2025 NFL Draft: College football recap, Week 11

Three defensive prospects upping their game at the right time

Some of the mightiest teams in the college football universe this year fell during Week 11. Among them was No. 3 Georgia getting obliterated on the road in Oxford as No. 16 Ole Miss cruised to victory in due part to an excellent outing from their defense — namely their defensive line.

Fourth-ranked Miami was upset on the road at Georgia Tech. Heisman candidate Cam Ward looked human for the first time this season and the ‘Canes defense had no answers for the Yellow Jackets’ horizontal rushing attack while the Hurricanes, conversely, stalled on drives into Georgia Tech territory. The Hurricanes still control their own destiny to the ACC Championship. But losing in the title game or beforehand may be the end of their College Football Playoff hopes.

It was the No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide rolling into a hostile environment in Baton Rouge, LA to crush No. 15 LSU 42-13. The Tigers had zero answers for quarterback Jalen Milroe on the ground as he once again looked like the best athlete on the football field. If he chooses to run the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, he’s got the opportunity to break the record for fastest quarterback in the history of the event. He makes high level SEC athletes look slow relatively often. On the flip side, LSU’s offense lacked consistent pop and turned the ball over far too often to defeat an opponent the caliber of Alabama.

Eighteenth-ranked Pitt was upset by Virginia and has effectively removed themselves from the ACC title conversation with two conference losses.

With the busy weekend, there’s plenty of prospects to talk up who performed admirably with just a few weeks left to go in the college football regular season. Let’s review three defensive prospects who caught our eye this week.

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Penn State EDGE Abdul Carter starting to acclimate to his new position — a scary sight for NFL offenses in years to come

It’s understandable for a former off-ball linebacker to take some time to really get used to a position change as a near full time hand-in-dirt defensive end, and that process rendered a preseason-hyped Carter slow to start the season. But it’s beginning to look quite natural to him and he’s now terrorizing college football with his play. Carter’s playing ridiculous football and embarrassing Big Ten offensive tackles in 2024.

Zero sacks and just one tackle for loss in the first two weeks has turned into eight sacks and 14.5 tackles for loss in the past seven contests. Carter is ripping at a high level right now, and he had several dominant reps in this past game against Washington — a performance that netted him two sacks and four tackles for loss.

He’s already got plenty in his bag with speed-to-power rips, legit ankle flexion and bend to put a ghost move on an opposing offensive tackle, and he’s improving weekly as a run defender. Carter’s stock continues to go up and it would be of zero shock if he’s a top-three overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Alabama LB Jihaad Campbell ascending to LB1 status?

There’s a widespread search out there to find out who the best linebackers are in the 2025 NFL Draft class. There appears to be one showing themselves with a force in Crimson Tide junior Jihaad Campbell. The former blue-chip prospect is putting together his best season yet as a true junior — a great sign of an ascending player on a very good team in the SEC.

Campbell has the appearance of a create-a-player archetype in Madden at 6’3” and 245 pounds. Campbell can really move horizontally and showed off some coverage awareness against LSU on Saturday. He’s just a physical freak and is showing off the production to boot in 2024. That’s plenty enough to get him drafted in the top 50 of this class. It’s hard to see No. 11 on the Alabama defense and not ask “who’s that?”

Ole Miss EDGE Jared Ivey unsung hero of nation’s best defensive line

We are far enough into this season to say that the Ole Miss Rebels likely have the best overall defensive line in college football with a starting lineup that are all likely to be drafted. A lot of deserved love floats the way of Florida transfer Princely Umanmielen and Texas A&M transfer Walter Nolen.

Jared Ivey, the former Georgia Tech product, has spent the past three years in Oxford with Ole Miss and is playing the best football of his career in 2024. He is up to eight sacks on the season, including two more on Saturday against Georgia. He’s had the opportunity to rush from a multitude of alignments in the Rebels’ defense, and produced a sack reducing into the interior on Saturday.

At 6’6” and 285 pounds, Ivey is very nimble for his size with plenty of interesting ability as a pass rusher. He’s a bit of an inside-outside tweener, but he’s assuredly a fantastic football player — one who consistently causes havoc and eats with plenty of future pros around him.

Ivey’s arm-over move on future draft pick Tate Ratledge was one of the cleanest interior wins you’ll ever see in a game. Ivey is a lock to be selected. He’s a bit of an older prospect, but he’s been a very productive player for multiple years at Ole Miss now. He may fit best as a natural 5-technique or 3-4 defensive end at the next level. Creative defensive coordinators should be lining up to select Ivey in the mid-rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft.