Tennessee's James Pearce Jr. has half a sack. Oklahoma State's Ollie Gordon II is averaging 3.5 yards per carry. Missouri's Luther Burden III is on pace for about 850 receiving yards. Georgia's Carson Beck is 12th in Total QBR -- good, but not "best player in the country?" good.
These players' teams are a combined 17-2, mind you; they haven't been epic disappointments by any means. But four weeks into the 2024 college football season, a lot of the players we thought would be the best in the country haven't really found fifth gear.
The great thing about college football, though? There is always a new batch of stars ready to break through. This season has not lacked in the Great Performances category even if those performances didn't come from whom we thought they would.
So as we look back on a wacky Week 4, let's take a look at the biggest surprise stars of the year. For both offense and defense, let's name a starting 22. (Anyone who wasn't in our preseason top 100 players list qualifies. That disqualifies a few of the season's biggest stars to date, such as No. 25 Ashton Jeanty and No. 56 Cam Ward.)
Jump to a section:
Unexpected stars | Surprising results
Heisman of week | 10 favorite games
The 2024 'surprise stars' offense
QUARTERBACK
Kurtis Rourke, Indiana. I don't want to alarm anybody, but Indiana -- the Indiana that has won more than eight games in a season just twice and hasn't done so since the Beatles were still together -- now has, per SP+, a 55% chance of finishing the regular season 9-3 or better. And while Curt Cignetti's army of James Madison transfers has played a huge role in that, another newcomer has played an even larger role.