*Originally published August 21 2026 https://substack.com/home/post/p-212462507
It’s officially game week in Dublin, and college football is back.
So ahead of this weekend’s Aer Lingus College Football Classic between TCU and UNC, I thought I’d introduce you to three players from the Horned Frogs and Tar Heels who have caught my eye and will no doubt catch yours in this weekend’s matchup.
TCU
Jeremy Payne (running back)
Jeremy Payne might be the player I’m most excited to watch on Saturday. This is simply based on the final play of TCU’s 2025 season, where he somehow stayed in bounds to score a walkoff touchdown against USC in the Alamo Bowl. From that moment I have put all my stock in the Jeremy Payne bucket.
In TCU’s last three games of the season Payne had three games of over 100 yards on the ground. Add in that new offensive coordinator Gordon Sammis is going to run the ball a lot more than the Horned Frogs did last season, and Payne’s breakout shifts from being one that has potential to one that is inevitable.
While he is on the smaller side at around 5’10” and 180 lbs, his outstanding contact balance and ability to get outside the tackles mean his size may only become an issue if he can’t handle the expected increase in workload that comes with being the potential bell cow back for the Horned Frogs.
Jaden Craig (Quarterback)
You would think having your quarterback transfer to the reigning national champions would be cause for concern coming into a new season, but Jaden Craig’s arrival has many feeling even more optimistic about the Horned Frogs going into the new season.
Craig transferred from Harvard, of all places, this offseason; he started the past two years, and the New Jersey native left as the program’s leader in passing yards and passing touchdowns. Pair those marks with only 12 career interceptions compared to former QB Josh Hoover’s 33, and the outlook certainly looks positive for the Horned Frogs.
This is certainly a big step up for Craig, and he is certainly being thrown into the deep end by playing against a Belichick-led defence. But I think he has more than enough weapons to succeed in Jordan Dwyer, Ka’Morreun Pimpton, and the previously mentioned running back Jeremy Payne.
Jamel Johnson (Saftey)
Simply put the best player on this roster and potentially the best player we will see on Saturday. A true box safety, he led the team in snaps and had the second-most tackles last season and will be the leader and tone setter on the defensive side now that Bud Clark is going to the NFL.
Johnson looks set to follow in his fellow safeties’ footsteps next season as a future NFL player, but for a TCU defence that was great against the run last year, he will need to continue to set the tone while also leading a turnaround of their poor passing defence.
Johnson is positioned to be the best player on the field come Saturday night. He’s a hard-hitting turnover machine, so he’s certain to make a lot of fans sit up and take notice.
UNC
Demon June (Running Back)
The potential to be one of the best names in college football was taken away once I read the North Carolina media guide and saw it was pronounced Da-mon, but given what he did as a true freshman last year, he just might be de man to make things difficult for this TCU defence.
A huge breakout performance against Syracuse last season, where he put up over 180 all-purpose yards and 2 touchdowns to lead the Tar Heels to a 27-10 victory in New York, showed just how much of a demon Demon can be. He led UNC with 464 rushing yards and 5.5 yards per carry (both team bests) and looks set to put together a solid one-two punch with LSU transfer Kaleb Jackson.
I also think the addition of new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino should reinvigorate the Tar Heels’ offence after he orchestrated Arkansas’s attack to rank in the top 30 for rushing and scoring offence last season. Petrino will no doubt be putting June in the Mike Washington Jr role to be his potential bell cow back this season.
Peyton Seelman (Linebacker)
Maybe a rogue pick from me here, as right now he is not as proven as pass rusher Melkart Abou-Jaoude or Kaleb Cost, but the transfer linebacker is a player I think could really catch the eye of many this weekend.
Seelman racked up 120 tackles (top 10 nationally), 4.5 tackles for loss, and another 2.5 sacks at Richmond last season and looks set to start alongside veteran transfer Derek McDonald at linebacker. Seelman is a proper sideline-to-sideline linebacker who is willing to meet any ball carrier with brute force while also having some very impressive coverage skills too. So long as he can diagnose what the Horned Frogs are doing, these attributes should combine to help against a TCU team that ran the second most RPOs in college football last season.
While this is undoubtedly a huge step up in level for the former Richmond Spider, any player on the defensive side of the ball should only get better with Bill Bellichick on your sideline.
Adam McCann Gibbs (Punter)
If I had a euro for every time an Irish player played in an American football game in Dublin, I’d have two euro. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
At least I hope I can say that come the end of this weekend, as Down’s own Adam McCann-Gibbs could make his college football debut on Saturday. Originally committed to Penn State, McCann-Gibbs flipped his commitment to UNC in March, and according to his kicking coach Tadgh Leader, the Down man “still has work to do, but he’s in a good position”.
The opportunity for an Irish player to play in their own country has only come once before when David Shanahan did so 2 years ago for Georgia Tech, so to have another come along so soon and for it to potentially be the first start of his college football career should be special for all involved.