Sports Illustrated's College Football Mock Draft

by Sailor Ripley on Jul 17, 2025 11:07 AM CDT

College football enthusiast Andy Staples is here to help ease the pain of these final days before pads get put on.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL MOCK DRAFT

A fun read and his thoughts on some Horns. First Horn off the board:

20. New Mexico State: DE Alex Okafor, Sr., Texas

Aggies coach Dwayne Walker hasn't forgotten the way end Bruce Davis made quarterbacks miserable when Walker ran the UCLA defense. In Okafor, Walker grabs another elite pass rusher.

Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-US PRESSWIRE

More Horns (and a possible snub?):

26. Army: DE Jackson Jeffcoat, Jr., Texas

Even though we've imagined a college football draft, we haven't imagined a change in the height/weight restrictions of the U.S. Armed Forces. So don't expect any of the service academies to start picking 320-pound linemen. If this were last year, the ideal service academy target would have been Robert Griffin III, an Army brat who would have been a lock for a nomination for admission. Because of the height/weight restrictions, Army will still have to run the option. Since most programs won't be in the market for option-ready players, Army can pick up offensive players in later rounds. Early on, it can stock up on defense. In Jeffcoat, the Black Knights get an elite speed rusher light enough to fit in at the academy. Jeffcoat, meanwhile, gets to skip his Plebe year.

58. Virginia: CB Quandre Diggs, So., Texas

Last year's Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year has a guaranteed two seasons in Charlottesville, where coach Mike London is proving he can shine on the FBS level as well.

64. Purdue: RB Joe Bergeron, So., Texas

Boilermakers coach Danny Hope's teams are at their best when the running game clicks. Bergeron averaged 6.4 yards per carry as a freshman, often outshining classmate Malcolm Brown.

73. North Carolina: RB Malcolm Brown, So., Texas

Tar Heels coach Larry Fedora had expected to coach Giovani Bernard. Instead, he gets the other half of the Longhorns' tailback haul of 2011.

97. Florida: LB Steve Edmond, So., Texas

Gators coach Will Muschamp recruited Edmond to Austin while serving as the Longhorns' defensive coordinator, but he never got to coach him. Now, Muschamp will have his chance to coach the 6-3, 255-pound freak of nature.

Be sure to visit the COLLEGE FOOTBALL MOCK DRAFT to see whom Mack Brown selected.

Be excellent to each other.

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Read More: Robert Griffin III (QB - Baylor), Mike London (DL - Beth.-Cook.), Giovani Bernard (RB - North Carolina), Joe Bergeron (RB - Texas), Steve Edmond (LB - Texas), New Mexico St. Aggies, Utah State Aggies, Florida Gators, Army Black Knights, Central Florida Knights, Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M; Aggies, Purdue Boilermakers

Comments

Jackson Jeffcoat is an elite speed rusher?

Learn something new every day.

@ccommand3r

by CMDR on Jul 17, 2025 11:19 AM CDT reply actions

This is a cool concept.

I’ve enjoyed reading it very much. Makes the days leading up to training camp go a little faster.

by Hippie Killer on Jul 17, 2025 11:56 AM CDT reply actions

No Machete? No Hicks?

by Loisaida Horn on Jul 17, 2025 12:03 PM CDT reply actions

No Lord Carrington?

by danielt on Jul 17, 2025 12:13 PM CDT up reply actions

Yeah

I asked him about the absence of Kenny V.

Follow @BarkingCarnival

by Sailor Ripley on Jul 17, 2025 12:05 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

My understanding is that Larry Coker tried to draft him

In response, Vaccaro said: “Machete don’t text for anyone but the Horns.”

http://aseaofblue.com | https://www.barkingcarnival.com | @JC_Hoops

by jc25 on Jul 17, 2025 2:02 PM CDT up reply actions

Texas State

selected a Senior Center with the 2nd pick…

by Nickel Rover on Jul 17, 2025 12:13 PM CDT reply actions

Thought it was a basketball draft.

by tronaldinho on Jul 17, 2025 12:28 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

No fu@king way

Yea, let’s tell college kids they have to finish their degrees where we tell them to. If I was a sophomore at UT and someone told me I had to finish my degree fu@king sheep in farmville, I would have “objected with great emphasis.”

Its best not to even joke about treating college students as property of a given university to be traded at whim. Most college grads will be treated like crap by corporate America (including professional sports corporations) soon enough.

by Randolph Duke on Jul 17, 2025 1:02 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

...

You may not realize this, but there is no cfb draft, and in no way was the article advocating for one. Its an invented exercise whose point is mostly to highlight the best players in college football.

@ccommand3r

by CMDR on Jul 17, 2025 1:23 PM CDT up reply actions

You sir

have an impressive array of axes to grind.

by BurntOrangeJuice on Jul 17, 2025 3:59 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions 3 recs

Randolph Duke is late for his oatmeal...

by Hippie Killer on Jul 17, 2025 4:39 PM CDT up reply actions

Between comments like this and the requisite sheep fucking, aggy, farmville LOL! you are either working on some dark sinister level of intelligence like a Coen brother, or the internet is simply too much heavy lifting for you and you’d be best served peddling your rants and musings on an Etch A Sketch.

I mean, that’s slavery shit that Matt Barkley got drafted by UMass and I, for one, will not stand for it.

@jimmygards

by ColoradoAg on Jul 17, 2025 4:41 PM CDT up reply actions

any thought given to seeing which schools had the most players "drafted" to other schools?

we see above Texas had 6 players (4 defense; 2 rb). apparently bama had a lot of players go to other schools. i would guess the same for lsu.

If You See Kay, Oh You

by texfan23 on Jul 17, 2025 1:26 PM CDT reply actions

Enormous attempt

pure hubris, even if probably started as a fun idea. The enormous omissions from Texas serve to demonstrate how hopeless it would be to do this with every collegiate player.

by Nickel Rover on Jul 17, 2025 4:22 PM CDT reply actions