Week 8 Scouting Notebook: Texas speedsters sink Ole Miss, A'Mauri Washington's struggles continue and more

By Jack Brentnall

Week 8 brought a mix of breakout performances and growing frustrations. Texas’ win over Ole Miss provided two of the weekend’s standout individual showings, while the search for clarity at the top of the quarterback class continued. Here is what stood out on tape.

Raleek Brown and Ryan Wingo power Texas past Ole Miss

Texas earned a big win over Ole Miss this weekend, and a pair of speedsters did much of the damage. Running back Raleek Brown and wide receiver Ryan Wingo both turned in performances that will have caught the eye of evaluators.

Brown was excellent. His feet were quick and light throughout, and he made some outstanding reads, with his eyes and feet working as if tied together on a string. He ran with good physicality for his size again too. He finished with 157 yards on 23 carries, and his biggest moment came late, when a 47-yard run proved key to Texas closing out the win.

The question when projecting Brown to the next level will centre on what a back of his size can be in the NFL. There is always room for explosive playmakers, though, and even if he never becomes a bell cow, tape like this suggests he can be a valuable contributor.

Wingo caught seven passes for 111 yards and showed off his ability to create after the catch, turning a slide route into a long gain. He also flashed some nuance as a route runner on his big touchdown in the second quarter.

He still feels like a player with more meat on the bone. Wingo has a dream combination of size and speed, and plays like these show how he can turn a routine rep into an explosive. What he needs is more consistency, both in his reliability as a route runner and in his effort on the backside of plays and as a blocker. Until he puts that together, he will be drafted on what he might become rather than on what he has actually shown.

Jahiem White runs through Navy

North Texas running back Jahiem White had the best game of his season against Navy, carrying 20 times for 174 yards and two touchdowns. He forced nine missed tackles and broke off five runs of 10 or more yards, with his impressive burst showing up on several occasions.

He was just as dangerous as a receiver, catching four passes for 58 yards and showing some impressive ball skills and creativity after the catch. Though he has long been a solid outlet in the passing game, his receiving profile is becoming an increasingly important part of his game at North Texas.

At 5’7″ and 190 lbs I do worry about the frame, as well as whether White’s overall athletic ceiling is high enough to compensate for that. Having missed most of 2025, he is going to face real durability questions too.

Those questions won’t disappear, but he is answering them in the only way available to him. White now has 861 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season, averaging 7.4 yards per carry. He has another year of eligibility and a return would not be surprising, but keep producing at this rate and leaving that on the table to go back to school becomes a very hard sell.

Zeke Berry keeps Nick Marsh quiet

Prior to Week 8 I highlighted Zeke Berry’s matchup with Indiana as one of the top Draft relevant matchups to watch this weekend. It certainly didn’t disappoint, and Berry will have come away really pleased with how he fared against top quality opposition.

He spent much of his afternoon matched up against Nick Marsh and managed to keep him pretty quiet. Berry finished the game with six tackles, two stops, an interception and a pass breakup.

Ball skills are one of Berry’s best traits and they were on full display here. Late in the second quarter he showed excellent timing and ball tracking to force an incompletion on a throw to Marsh down the sideline. He then followed this up with a really impressive interception, mirroring the route before making the play on the ball, setting the Wolverines up deep in Indiana territory.

Berry also had some nice moments against the run. His willingness to fire downhill and get involved in the dirty work is one of the things I appreciate most about his game, and he looked capable of working around blockers to disrupt the flow of the Hoosiers’ run game.

There are still some rough edges you’d like him to clean up, and that was true again this weekend. His aggressiveness can get him into trouble as he’s still a little too eager to bite on things in front of him, and his reliability as a tackler isn’t where you’d want it to be either. Handling a receiver of Marsh’s calibre for four quarters is the most convincing answer he has given yet to whether his game holds up against the sort of talent he will see on Sundays.

Drew Mestemaker dispatches Colorado with swagger

Colorado was always a game that Oklahoma State and Drew Mestemaker should have won. Even so, in a year where the quarterback class keeps providing more questions than answers, he has looked very solid.

He finished this one 21 of 38 for 386 yards and four touchdowns. What jumps off the tape is the confidence that he is playing with. Whenever he sensed a one-on-one downfield, he took it, and he was ripping throws up the seam with no fear of testing tight windows.

He played with real toughness in the pocket too, standing in under pressure and delivering throws with no concern for the hit coming.

I’m still not quite there with him as the complete NFL prospect that some seem to be. While his tools are good, I don’t think they are as impressive as some would have you believe. You also still want to see him really tested against top quality defenses.

Given the disappointment from some of the other top quarterback prospects, there is a real desire for someone to establish themselves as the presumptive No. 1 overall pick. I’m not yet of the view that Mestemaker, or any other quarterback in this class, has been playing at that level. But he has taken real strides this year, and he has played his way into the first round conversation. What he hasn’t yet had is a defense capable of properly testing him, and that is the game that will decide how high he can climb.

We’re still waiting on the A'Mauri Washington breakout

Oregon’s loss to Illinois was another quiet afternoon for defensive tackle A’Mauri Washington, and it is getting harder to keep asking when the breakout will come. He has now gone back-to-back games without registering a single pressure or defensive stop.

Too often in this game he looked lost. His eyes didn’t seem to know where to be, and there were several reps where he had the opportunity to make a play but didn’t have the wherewithal to finish it.

He also lacked the control and refinement to win at the point of attack. He wasn’t getting blown off the ball much, but his hands were all over the place, which left him unable to work off blocks properly.

It’s easy to see the potential. Washington has rare movement skills for his size, and his power capacity can be frightening. He’s the sort of mouldable ball of clay every defensive coach will want to get their hands on, and will convince themselves they can fix.

At some point, though, it becomes a case of the old Moneyball line: if he’s a good hitter, why doesn’t he hit good? For all his traits, Washington has eight pressures through seven games this season, with no sacks and just one quarterback hit. Among Power Four defensive tackles, he ranks 69th in pass rush win rate and 125th in run stop rate.

Oregon’s defense as a whole has underwhelmed this year, but if this continues for a few more weeks, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Washington return to school for another season. The first round talk he was getting over the summer now looks misplaced.

JACK BRENTNALL

HEAD OF NFL DRAFT CONTENT

Previously the founder of The Jet Sweep, Jack joined The Touchdown as head of Draft Content in 2024. A Scouting Academy alumnus, Jack has been Covering the NFL Draft since 2020. Follow him on Twitter @Jack_Brentnall.

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