This past week, ESPN ranked the top 100 players in college football based on a poll done with 43 of their college football writers and analysts. Meanwhile, each of ESPN's power 5 conference blogs also did a ranking of the top 25 players in their individual conferences.
Dadi Nicolas was ranked as the eighth best ACC player and finished tied for 98th in the ESPN Top 100 while Bucky Hodges ranked 21st among ACC players; and Luther Maddy, Ken Ekanem, and Wyatt Teller were all honorable mentions for the ACC Top 25.
However, one player that hadn't been ranked yet was star cornerback Kendall Fuller, but Fuller's name finally appeared. Unsurprisingly, Fuller was ranked near the top of both major lists for ESPN.
Kendall Fuller was ranked as the 11th best player in college football and the fourth best player by the ESPN ACC blog. However, Fuller's position in the general ESPN rankings states that Fuller is the second best player in the ACC behind only Florida State's Jalen Ramsey who also was right ahead of him in the ACC rankings.
Fuller has the potential to go down as the best cornerback in Virginia Tech football history, and one of the top 3 to 5 defensive player ever to touch the field at Lane Stadium. Entering 2015, Fuller is clearly one of the top three defensive backs in college football along with Ramsey and Florida's Vernon Hargreaves.
Fuller is an elite man-to-man cover cornerback that can shut down every non-elite wide receiver in college football. Kendall Fuller has proven to be the best of the Fuller family that has come through Virginia Tech even with the massive success of other Fullers including Kyle Fuller who went in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft.
Fuller shined in his freshmen season with 58 tackles, 11 pass deflections, and 6 interceptions. In his sophomore season, most teams tried to avoid Fuller who still dominated despite playing with a fractured wrist with 54 tackles, 4.5 total tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 15 pass deflections, and 2 interceptions.
Fuller also earned First Team All-ACC and Second Team All-American honors after his very impressive 2014 season. Ahead of this season, Fuller has also earned many honors including Preseason All-ACC and All-American honors as one of the top 3 defensive backs in the country.
Fuller is a matchup nightmare that opposing offensive coordinators have to game-plan around to try to limit his impact. Even when Fuller isn't on his game, it takes an elite receiver like Pittsburgh's Tyler Boyd to do significant damage against the Hokies' star cornerback.
Kendall Fuller is becoming a Virginia Tech legend that leads a Hokies' team that many believe can have a breakout season in 2015. Will this be Fuller's final season in Blacksburg also? That definitely seems possible as a likely top 15 pick but for now, Hokie fans can just enjoy seeing him dominate opposing wide receivers.
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