The conclusion of each college football season is the start of many national media outlets evaluations. Who were the top football players in 2020?
Pro Football Focus puts out an annual list of the top 101 players in college football each year. Given the up and down year for the Longhorns, did any players qualify to be deemed one of the best?
The 2019 list ranked Texas Longhorns offensive tackle Samuel Cosmi as the 98th best player in college football. He was the lowest-ranked Texas player on the list that season. Cosmi came in behind quarterback Sam Ehlinger (64) and Devin Duvernay (57).
Fast forward to the 2020 campaign and left tackle Cosmi was the only Longhorn mentioned. He was listed at No. 33 overall.
Cosmi was excellent in his first two years starting at tackle for the Longhorns in 2018 and 2019, earning PFF grades of 79.7 and 83.9. This year, he took his play to elite status, earning a 90.5 PFF grade in the process. Cosmi was the sixth-highest-graded tackle in the entire FBS on true pass sets (i.e., no play-action, screen, rollout, RPO, quick throw, three-man rush) this year.
The redshirt junior tackle led the team with the lowest number of quarterback pressures of any player who played at least 300 snaps on the offensive line. He allowed a total of eight pressures on the season with 368 pass sets. That equates to one pressure for every 46 dropbacks or 2.2% of the time. Much like PFF stated, that is elite level. He allowed just one quarterback hit and two sacks in 620 snaps at left tackle.
Let’s hope Andrej Karic is up to the task in 2021. In his 106 snaps over three games, Karic gave up zero pressures. There is a lot of promise with the product of Southlake, Texas.
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