Week 7 college football standouts

College football’s Week 7 was entertaining with a handful of upsets, close games, and awesome individual showings. At the forefront of some team’s great weekends, Purdue’s David Bell and Alabama’s Jordan Battle shined among draft eligible players.

DAVID BELL

David Bell has had Iowa’s number his whole career, averaging over 150 yards a game against the Hawkeyes headed into Saturday’s showdown. This game’s stakes were higher than they have been however, with Iowa fielding the number #2 team in the country and one of the stingier defenses in college football. David Bell responded with an 11 catch, 240 yard, one touchdown performance to help Purdue stun the Hawkeyes 24-7.

At 6’2”, Bell not only can play the ball beautifully against coverage, he was getting behind the Iowa secondary all day with his surprising speed.

Bell has been dominating the Big 10 for a few seasons now, but with his first 200 yard game against Iowa, it is clear the receiver still has even more to offer as a player.

JORDAN BATTLE

Jordan Battle was a defensive star for Alabama on Saturday in their showdown with Mississippi State. After being upset by Texas A&M a week prior, Alabama wanted to bounce back in a big way. To do that, their defense had to rebound from an embarrassing showing against the Aggies and Jordan Battle catalyzed that rebound.

Battle was sticky in coverage all game, batting down a pass while picking off two more and returning one for a touchdown. He matched his big plays with sure tackling against the run and against receivers. In the end, Mississippi State scored once against Alabama and Jordan Battle was a big reason why.

There have been high expectations for Battle this season. Expectations that have been met on an inconsistent basis so far. Against the Bulldogs however, things really seemed to slow down for the junior safety and he looked like the playmaker that so many anticipated he would be.