Big Stages and Bigger Storms: No obstacle was too big for this week’s highlighted players

Bright lights and a hurricane couldn’t keep this week’s highlighted players from putting on the shows of their career.

Florence may have moved Saturday’s game between Ohio and Virginia to a new location, but moving didn’t protect the Bobcats from a different kind of storm. Virginia’s do-it-all offensive weapon, Olamide Zaccheaus, went off for a nine catch, 247 yard performance with two touchdowns. According to PFF, Zaccheaus forced two missed tackles and picked up a whopping 176 yards after the catch. The senior receiver broke a 16 year-old single game record at UVA and it looks like he is poised for more production the rest of the season. Zaccheaus has a unique build at 5’8” and 190 pounds and UVA has deployed him all over the field during his career. While his pure athleticism will have a lot of teams interested, he will need to continuing putting up big numbers as a traditional receiver to convince the NFL that size is not an obstacle for him. If Saturday is any indication, Zaccheaus absolutely has a future on Sundays as a playmaker.

When a player rises to the occasion of a big match up, it’s clear they has something special to them. Dre’Mont Jones didn’t wilt on a big stage in Ohio State’s match up with a ranked and talented TCU team. Jones, a junior, was an absolute terror rushing the passer against the Horned Frogs. Jones added another sack to his 2018 total but that doesn’t tell the whole story of his constant pressure on the TCU quarterback throughout the game. On top of his outstanding performance as a pure rusher, Jones had the play of the game when his awareness allowed him to pick off a shovel pass and his athleticism helped him bring that pass back almost 30 yards for a touchdown, juking TCU offensive players on his way there. There was plenty of buzz around Jones heading into the season, but a lot of it was based in his potential rather than actual accomplishment. He is proving a lot of that enthusiasm correct and even on a line with Nick Bosa, Jones’ play is being sounded across airwaves on Saturdays and beyond. Keeping up this level of play, it would be hard to see Jones get picked much later in the draft than his more talked about teammate.