohio State is probably the more battle-tested outfit right now, but this is yet another rowdy road environment to deal with having already traveled to face Texas and Iowa.
This pair of teams combined for a total of 19 selections in the 2026 NFL Draft, including six first-rounders, and you should expect something similar next April. There are 12 players on PFF’s top-150 Big Board who will play in this game.
There are two key matchups to watch in this one, one on either side of the ball. Standout wide receiver Jeremiah Smith will have quality cornerback Jamari Sharpe for company. In previous encounters with the Hoosiers, Smith’s high school teammate D’Angelo Ponds was often tasked with covering him. But with Ponds now off to the NFL’s Jets, Sharpe is the main man in the Indiana secondary.
Smith did catch a beautiful back-shoulder fade despite Sharpe’s sticky coverage in last season’s Big Ten Championship Game. Sharpe is typically quite comfortable up against larger-bodied receivers, as proven by his excellent performance against Rutgers’ KJ Duff two weeks ago, but Smith is an entirely different animal as we already know.
When Indiana is on offense, the matchup to watch is left tackle Carter Smith against Ohio State edge defender Kenyatta Jackson Jr. Both players are now in their fifth year of Big Ten football and will be among the oldest prospects expected to be drafted inside the top 100 in April.
This pair are no strangers, having already logged 64 one-on-one matchups with each other over the last three seasons. So far, Smith has had the upper hand, with a 78.8 overall PFF grade compared to Jackson’s 52.8 in these encounters. Jackson has recorded four pressures and a sack when blocked by Smith, but he has been destroyed in the run game by the bruising 310-pounder.
The current form suggests that this matchup could swing in the opposite direction. Smith’s overall PFF grade has dropped from 88.1 last year to 72.9 so far this season. Meanwhile, Jackson’s grade has improved for the third consecutive year.
CJ Carr faces a top-10 defense
CJ Carr’s PFF passing grade is 79.6 when he is outside the confines of Notre Dame stadium, compared to 91.6 when playing at home. While he is fresh off the back of a high-quality away performance in the rain against North Carolina, Saturday will be one of his toughest challenges yet against a BYU defense allowing just 13.4 points per game.
Despite its strong statistical performances, BYU has just one defender present on PFF’s 2027 Big Board. That’s Faletau Satuala, a swiss-army knife at safety who lines up all over the field for this unit, causing headaches for opposing offensive coordinators. Satuala has already logged 20 or more snaps at safety, slot corner, in the box and on the defensive line so far this season. Carr must keep an eye on where he is on every single dropback.
This entire Notre Dame team has answered every question asked of it so far this season. Among the top-eight edge defenders, linebackers and cornerbacks on the PFF Big Board, Notre Dame’s Boubacar Traore, Kynstonn Viliamu-Asa and Leonard Moore own the highest grades at their respective positions. However, a trip to Provo is one of the trickiest showdowns on any schedule regardless of the fact the Fighting Irish are almost 10-point favorites.
Fascinating matchup out wide in Lubbock
Nobody entering the season could have envisioned Arizona State wide receiver Reed Harris looking as dominant as he has through five games. Harris wasn’t even the highest-touted wide receiver on his own team — most thought he would be playing second fiddle to Omarion Miller this year.
Harris is averaging 118 receiving yards and a touchdown per game for the Sun Devils with an 89.5 PFF receiving grade, but he’s yet to match up against a cornerback listed on PFF’s Big Board until now. On Saturday, he squares off with Texas Tech’s Brice Pollock, who came away with two interceptions last week against Colorado.
Despite these turnovers, Pollock hasn’t exactly been a shutdown corner to start his senior year. He has surrendered a touchdown in coverage in each of his last three games despite having not done so once all of last season.
These are two supremely experienced players who combine for over 3,800 snaps of Power Four football. They are both currently viewed as Day 2 draft selections, but if either player can come away from this matchup with a notable victory, they could propel their stock toward the back end of the first round in April.
Rising prospects emerging for surprise teams
As we stated near the beginning of this season, there will be teams that find their way into the rankings who few could’ve predicted over the offseason. These programs are propelled forward by veteran players whose draft stock skyrockets, with scouts paying closer attention to their performances. We highlighted players on the undefeated Pittsburgh team last week, which then lost on Saturday, so let’s hope this doesn’t become a curse of sorts.
Wake Forest is 5-1 and ranked 21st in the AP Poll. Several of the Demon Deacons’ key performers are underclassmen, but it’s worth highlighting senior edge defender Langston Hardy — who has earned his way into draft conversations thanks to rock-solid play over the start of the season. Hardy deposited a season-high 85.4 overall PFF grade in last week’s win over NC State. His matchup against Cal this weekend will be fascinating if dynamic sophomore quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele is cleared to play after sustaining a concussion two weeks ago.
Kentucky has climbed up to 15th overall in the rankings, and the Wildcats’ solid play up front is a big reason why they continue to trouble SEC contenders. Left tackle Lance Heard was already a top-75 prospect on PFF’s Big Board entering the season, but having gone six full games without allowing a sack to start this season, he is garnering genuine first-round consideration.
Heard will be up against Oklahoma pass-rusher Taylor Wein this week, who is seeking some redemption in his own right after he was safely taken care of by top-10 prospect Trevor Goosby last weekend despite his team’s victory in the Red River Rivalry. Wein’s 55.9 overall PFF grade in Week 6 was his lowest in over a year.
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