The most important player on any college football team, we all know, is its starting quarterback. It might be the most important position in sports. And certainly, without Jake Browning, the Washington Huskies would not have won 12 games last season, or won the conference championship, or played in the College Football Playoff.
But if a receiver could ever mean as much to his team as the guy throwing him the ball, that was John Ross III last season for the Huskies. His speed, of course – you may have heard something about a record-breaking, 4.22-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine – made him the league’s premier deep threat, and it helped him catch 81 passes for 1,150 yards and 17 touchdowns, tied for third-most in the country.