The 25-year-old stars of the pandemic eligibility era are beginning to age out of college football, and that means there is a quicker path to playing time for the sport’s top underclassmen. Last season, the SEC and the rest of the country saw many true freshmen have their breakout, but for other top recruits from the 2024 recruiting class, their moment could be coming this fall.
Here are a few of the SEC’s most promising second-year players who could have a big season in 2025.
Proven 2nd-year players: DJ Lagway, Ryan Williams, Collin Simmons, Cam Coleman, Dylan Stewart, KJ Bolden, Nate Frazier, Caden Durham
One of the top overall recruits in the 2024 class, Robinson took a bit more time to acclimate to the college game than expected in his first year at Georgia. The five-star redshirted behind a group of veteran cornerbacks, but now, with many of those same players still on the roster, Robinson will be difficult to keep off the field.
Kirby Smart has sung his praises this offseason, and it appears that he’s ready to join last year’s breakout star KJ Bolden as another young stud in the Bulldog’s secondary.
While Robinson was redshirting in Athens, another 2024 five-star cornerback had his hands full against SEC receivers. Zabien Brown acquitted himself well as a true freshman starter on Kane Wommack’s defense in Tuscaloosa, but he seems poised to reach another level in 2025.
Brown played 660 snaps last season as the Crimson Tide’s clear CB2, but that was primarily out of necessity after an exodus of secondary talent following Nick Saban's retirement. Brown played well and is one of the more proven freshmen in the league, but he’s included on this list because he could be moving into a new role, playing the nickel more with the emergence of freshman Dijon Lee.
The 6-foot-1, 2024 four-star recruit played in 11 games as a true freshman, but only caught seven passes as he was targeted just 13 times. Now, with Squirrel White at Florida State, Bru McCoy out of eligibility, and Dont’e Thornton Jr. in the NFL, he could be the No. 1 option for quarterback Joey Aguilar.
Matthews has the speed to be a vertical threat and thrives in the intermediate part of the field, where Aguilar, who arrived in the spring after Nico Iamaleava transferred to UCLA, loves to throw the ball. Matthews will just have to cut down on the drops after posting two in limited work last season, to earn his new QB's trust.
Redshirt sophomore Andre Cojoe was expected to step into the starting role at right tackle for the Longhorns after last year’s left tackle, Kelvin Banks Jr., became a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. However, Cojoe went down with a season-ending knee injury this summer, which opened the door for Baker, a five-star who saw 65 snaps as he appeared in eight games as a true freshman.
Baker’s rise into the starting lineup was expedited by Cojoe’s injury, and he’ll need to play well from the jump because Texas’s depth is limited behind him.
Brent Venables hoped to keep Jeff Lebby’s veer-and-shoot offense up and running last season with Lebby at Mississippi State and Seth Littrell taking over in Norman. However, that experiment failed, first-year starting QB Jackson Arnold struggled, and Venables opted for an offseason overhaul, installing Ben Arbuckle as his offensive coordinator and bringing his quarterback, John Mateer, down from Washington State with him.
It wasn’t just Littrell and Arnold that caused Oklahoma’s offensive ineptitude in 2024. The Sooners' wide receiver room was also decimated by injuries. Health should lead to improved play on the outside, but so should the development of young players like Zion Kearney, who caught eight of his 15 targets for 128 yards and a touchdown last season.
Arbuckle and Mateer were prolific at Washington State, and while veteran transfer receivers Keontez Lewis and Isaiah Sategna III could be the primary beneficiaries of the offensive uptick, Kearney should play a major role for the Sooners.