This is always a grueling task each week, sifting through dozens of incredible individual performances across college football to narrow it down to the 10 most impactful and impressive.
But this week may have been the toughest yet.
Consider who didn’t make the cut: two 400-yard passers, three 200-yard rushers, three receivers with at least 159 yards and multiple touchdowns, and a linebacker who had 3 sacks, a pair of pass breakups and 2 QB hurries in an upset of a ranked opponent.
Actually, that omission is killing us so we’re making a first-time exception and spotlighting an honorable mention before we get into the actual list of 10 Game Ball recipients.
Shout out to Wisconsin OLB Darryl Peterson, who delivered that performance in the Badgers’ 27-10 upset win over No. 21 Illinois. His first sack came on a third-and-9 from the Wisconsin 34 on Illinois’ first possession that knocked the Fighting Illini back 12 yards and out of field goal range, forcing a punt. His third sack came on third-and-5 in the fourth quarter and led to a botched punt attempt and Wisconsin scoring four plays later to make it a two-score game.
OK, onto the actual list …
Arizona State RB Raleek Brown
The former five-star prospect who started his career at USC, Brown is showing why he was such a touted recruit as he settles in during his second year at Arizona State. He rushed 22 times for 255 yards, including an 88-yard TD, and added a 33-yard receiving TD in a 42-17 win over Colorado. It was Brown’s fourth 100-yard rushing game this season but dwarfed his previous high of 144 rushing yards.
UConn QB Joe Fagano
Fagano has been putting up impressive passing numbers all season, but none better than what he did this past week as UConn needed all of it in a 48-45 win at FAU. Fagano completed 33 of 46 passes for 446 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs. Fagano’s 3 TDs all came in the first quarter — from 24, 56 and 32 yards — to stake the Huskies to a 24-3 lead before FAU rallied back. Fagano kept slinging the ball, though, leading three second-half touchdown drives. For the season, the seventh-year senior has thrown for 28 TDs with just 1 INT while passing for 3,441 yards.
Houston DB Will James
James became just the third FBS player this season to collect 2 interceptions and a forced fumble in the same game and the first Houston player with three takeaways in a game since 2008. He also had 5 tackles. Houston would go on to lose 17-14 loss, but James and the defense did everything to give the Cougars a chance. They were down 14-0 when James picked off Josh Hoover to give Houston some momentum that led to an ensuing touchdown drive. At the end of the first half, TCU connected on a 24-yard completion to the Houston 11, but James forced a fumble to keep it a 14-7 game. And in the third quarter, James intercepted Hoover again at the Houston 29, again providing a momentum swing as the Cougars followed with a game-tying TD to make it 14-14 at the time.
Kansas State RB Joe Jackson
Jackson, a redshirt sophomore, had just one career game with at least 70 rushing yards before Saturday and 476 rushing yards all season, and not only did he go and set a career-high but a Kansas State program record with 293 rushing yards and 3 TDs in a 51-47 loss at No. 12 Utah.
Rarely do we dole out Game Balls to a player on the losing side of a game, but Jackson couldn’t be denied here. He averaged 12.2 yards per carry and also hauled in a 19-yard reception to total the second-most yards from scrimmage in program history. The 293 rushing yards were the second-most by a Big 12 player in 10 years, with 236 of those coming in the first half as K-State built a 31-21 lead thanks to rushing TDs of 66 and 80 yards from Jackson. He later scored a 24-yard TD in the fourth quarter to make it a one-score game.
Texas QB Arch Manning
Manning is finishing an up-and-down season on a high note, as he became the second Texas QB ever (along with Bobby Layne in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1946) to have passing, rushing and receiving TDs in the same game. Manning completed 18 of 30 passes for 389 yards, 4 TDs and 0 INTs, had a 4-yard receiving TD and 3-yard rushing TD in a 52-37 win over Arkansas. It was Manning’s third 300-yard passing effort in the last four games and he has thrown for 11 TDs and 2 INTs in that span.
NC State DB Devon Marshall
Marshall had a tough matchup Saturday in NC State’s 21-11 win over Florida State, matching up most of the game against ACC leading receiver Duce Robinson. Not only did Marshall allow just 4 catches on 14 targets overall, but he set a Wolfpack program record with 6 pass breakups and notched 2 interceptions. Marshall’s first pick came at the NC State 9 to end Florida State’s promising opening drive and his second INT came on the final play of the game.
BYU RB LJ Martin
BYU continues its march toward a likely Big 12 championship game showdown with Texas Tech, controlling its path to the College Football Playoff if it keeps winning, and LJ Martin took it upon himself to make sure that happened Saturday on the road at Cincinnati. Martin rushed for a career-high 222 yards on 32 carries with 2 TDs, including a 33-yard TD inside the final minute that sealed a 26-14 win. It was the eighth-best rushing performance in program history, and Martin also added a team-high 44 receiving yards. Martin has rushed for 1,134 yards and 8 TDs this year.
Kennesaw State QB Amari Odom
Odom set school records for passing yards (387), total offense (419), passing touchdowns (5) and touchdowns responsible for (6) in leading Kennesaw State to a 41-34 win over Missouri State in a clash between two of the top teams in Conference USA. The feat is even more impressive considering the defense came against as that was the most passing yards allowed by Missouri State since 2023. Odom’s final TD pass was the game-winner, a 14-yard connection to Chase Belcher with 27 seconds left.
Odom is one of only three FBS quarterbacks this season to record 350 passing yards, 5 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD and more than 400 yards of offense in a single game, joining Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia (Nov. 22 vs. Kentucky) and Syracuse’s Steve Angeli (Sept. 12 vs. Colgate). Only 16 FBS quarterbacks have recorded this stat line since 2020.
Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia
Let’s start with the numbers and then put it in context. Pavia completed 33 of 39 passes for 484 yards, 5 TDs and 1 INT and rushed for 48 yards and a score in Vanderbilt’s 45-17 win over Kentucky. To put that in perspective …
Pavia became the first FBS QB to pass for 480 yards and 5 TDs this season, his 532 total yards were the second-highest total for a Power 4 player this year (third-most overall) and the most by a Commodore since at least 1996, he set the Vanderbilt record for passing yards in a game and tied the single-game record for TD passes (again), tied for the second most completions in a game in program history and led Vandy to a ninth regular-season win for the first time since 1915.
So there’s that …
North Texas WR Wyatt Young and QB Drew Mestemaker
We’ve honored North Texas QB Drew Mestemaker here before, and while he deserves it again, he’s going to have to share it with his top target this time. Mestemaker was absurdly efficient in North Texas’ 56-24 win over Rice, completing 19 of 23 passes for 469 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs while also rushing for a TD. But Young gets top billing here as he broke the AAC single-game receiving record with 295 yards on 8 catches with 2 TDs. He averaged 36.9 yards on 8 receptions.
The Mean Green was actually down 14-0 early when Young hauled in a 74-yard touchdown with more than half of those yards coming in the air. Late in the first half, he turned a short catch into an 84-yard TD for a 28-14 North Texas lead. He also had long receptions of 46, 41 and 24 yards. The sophomore has 56 catches for 1,076 yards and 10 TDs this season for the 10-1 Mean Green.