Week 7 of the college football season came with plenty of heroes and a few goats as well. College Football 24/7 takes a look some draft prospects who made some noise, for better or worse.
Winners
JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR, USC
After a slow start to the season, the Trojans junior is now scorching defenses. He caught three touchdown passes against Arizona Saturday and went over the 100-yard mark (9 catches, 132 yards) for a third consecutive Pac-12 game. Smith-Schuster now has 10 touchdown catches on the season; he entered October with only two.
*Dede Westbrook, WR, Oklahoma *
The Sooners receiver is on fire. He caught nine passes for 184 yards and three touchdowns on Saturday in a 38-17 win over Kansas State, giving him three consecutive games of 150-plus yards. Westbrook has caught 26 balls for 574 yards and eight touchdowns during that stretch (against TCU, Texas and KSU). And with one of the most porous defenses in college football up next on the Sooners schedule in Texas Tech, Westbrook's run doesn't figure to slow down any time soon.
*Zach Cunningham, LB, Vanderbilt *
Georgia couldn't block Vanderbilt's top draft prospect Saturday. The Commodores star made 19 tackles, 2.5 for losses, and saved his most crucial tackle for last in a 17-16 road upset of the Bulldogs. In the final minute, with Georgia facing a fourth-and-1, Cunningham stuffed Isaiah McKenzie on a sweep to the right side for no gain to secure the win.
Derek Barnett, DE, Tennessee
Tennessee might have absorbed a blowout loss to Alabama, 49-10, but it was no fault of Barnett's. The star junior got the better of his matchup with Alabama OT Cam Robinson for much of the day, and beat Robinson for a strip-sack in the first half to set up UT's lone touchdown. He also intercepted a deflected pass, and had a 3-yard tackle for loss.
Donnel Pumphrey, RB, San Diego State
When you end up in the same sentence with Herschel Walker, LaDainian Tomlinson and Archie Griffin, you've done something right. With a 220-yard rushing performance Friday night against Fresno State, Pumphrey passed all three of them in claiming the No. 8 spot on the NCAA's career rushing list. The small-but-explosive senior (5-foot-9, 180 pounds) now has 5,383 career yards.
Losers
DeShone Kizer, QB, Notre Dame
After struggling on Saturday against Stanford with two interceptions, he was pulled in the second half by coach Brian Kelly in favor of backup Malik Zaire. Trailing 17-10 with less than four minutes left, and with scouts from eight NFL teams watching, Kelly plugged Kizer back into the lineup hoping for a spark. Kizer drove the Fighting Irish into the Stanford red zone, but he took a second-down sack, spiked the ball to stop the clock on third down, and couldn't make a play on fourth down. Kizer finished 14 of 26 for 154 yards, no touchdown passes and a pair of interceptions. Despite pulling Kizer, Kelly reaffirmed his starting status in his post-game remarks.
Nick Chubb, RB, Georgia
The Bulldogs star couldn't find any running room in a 17-16 home loss, on Homecoming no less, against Vanderbilt. Chubb rushed for 40 yards on 16 carries, for a season-low 2.5 yards per carry. He didn't score, he didn't catch a pass, and with the game on the line on a fourth-and-1 play in the final minute, he didn't even get the ball, either. Lay at the feet of Georgia's offensive line its share of the blame, but Chubb's junior season isn't unfolding nearly as well as his season-opening 222-yard game against UNC foretold.
*Joshua Dobbs, QB, Tennessee *
The Volunteers' dual-threat quarterback was no threat Saturday, passing for just 92 yards with an interception in a 49-10 loss to Alabama. With sack yardage counting against rushing yards at the college level, the Crimson Tide pass rush rendered Dobbs with a loss of 31 on the ground. From an individual standpoint, Dobbs needs to show improvement over the season's second half, but against a punishing Alabama defense, it wasn't happening Saturday.
*Brad Kaaya, QB, Miami *
Against a North Carolina team that entered the game near the bottom of the ACC in total defense (426) and scoring defense (31.5), the Hurricanes quarterback failed to take advantage. He completed just 16 of 31 passes without a touchdown, and to make things even worse, he lost a fumble on a sack with under two minutes to play in a 20-13 loss. The criticism in South Florida is getting louder.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
