2 HARD 4 THE RADIO
We're not like them, or they're not like us, either one…
- Drake, musician
First of all, I want to give a shoutout to long-time subscriber and Golden Pig competitor Steve Jackson. That’s my dawg. And it just goes to show how the great game of CFF can bring us all together when you consider that my man is a Michigan fan and I, like many CFB fans, have grown to loathe these characters up in Ann Arbor during recent years.
In all seriousness, he recently started his own Substack, and in one of his first entries into the writing game, he decided to release a funny rebuttal to an article I recently posted about Antwan Raymond. Here is his reply:
I have to say, I love the parallel to the Drake vs. Kendrick beef we have brewing here. This is kind of cool in my opinion and so I’m going to keep it going but also because I think this maybe needs to be explained in further detail (even though I think I’ve explained this many times before). Well, it never hurts to repeat ourselves for clarity, right?
When it comes to identifying a 1.01 of CFF, the way I get there likely differs from most. Ultimately, what does the 1.01 mean for each individual? It probably differs. I would assert that it is a fool’s errand to try to predict the literal highest scorer at a position, so I don’t waste much time with that because whichever player I land on and subsequently tell you about wouldn’t really mean anything if the likelihood is close to zero that I could accurately predict this ahead of time.
Instead, I want to find the RB who I believe is the safest to at least be ‘good’ in CFF, which, in the context of RB production, I would say is about 15 PPG. From that standpoint, we are really just grading how clean the profiles are and comparing them to each other, not so much thinking about who’s going to be the highest scorer.
Our friend Steve correctly points out that a lot of the value with Raymond was entrenched in the volume that he received. My reply to that is: I think this means I’m doing exactly what I should be doing here, no? I don’t care much for evaluating who’s good at football (and why should you care who I think is good anyway?), I believe the better approach is to hyper focus on who’s getting the ball, and let it all play out from there.
With that in mind, it doesn’t matter to me if Raymond is a ‘plodder’ as they say, because if he’s going to tote the rock 250 times next year against a schedule that includes Howard, UMass, BC, NW, Maryland, MSU and USC, then it doesn’t matter.
We’ve spoken in the past about the merits of volume and how that correlates to producing the highest scorers in CFB here:
Visualizing What You (Should) Already Know About RB Production
Nietzsche killed God. Factories started burning coal. It was game over for community. It was just the beginning for men like us.
Again, the long story short of it is that the players who have the most production are the guys who touch the ball the most. That has always been the credo of this publication, in fact.
Do I think Raymond has the highest ability of this year’s crop of RBs? No, I haven’t really thought about that because my assessment of it would likely be wrong anyways.
And for your own context, here are the list of players who I deemed as the 1.01 in years past:
Rasheen Ali, Marshall (2023)
Ollie Gordon, OKST (2024)
Demond Claiborne, WF (2025)
To be fair, Gordon and Ashton Jeanty were pretty much tied in 2024—that was just a pick-em. And Gordon actually finished with over 15 PPG in PPR formats (~17 I believe).
Rasheen Ali did not finish as the RB1 in 2023, but he was pretty elite and I’m pretty pleased with the process that brought me to declaring him my 1.01 entering that year.
The process with Gordon was similar, and unfortunately he just didn’t look like the same guy after a ridiculous 2024 campaign. It is what it is.
I’m also pleased about Claiborne, who averaged 16 PPG in PPR formats, especially considering how almost all of the other first-round RBs performed last year. Injuries were a big thing in 2025, and Claiborne was part of the afflicted group, but he had a strong season nonetheless.
Part of the reason I provide the names from years past is to outline to the audience that a job well done here (in my mind) is if the player ends up having a solid season (15+ PPG). The exercise is simply to identify the player who I feel is safest to have a good season, and all three of those names above did.
Raymond should be no exception in my fourth year of doing this. Perhaps later in the offseason I will change my mind when we receive further information.
Players around Raymond include Ole Miss’ Kewan Lacy, Tennesee’s DeSean Bishop, and Oklahoma State’s Caleb Hawkins. Lacy and Hawkins have some obvious blemishes this offseason.
In Lacy’s case, Ole Miss brought in two former starters (including the FCS TD leader Josh Dye who had 28) via the transfer portal. Now, who knows what will actually happen but those moves signal an intent to move volume away from Lacy in my opinion. There’s also a new(ish) staff with a different OC calling plays now.
In Hawkins’ case he is transferring up a level from the G5 to the P4. This in itself makes it impossible for me to rate him as the 1.01/RB1. While I feel pretty optimistic that he’ll transition well, the hit rate of this profile has not been good so far.
DeSean Bishop is probably the next closest player who I could feasibly rate as my 1.01 given that he has a very safe and clean profile at RB. He returns the same staff (and basically the same OL), and only Tulane’s Javin Gordon was brought in around him. I like Gordon, and I think he could be good for Tennessee eventually, but I think he’ll probably need some time to develop (he was a true freshman last year).
If I’m picking which RB of that group has the highest chance to finish as RB1 by PPG or total points, then Caleb Hawkins would probably be the guy. But he also has the highest chance of being a bust out of that group too, so if I’m picking first overall I’m not going with him. That’s a function of the fact that I’m more risk averse in the first round. The first rounds of drafts are not the time to swing for upside, in my opinion. Other drafters will feel differently. ◾
BTW, I have been appearing on the CTN podcast as a guest to preview each conference (we’ve covered B1G & SEC so far and Big12 is coming Monday). Click the link to find the videos.
Also, another side note, I could see the shadow of the man himself on the CN tower from my condo during night when he was shooting this video a month or so ago:
If you enjoyed this content and would like to read more, I recommend joining the Pigpen, a community of thousands of degenerate college football fans:
I wrote a midnight screed. VP responds with a think piece. We aren’t the same and that’s a good thing. Volume is undoubtedly valuable. So is safety. But I don’t want to minimize my odds of finishing 10th. 1.01 needs to include maximum upside as part of the equation. If you ain’t first… you’re last.
Didn’t expect beef this morning but let’s keep it going. 🔥