Here Are College Football’s Top True Freshmen From Week 10

Week 10 belonged to the freshmen chasing quarterbacks. Maryland edge rusher Zion Elee and Auburn linebacker Shadarius Toodle each had three sacks in Pro Football Focus’ charting, and Elee’s last one, shared with teammate Sidney Stewart, ended Purdue’s final drive in a 34-29 Maryland win.

The two took very different roads to the same stat line. Zion Elee arrived as the No. 5 overall prospect in the 2026 class and the highest-ranked recruit in Maryland history. Toodle was on Auburn’s practice squad three weeks before he landed in Auburn’s record book.

They joined a 2026 class that has stacked standout performances all season, and the rest of the Week 10 list filled in around them.

• Maryland EDGE Zion Elee (8 pressures, 3 PFF-charted sacks (2.5 official) and 2 stops against Purdue)
• Auburn LB Shadarius Toodle (11 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and 3 sacks against Arkansas)
• BYU WR Legend Glasker (7 catches for 118 yards and a touchdown against Utah)
• Boise State WR Rasean Jones (6 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown against Colorado State)
• South Carolina DL Noah Clark (3 pressures, a sack and 2 stops against Texas A&M)

Zion Elee showed up when Maryland needed him

Maryland needed a win badly. The Terps had lost six straight games and 13 straight Big Ten games, and the school moved on from Mike Locksley on Oct. 21 after a fifth straight loss, handing the program to co-defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim on an interim basis. Elee’s role had grown before the season even started, when starting edge rusher Zahir Mathis was ruled out for 2026 with a leg injury in August.

His biggest plays came at the biggest moments. Purdue started a drive in scoring range right before halftime, and Elee ended it with back-to-back sacks. Then, with Purdue taking over at its own 5 with 1:01 left and driving inside the Maryland 20, Elee and Stewart dropped Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne to end the game.

The win snapped both streaks and gave Abdul-Rahim his first victory as interim coach. Maryland signed Elee as the best recruit in school history, and eight pressures in a game the Terps had to have looked like the reason why.

Two freshman receivers made the biggest plays

Over in Salt Lake City, BYU’s Legend Glasker gave the Cougars their biggest play in a 28-20 loss to Utah, beating the Utes deep for a 75-yard touchdown in the second quarter. He finished with seven catches for 118 yards, and his 703 receiving yards rank second among true freshman receivers this season.

Glasker was a three-star recruit out of Lehi High, right in BYU’s backyard, and he has become a regular piece of an offense that knocked off Notre Dame in October.

Boise State’s Rasean Jones followed a big Week 9 with another one. Facing third-and-2 from the Colorado State 35 in the second quarter, he caught a pass over the middle from quarterback Max Cutforth, slipped one tackle, stiff-armed another defender, and ran in for the score. He finished with six catches for 116 yards in a 64-38 win, with starting quarterback Maddux Madsen out injured.

Noah Clark held the middle

Down in Columbia, the heaviest freshman on the list did his work at the line of scrimmage. South Carolina nose tackle Noah Clark, a 6-foot-5, 345-pounder from Durham (N.C.) Jordan posted three pressures, a PFF-charted sack (half a sack officially) and two stops in 37 snaps of a 17-9 win over Texas A&M.

He pressured Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed into an incompletion on a third down during the opening drive, then combined with Caleb Herring on a sack that forced a field goal try on the final play of the first half. South Carolina has now won four straight SEC games.

Shadarius Toodle went from practice squad to the record book

Toodle’s afternoon was the wildest of the bunch. In his college debut, the former four-star recruit had 11 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and three sacks, an Auburn freshman record, in a 26-23 win over Arkansas. Auburn trailed 10-3 at halftime and won on Alex McPherson’s 43-yard field goal with 33 seconds left.

His third sack came off the edge against Arkansas quarterback KJ Jackson in the third quarter and forced a field goal attempt. Coverage was still a work in progress, with three catches for 60 yards allowed on four targets, though he also broke up a pass.

“Did not look like a freshman,” Auburn coach Alex Golesh said after Saturday’s win. “Maybe waited too long to play him, but sometimes, that’s how it shakes out.”