College football roundtable: Most anticipated nonconference player

8:36 PM ET

We continue our national roundtable series with a look ahead to Week 1, because this year’s slate of high-profile, season-opening clashes between powerhouses is looking absolutely loaded. Today, we asked our conference reporters to answer this question: Which nonconference player are you most looking forward to watching this season?

Houston quarterback Greg Ward Jr.’s matchup against Louisville could have Heisman Trophy implications. Jason Getz/USA TODAY Sports

ACC: Houston QB Greg Ward Jr.

Tough call here given the abundance of elite running backs the ACC has on its nonconference schedule this season (Royce Freeman, Jalen Hurd, Nick Chubb twice). But we’ll go outside the Power 5 and look at a player two ACC defenses became all too familiar with last season: Houston quarterback Greg Ward Jr. The Heisman darkhorse is looking to build upon a 12-1 Cougars campaign that featured wins over Louisville and Florida State in 2015. And with limited marquee opportunities, you can bet Ward will look to make another statement when Houston closes its home schedule Nov. 17 with Louisville; the opponent and date will present a great opportunity for the rest of the nation to become acquainted with the dual-threat signal-caller (and perhaps a playoff-hopeful team). We eliminated Notre Dame players from this discussion, given the Irish’s quasi-ACC status with football. — Matt Fortuna

Big 12: Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey

Bill Snyder and his Kansas State coaching staff have the entire offseason to worry about this number: 434. That’s the number of times Stanford’s Heisman runner-up running back touched the ball last season as a rusher, receiver and returner. That’s an average of 31 times per game. In last season’s Pac-12 title game against USC, McCaffrey was good for 43. And he only needs to turn a few of them into big gains to be a huge problem. …

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