All-Geezer College Football Team: A farewell to the COVID-19 eligibility era

New York Times

18-07-2025

The Athletic's All-Geezer Team began in 2021, the first season of 'super seniors' taking advantage of their free year of eligibility. Now we have former junior college guys using their 'Pavia year.'
Sadly, we are finally reaching the end of both eras, but not before unleashing a torrent of sixth-, seventh- and even eighth-year seniors.
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It's a team full of guys who feel like they've been in college forever; who first made a name for themselves as freshmen sometime in the late 2019s/early 2020s; who, because of regular redshirts, medical redshirts or something else, still haven't used up their eligibility.
Also: Texas A&M quarterbacks galore.
(Note: We picked 11 players on offense and defense but did not limit numbers per position.)
First season of college football: 2020
Johnson has been around long enough to have played for three national championship coaches: Ed Orgeron, Jimbo Fisher and Mack Brown (all since fired).
He was QB1 at LSU in 2020 and 2021 before leaving for Texas A&M but has had the worst luck since. He suffered season-ending injuries both years with the Aggies and then again in UNC's Thursday-night opener at Minnesota last season. Now he gets to add Bill Belichick to that list of coaches with rings.
First season of college football: 2020
It's hard to believe the former three-year Georgia Tech starter and (brief) Nebraska savior has been in college for only six years.
Sims was the Yellow Jackets' starter from the first game of his true freshman season but never built on his early promise. After three years there, Matt Rhule tapped Sims to be his first Nebraska quarterback, but he managed to commit six turnovers in his first two games and lost the job. He backed up Sam Leavitt during the Sun Devils' Big 12 title run last season and opted to return for the same role in 2025.
First season of college football: 2020
This is career stop No. 4 for Pyne, though he remains most synonymous with Notre Dame. You may recall him taking over in the Irish's 2022 home loss to Marshall in Marcus Freeman's second game or completing 89 percent of his passes against Lincoln Riley's first USC defense.
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After Freeman brought in Sam Hartman, Pyne left for Arizona State, where he spent one injury-shortened season. Then it was off to Missouri, where he backed up Brady Cook before leaving this spring to join new coach Eddie George at Bowling Green.
First season of college football: 2020
Now comes the second former A&M guy.
King began the 2021 and '22 seasons as QB1 in College Station, but an injury cut short the first season, followed by a demotion and more injuries in the second. But he has since blossomed into a dual-threat star at Georgia Tech, where he befuddled Kirby Smart's defense in the Yellow Jackets' eight-overtime loss to Georgia. Now he's slated to be a Week 1 starter for his fifth straight year of college.
First season of college football: 2019
Remember Calzada from Texas A&M? After King got hurt in the second game in 2021, Calzada led the Aggies to a prime-time upset of Bryce Young and No. 1 Alabama. He left for Auburn after that season with designs on succeeding Bo Nix but never saw the field due to injury. He spent the past two seasons tearing it up at FCS Incarnate Word, where he became a Walter Payton Award finalist in 2024.
Now, he's back in the SEC at Kentucky — where he'll turn 25 this fall.
First season of college football: 2019
Zeno first made a name for himself with Baylor in the 2019 Big 12 title game — where the opposing QB was Oklahoma's Jalen Hurts. The true freshman came in during the fourth quarter and improbably threw an 81-yard touchdown and a 78-yard pass to help take the Sooners to overtime. He spent the next two seasons as a backup before heading to UAB, where he threw for 3,126 yards in 2023 but played only four games last season.
He'll spend his seventh and (we think) final season backing up A&M's Marcel Reed.
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First season of college football: 2019
How old is Emery? He played on the Joe Burrow national championship team at LSU.
Unfortunately, the former five-star recruit was frequently injured over his next five seasons in Baton Rouge. His lone career 100-yard performance came in the Tigers' second game of 2020 against Vanderbilt. And just when he'd finally resurfaced in last year's opener against USC, he tore his ACL in practice the next week. Brian Kelly indicated at the time that Emery would be retiring from football, but that is not the case.
First season of college football: 2020
What a ride this guy has had. After two seasons at running back for Arizona State, Trayanum transferred to Ohio State to play linebacker but switched back when the Buckeyes suffered injuries in their backfield. After getting just one carry all season, he notched 14 for 83 yards in the 2022 Michigan game and scored the game-winning touchdown against Notre Dame in 2023. Still buried on the Buckeyes' depth chart, he jumped to Kentucky but missed most of last season with injuries.
At Toledo, he might finally get to be someone's top ball carrier.
First season of college football: 2020
Berger has taken a six-year, three-stop tour across the Big Ten.
As a Wisconsin true freshman, he had three 80-plus-yard games in a shortened season, but he was dismissed by then-coach Paul Chryst in October 2021. He again got off to a promising start at Michigan State, but injuries and inconsistency marred his next two seasons. So last year, he headed to a new member of the conference, UCLA, where he's back for one more hurrah this fall, including a trip back to Michigan State on Oct. 11.
First season of college football: 2020
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Here we have a rare entrant who's been at one school throughout.
As a true freshman, Porter exploded in the Wildcats' last three games, scoring a touchdown against Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game and going for 98 yards against Auburn in the Citrus Bowl. After missing all of 2021, the two-time captain spent the past three seasons struggling to regain his freshman form. He'll get one last chance alongside another fellow blast-from-the-past: ex-TCU quarterback Preston Stone.
First season of college football: 2020
Corcoran, a former top-100 recruit, was the highest-rated member of Scott Frost's 2020 recruiting class. He became a mainstay at left tackle for 30 straight games, of which an estimated 23 were excruciating one-score losses decided by Huskers special-teams miscues.
Injuries cut short his 2023 and 2024 seasons, so he took a redshirt last season and will suit up this fall for Nebraska's 18th straight 'this could be the year.'
Key backups: Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris, Miami of Ohio quarterback Dequan Finn, Sam Houston running back Alton McCaskill, Penn State receiver Trebor Pena, Ole Miss receiver De'Zhaun Sterling, Clemson OL Walker Parks.
First season of college football: 2018
We normally wouldn't include an FCS player, but this is an extreme case.
Tuliaupupu spent the past seven seasons at USC, where he became the new Cam McCormick. He missed his first two seasons because of foot surgery, then the next two seasons because of a knee injury. He finally saw the field in 2022, then missed the entire next season. All told, he played in 21 games in seven years and theoretically has two more medical redshirts at his disposal.
First season of college football: 2020
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Most people have to play an EA Sports video game to sample as many college stadiums as Height. He has moved from the SEC (Auburn in 2020-21) to the Pac-12 (USC in 2022-23) and the ACC (Georgia Tech in 2023-24), then to the Big 12 (Texas Tech in 2024-25).
He finally had his breakout as a fifth-year guy in 2024, and at the perfect time, as Texas Tech became an ATM for offensive and defensive linemen.
First season of college football: 2020
Buried deep on Mesidor's Miami bio is a nod to his second-team Freshman All-America pick by The Athletic in 2020 at West Virginia.
He moved to Coral Gables in 2022 and has earned equally prestigious acclaim as an All-ACC honorable mention pick in two of the past three seasons (he was injured in between). Now he's the top returning pass rusher for Mario Cristobal's fourth Miami team.
First season of college football: 2020
Flowe is himself a former five-star Mario Cristobal recruit and was the highest-rated member of a top-15 Oregon class. That's why it feels like he's been a name forever, even though his on-field career has been largely uneventful.
Flowe had 13 tackles in the Ducks' 2021 season opener against Fresno State but missed the rest of that season with a foot injury. He spent the past two seasons at Arizona, where another injury cut short his production. He left Tucson in April to join Dan Mullen's debut UNLV squad.
First season of college football: 2018
Ladies and gentlemen, our second real-life eighth-year senior.
Reese spent his first five years at Florida, where he managed to go four seasons without using any eligibility because of a freshman redshirt (2018), medical redshirts (2019 and 2021) and the free COVID-19 year (2020). Then, in the fifth season, he notched two tackles. He finally made his mark with 11 sacks in two seasons at Cal, then made what might be an unprecedented 2,800-mile transfer within the same conference.
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First season of college football: 2018
Taylor participated in Hawaii's senior day festivities last November. Then Diego Pavia won his lawsuit, and Hawaii's two-time captain earned a waiver to reclaim a year of eligibility from his one season (in 2019) at a junior college. He told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser: 'I can't believe this rule even passed.' Taylor has weathered two season-ending injuries on his way to becoming one of the Warriors' most productive players.
Also, in February, Taylor and his wife welcomed their third child.
First season of college football: 2019
Damuni originally signed with Stanford in 2017 before serving a two-year mission in New Zealand. That Stanford class included a bunch of guys who are already on their second NFL contracts (Walker Little, Paulson Adebo, Colby Parkinson, et al.).
Damuni played four seasons for the Cardinal, notching 207 tackles, before heading to Utah in 2023. He was the Utes' leading tackler that season but tore his Achilles last spring.
First season of college football: 2020
Grimes, a five-star in the Class of 2021 who reclassified to begin college a year early, was one of the biggest recruiting coups of Mack Brown's second North Carolina tenure. He started most of his first three seasons in Chapel Hill but is on his third school since, after a year lost to injury at Texas A&M and a year starting for UNLV during its 11-win season.
In January, he followed coach Barry Odom from Vegas to Purdue, where he's set to become one of 21 new starters for the rebuilding Boilermakers.
First season of college football: 2020
Clark is the last remaining legacy from TCU's run to the national championship game in 2022. He notched a pick six against Michigan's JJ McCarthy in that year's CFP semifinal. He has already had a distinguished career, twice earning All-Big 12 honors and racking up 11 interceptions.
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On Sept. 1, he'll add the honor of having faced teams coached by Deion Sanders (2023 opener against Colorado) and Belichick (2025 opener against North Carolina).
First season of college football: 2019
It does not seem humanly possible that a former Chad Morris-Arkansas signee is still playing college football, but here we are.
Catalon became a Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist for the Razorbacks in 2020 but suffered season-ending injuries the next two years. After one uneventful year at Texas, he became an all-conference standout for UNLV in 2024. Now he has come back full circle in the SEC and will return to Fayetteville for his last career regular-season game.
First season of college football: 2020
Really, all you need to know is that Lawrence, a former top-100 recruit, was a freshman on Jeremy Pruitt's last Tennessee team.
He spent the next three seasons at Oklahoma, earning an All-Big 12 honorable mention nod in 2021, then transferred to Ole Miss last year. But after playing sparingly in the first four games, Lawrence opted to take a redshirt and was off the team by mid-October. He landed at UCLA in December.
Key backups: Texas defensive end Cole Brevard, Arizona State cornerback Xavion Alford, Northwestern cornerback Fred Davis II, TCU cornerback Avery Helm, Memphis safety Isheem Young.
First season of college football: 2022
Kickers need only four years to feel like lifers. In Auburn's case, he became a national name in the second game of his freshman season at Texas by hitting a 49-yard field goal that nearly lifted the Horns to a home upset of No. 1 Alabama.
By last season, though, Auburn had become more synonymous with costly misses in Texas' SEC championship loss to Georgia and CFP quarterfinal win over Arizona State. Steve Sarkisian and his kicker opted to move on.
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First season of college football: 2021
Doman was the punter for Michigan's 2023 national championship team. No word on whether he had help from Connor Stalions. It seemed like Doman was on the field as much as nearly any Wolverine last season, thanks to that woeful offense, drilling a 68-yard punt in the Ohio State game. Now a grad transfer, the Rochester, Mich., native decided to spend his twilight year in Florida.
First season of college football: 2022
I could have sworn Brown was at Kentucky for as long as Mark Stoops, but it was only for three seasons. He returned a kickoff to the house against Miami of Ohio in the first game of his freshman season, then ran one back 85 yards to set up a touchdown in the famous 22-19 Will Levis-Jaxson Dart showdown. He went on to become the first-team All-SEC return specialist last season.
And he's not done terrorizing the SEC just yet.
First season of college football: 2020
Describing Doty as 'all-purpose' is a stretch, but we had to find some way to recognize a guy who, once upon a time, was the Gamecocks' starting quarterback for six games (two in 2020, four in 2021). He eventually moved to receiver but is now officially listed as an 'athlete' on South Carolina's website.
This seems like the most respectable way possible to honor an all-around good person, good student and good teammate who now mostly plays on special teams.
(Top photo of Haynes King: Vasha Hunt / Imagn Images)