I Am Trying To Extend My Knowledge In College Football

Former North Dakota State quarterback, Carson Wentz, stands on the sideline during the 2016 NCAA Division 1 Football FCS Championship game on January 9, 2016.

SOURCE: USA TODAY Sports (Tim Heitman)

I have watched a decent amount of college football games in my life. The amount of college football games that I have watched does not compare to the amount of NFL games that I have watched. I care so much about NFL games that every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday, throughout the football season, that I make sure I am not doing anything else in my life so I can watch NFL games.

Now, if I realize that I have to miss watching college football games, I'll be absolutely fine. But if there was ever a time that I would realize I could not watch a certain NFL game, I would lose my mind. Since multiple NFL games would start at 1:00 PM ET and after 4:00 PM ET, I would make sure I would watch NFL RedZone in order to for me to be updated on every single game.

Now, every single year I watch the NCAA Football Division 1 FBS championship game. Even though I have watched all those FBS championship games, I would say I have a hard time remembering some of the players on either the winning or losing team.

I am not saying that my knowledge in college football is weak. I just feel that I can only expand my knowledge in college football. All these college football facts, that I am going to list, is new information that I have learned that I did not know before. Perhaps, some of this information that I'm going to list, you did not know either.

- Now, I did know that Carson Wentz got drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles with the second overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. I also knew that he played college football at North Dakota State University. What I did not know is that North Dakota State have won NCAA Division 1 FCS football champions for seven out of the past eight years. I also did not know that Carson Wentz is a five-time FCS champion at North Dakota State. I even learned that Wentz redshirted in his freshman year and it made sense to me of why he was a five-time National Champion in FCS football.

- Before doing research, I could not tell you who Jason White was. I know quite a bit of which college football players were named "Heisman winners". But, when I learned that he won "The Heisman" in 2003, I felt my knowledge truly expanding. Jason was the quarterback for Oklahoma University and was a junior in college when he won the Heisman. After his senior year at Oklahoma in 2004, he declared for the NFL Draft; but did not get drafted by any team. He had a tryout from the Kansas City Chiefs in 2005, but they did not sign him. The Tennessee Titans did sign him, but then in August 2005, he decided to quit football due to that fact that he had weak knees. I would ever known about Jason White if I did not do research.

- Tom Brady has won 6 Super Bowls. Little did I know that he also won a NCAA Division 1 Football championship at Michigan University in 1997. In 1997, seven college football organizations selected that Michigan would be declared as National Champions. So, that's how I figured out that Tom Brady was winning even before he was great. He was not the starting quarterback for the team in 1997, but he did throw for 103 yards for the team in that year. I also needed my mind to be refreshed as I saw online and remembered that Charles Woodson was also on that Michigan team which meant he was teammates with Tom Brady. The fact that Woodson and Brady won a championship together just seems crazy to me. Even better, current NFL on CBS sideline reporter, Jay Feely, was on that Michigan team too which meant he was also a National Champion. Feely was the field goal kicker for six different teams during his NFL career as he led the NFL in "field goals made" in 2002 when he played for the Atlanta Falcons.

- Trevor Lawrence was the quarterback that led the Clemson Tigers to a College Football Playoff National Championship back on January 7, 2019. What I learned about that team was that the four quarterbacks on their roster, which is including Lawrence, were all freshmen. Even though one of the quarterbacks on the roster, Chase Brice, was considered a redshirt freshman, to me he is still considered as a type of freshman player. I have played a good amount of Madden 20 to know that Hunter Renfrow is the tight end for the Oakland Raiders. I also know that he is currently a rookie in the current NFL season. What I did not know about Renfrow was that he was on Clemson's CFP National Championship team in 2017 and 2019.

- Josh Jacobs, the star running back for the Oakland Raiders, played for Alabama in College as he is a two-time CFP National Champion (2015 & 2017) and he was on that Alabama team that lost to Clemson in the 2019 CFP National Championship game.

- DeShaun Watson was a finalist for the Heisman in 2015 and 2016. He never actually won the Heisman. Those must have been two rough years for Watson realizing that he was a finalist, but not a winner. Looking back on it, he might not care since he won a CFP National Championship with Clemson in 2016.

- Marcus Mariota won the Heisman in 2014 when he was playing college football at Oregon. The other two finalists that year were Melvin Gordon (Wisconsin) and Amari Cooper (Alabama). You see I did know Cooper went to Alabama, but I did not know that Gordon went to Wisconsin. So, you can see why I want to expand my knowledge in college football, since I did not know where the Los Angeles Chargers star running back, Melvin Gordon, went to college. What is funny about this situation is that even though Gordon and Cooper did not win the Heisman in 2014, I feel that, so far, they have both had better NFL careers than Mariota. However, that's just my opinion.

- Larry Fitzgerald, one of the most beloved players in Pitt football history, was actually placed second in the 2003 Heisman poll. The player that he lost to was Jason White. Yes, they guy that never played in an actual NFL game. The player in third place in the Heisman voting in 2003 was Eli Manning. He was playing at Ole Miss at the time. I knew Fitzgerald was good at Pitt, but I did not know how great he was. So, I had to do some research. In 2003, Fitzgerald record 92 receptions for 1,672 yards as he scored 22 touchdowns. Yeah, he was the real deal alright.

- This is not a college football fact. This is a high school football fact. Alex Smith and Reggie Bush played on the same high school football team at Helix High School, located in California. Smith graduated from Helix in 2002 while Bush graduated from the school in 2003.

- NFL players, Ezekiel Elliott (Cowboys), Parris Campbell (Colts), Sam Hubbard (Bengals), Terry McLaurin (Redskins), Curtis Samuel (Panthers), Devin Smith (Jets), Rod Smith (Cowboys), Michael Thomas (Saints), Nick Vannett (Steelers), Eli Apple (Saints), Vonn Bell (Saints), wait stick with me now, Joey Bosa (Chargers), Michael Bennett (Falcons), Malik Hooker (Colts), Marshon Lattimore (Saints), Darron Lee (Chiefs), and Cameron Johnston (Eagles) were all on the 2014 Ohio State football team that won CFP National Championship. That's a squad right there. To me, it is crazy and awesome to think about how all these guys won a college football championship together. Now, they have gone their separate ways making a name for themselves in the NFL.

I could go on and on about all the other college football information that I just learned. For now, I'm just going to leave it there as my mind is better educated.

Brentaro Yamane: bythebossandgoat@gmail.com and Twitter @BYHilton13