The 2026 Biletnikoff Award field is as impressive as there has been in quite some time, and it is shaping up to be a strong battle this year.
Since its foundation in 1994, the Fred Biletnikoff Award has not only crowned the best receiver in college football but has also served as a telltale indicator of future professional success. From Randy Moss to Calvin Johnson to Ja’Marr Chase, the award’s lineage reads more like a who’s who of present and future Pro Football Hall of Famers than it does a list of collegiate award recipients.
Heading into the 2026 season, we’re looking at a historically stacked field. Ohio State junior Jeremiah Smith and Miami junior Malachi Toney have each been touted as generational prospects and will likely each be top five draft picks when their time comes.
Other returning stars in contention for the award include Alabama’s Ryan Coleman-Williams and Rutgers’ KJ Duff, who are each entering their junior season after respective breakouts the last two seasons.
Texas’ Cam Coleman could continue to emerge as one of the top prospects of his class after transferring from Auburn. Another transfer who could shake up the award race is Indiana’s Nick Marsh, who will likely be quarterback Josh Hoover’s top target after making the move from Michigan State. If it’s not Marsh who stands out in Bloomington, it could very well be Charlie Becker, who emerged as Fernando Mendoza’s top target during the Hoosiers’ College Football Playoff run.
Top Biletnikoff Award Candidates for 2026
Which five of those candidates would I give the best shot to lift the trophy in December? Well, let’s dive in.
Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State
We’ve known Jeremiah Smith was a generational talent from the day he stepped foot on Ohio State’s campus as a freshman in 2024. His freshman campaign proved that scouts were right to be over the moon about his potential, and the general consensus was that he would have almost certainly been the top pick in the NFL Draft as an 18-year-old if he had been eligible to enter. He didn’t quite produce numbers in line with the stratospheric expectations he had entering his sophomore season, catching 87 passes for 1,243 yards and 12 touchdowns, and even still he ranked in the top 10 nationally in both statistics. The wide receiver room is a little less crowded this year with Carnell Tate moving on to the NFL, so it could very well be a year where Smith eclipses both his freshman and sophomore production across the board.
Malachi Toney, Miami
Entering the 2025 season, the common consensus was that Jeremiah Smith was as good of a wide receiver prospect that we may ever see at the collegiate level. Then came Miami’s Malachi Toney, who arguably put together an even more impressive freshman campaign than Smith did en route to the Hurricanes’ first national championship game appearance in a quarter century. Toney led the country with 109 receptions and ninth with 1,211 receiving yards when the College Football Playoff was all said and done. He also proved he can be a go-to playmaker out of the backfield with his impressive touchdown run in the title game, but the Biletnikoff is strictly a pass-catching award, so that skill may bode better for his Heisman Trophy campaign.
30 days until Canes football. 🙌
Comment a play/player to be featured on the countdown! 👇
(Malachi Toney/FSU 2025) https://t.co/U0VeolH1yM pic.twitter.com/8La4NRrIqj
— CanesMuse (@canesmuse) August 5, 2026
Cam Coleman, Texas
Cam Coleman was ranked just below Smith and ahead of Ryan Coleman-Williams in the Class of 2024 recruiting rankings, but he’s gotten less press compared to his classmates after playing for a disappointing Auburn Tigers program for his first two seasons. However, Coleman still very much possesses the positional traits of an early first round draft pick and with a bigger chip on his shoulder than his elite counterparts, I could see him exploding as a junior and leaving both Smith and Toney in the dust statistically. It certainly helps that he’ll be the top target for Heisman candidate Arch Manning, who is due to put up some gaudy numbers in the pass game this season. I’d be shocked if this wasn’t the year Coleman eclipses both the 75-catch and 1,000 yard marks, and that’s honestly conservative compared to what my estimate would be.
Ryan Coleman-Williams, Alabama
When Ryan Coleman-Williams was a 17-year-old freshman at Alabama, his “catch heard ‘round the world” against Georgia immediately put him on the map and had all of us thinking that we just witnessed the birth of the greatest pass catcher of a generation. Like Smith, Coleman-Williams entered his sophomore campaign last year with an astronomical amount of hype. The reality of the situation was that it was a disappointing year for the Crimson Tide star, who only caught 49 passes for 689 yards and 4 touchdowns. The good news is, sophomore gunslinger Keelon Russell is taking over the reins at quarterback in Tuscaloosa, which will surely be a huge boost for Williams and the passing game.
After two seasons, the attention surrounding Alabama WR Ryan Coleman-Williams has reached its peak.
Expectations aside, the time has come for Coleman-Williams to take his game to the next level.
With that in mind, here is how he performed in each of the last two seasons.… pic.twitter.com/MTpGNHw0Ti
— Crimson Coverage (@CrimsonCoverage) August 6, 2026
KJ Duff, Rutgers
If you were creating a wide receiver in a lab, there’s a pretty good chance your experiment would simply lead to you creating Rutgers wide receiver KJ Duff. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound junior emerged as one the best receivers in college football as a sophomore, posting 60 receptions and 1,084 receiving yards to go along with 7 touchdown receptions. Duff is arguably the best deep-ball receiver in the entire country, and his contested catch skills also stand above the rest of his peers. He’ll face a bit more volatility at quarterback than the other leading candidates, but there’s no doubt Duff is going to be the star of the show in Piscataway this season.
Honorable mentions: Nick Marsh and Charlie Becker, Indiana
I don’t have enough faith in these Hoosier wideouts to consider either a leading candidate for the Biletnikoff Award until I see who gets the lion’s share of targets, but I can’t shake the feeling that Mike Shanahan is going to have Josh Hoover slinging the ball with a bit more reckless abandon than he allowed Fernando Mendoza and even Kurtis Rourke to display. My prediction is that Marsh will be the leading man and Becker will be more of the Robin to Marsh’s Batman, but Becker’s performance in the College Football Playoff last season truly put him on the map as a potential first round NFL Draft prospect.
