My purchase of the Athlon College Football preview has become an annual tradition for me and I think it’s my subconscious telling me that it’s officially alright to start thinking about college football again. Less than 8 more weeks until kick-off.

This is my first official post for the 2007 college football season and I thought I’d start out a little simple. Here’s five players that are poised to have a breakthrough in ‘07 and become household names.

Keith Rivers - LB - USC

Watching some of the USC games it was difficult to miss Keith Rivers. The kid plays sideline-to-sideline, loves to hit, is very athletic and pretty good in pass coverage. Rivers led the Trojans as a senior last year with 85  tackles and 47 solo tackles. My beef with Rivers in watching him last season was that he had a great motor but sometimes played a little undisciplined. Hopefully playing with what has to be the best linebacking corps in the nation with Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing will settle him down some. Expect Rivers to be a Butkus Award finalist along with teammates Maualuga.

Jonathan Stewart  - RB - Oregon

Making an appearance on the Maxwell Award watchlist, Jonathan Stewart could become a big-time playmaker for Mike Bellotti and the Ducks this season.  Though he finished with less than 1,000 yards last year, look for Stewart to exceed last year’s numbers and then some. He’ll also likely be featured more in the pass game. Though the Pac-10 is still USC’s to lose, stopping Stewart and Jeremiah Johnson will be essential if the Trojans are to make it out of Eugene on Oct. 27.

Earl Bennett - WR - Vanderbilt

The first college football game I watched last season was Vandy’s week 1 trip to The Big House to play Michigan. What I saw was a feisty, young and exciting team led by Bennett and quarterback Chris Nickson hang around the Wolverines much longer than they should have. Last season, Bennett proved that maybe he didn’t need Jay Cutler to be a potent offensive weapon and caught an SEC-best 82 balls for 1,146 yards and 6 TDs as a sophomore. As a junior, Bennett is on pace to set the SEC career record for both receptions and yards. If the Commodores are to get to their first bowl game in more than 20 yards, they’re going to get there on the back of Earl Bennett.

Andre’ Woodson - QB - Kentucky

It’s hard not to feel good about last season if you’re a Kentucky football fan. The team not only made it to a bowl game but beat a pretty heavily favored Clemson team along the way. Riding that high the Wildcats come into the ‘07 season with an offense featuring three of the SEC’s most electric offensive playmakers in Woodson, RB Rafael Little and WR Keenan Burton. If UK is to continue their winning ways and find six wins in a schedule that features road games against Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia and tilts at home against Florida, LSU and Tennessee, they’re going to need Woodson to show the consistency he did last year when he completed 63 percent of his passes. Limiting turnovers will also be essential for the UK offense, who’ll need to put up points on the board to counteract a defense that was 108th and 118th in the country against the run and the pass. If Woodson can repeat his 2006 campaign, where he threw for more than 3,000 yards with 31 touchdowns and just 7 INTs, Rich Brooks could become the Vince Lombardi of Lexington.

Dan Connor - LB - Penn State

This might seem like kind of an obvious choice but I firmly believe that Dan Connor will step out of the shadow of Paul Posluszny and make a name for himself. There are some that believe, like I do, that Connor was actually the better, more athletic player of the two and actually led the Nittany Lions with 113 tackles (70 solos) and two interceptions. With his move from outside linebacker to middle to fill in for Posluszny, who graduated last year, Connor is bound to draw comparisons to his predecessor but utilizing his great closing speed, an excellent nose for the ball and diagnosing plays and that Penn State, Linebacker U toughness, Connor will have little problem making the transition inside after three seasons at outside linebacker. Connor, along with Maualuga and Tennessee’s Jerod Mayo are my early favorites for the Butkus award.

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