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Cam Coleman, breakout candidate? Why it makes sense

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook04/14/26josephcook89

On3’s Ari Wasserman identified 10 players he believes have “breakout potential in 2026.” Eliminated from this exercise were Arch Manning, Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr, and Oregon quarterback Dante Moore because of their household name status among college football fans.

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But the first name Wasserman mentioned? Texas wide receiver Cam Coleman.

Here’s what Wasserman had to say.

Last season at Auburn, Coleman had 56 receptions for 708 yards and five touchdowns. He’s a semi-established player, but was certainly hurt by inconsistent quarterback play while he was a Tiger. What most of the country doesn’t realize is that the former five-star prospect has the athletic profile of an NFL Draft first-round pick and has yet to reach his ceiling. Now he’s teaming up with Manning at Texas behind a wizard of an offensive play-caller in Steve Sarkisian. He has the potential to go to the moon in the fall.

Others on the list included Texas offensive tackle Trevor Goosby, Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker, Florida wide receiver Micah Mays, Oregon tight end Jamari Johnson, Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, Ohio State wide receiver Chris Henry Jr., LSU defensive back Ty Benefield, Texas Tech defensive end Trey White, and USC defensive end Luke Wafle.

That list has names of varying stature. But Coleman?

Well, Wasserman’s argument makes sense. Sure, he was the No. 2 transfer portal prospect this past cycle and was the No. 4 prospect in the nation in the class of 2023. Recruit-niks know about him and his skill set.

For a significant swath of college football fans, Coleman may not be more than a talented receiver who was part of the problem in Hugh Freeze‘s offense. Coleman was at Auburn for two years and went 11-14 in his time there. He was productive, with a team-leading 708 receiving yards last year.

To poke some holes in his resume, he only has four 100-yard games in his career. It took overtime in three of them for him to hit the century mark, and the only non-overtime 100-yard game for Coleman was against Louisiana-Monroe in 2024. Coleman also only has two multi-touchdown games: the ULM game in and a four-overtime win versus Texas A&M in 2024.

All those holes can be easily explained by a handful of words: Freeze. Payton Thorne. Jackson Arnold.

Freeze ran a Tigers program that tried, tried, and tried again to get him the talent he believed necessary to at the very least compete in the SEC. Players like Coleman serve as evidence of that effort on the Plains. But Freeze’s own mismanagement of the program, both at quarterback and on offense, did not create an environment conducive to success for Coleman.

The next two names, Thorne and Arnold, were downstream effects of Freeze’s own ineptitude. Though Thorne’s stat line from 2024 looks respectable after a mediocre 2023, his inconsistencies as part of a scoring offense that never cracked the top 70 during his time at Auburn limited what Coleman was able to do during his freshman season as the 1B to Keandre Lambert-Smith‘s 1A.

Then in 2025, Arnold was a disaster. He averaged a paltry 6.1 ypa and had a completion percentage of above 65% in two of his eight games with at least 10 passing attempts. One of those games was against Ball State.

Even though Coleman’s 2024 with 37 catches, 598 yards, and eight touchdowns and his 2025 of 56 catches, 708 yards, and five touchdowns are inarguably good, Coleman was such a highly touted prospect that those numbers are considered somewhat underachieving. As such, he’s a player considered to have breakout potential.

Some Pro Football Focus numbers about Auburn’s offense explain why that’s the case. All four of Auburn’s main quarterbacks in Arnold, Ashton Daniels, and Deuce Knight in 2025 combined for 18 turnover worthy throws. Manning had one fewer TWP in one extra game.

The Auburn quarterbacks had 10 total “big time throws,” described by PFF as “a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window.”

Manning by himself had 19.

Coleman’s ability at the catch point was the hope-and-prayer portion of the Tigers offense. He had an average depth of target of 13.4 yards and hauled in 13 contested catches in 22 opportunities. To compare, Texas as a team had 19 contested catches in 48 chances. Ryan Wingo‘s 4-for-14 and Parker Livingstone‘s 3-for-10 did little to help the Longhorns in that area.

With a quarterback like Manning, a functional (and more advanced) offense like Steve Sarkisian‘s, and higher-quality receiver talent and offensive infrastructure around him compared to Auburn, Coleman has an opportunity to become a sure-fire first-round talent instead of a potential first-round talent.

If his exploits in the spring, both on Texas’ social media and behind the scenes, are anything to go by…

…then Coleman is in line to go from breakout candidate to bona fide No. 1 receiver in the eyes of the country.

Here’s what Wasserman had to say about Goosby.

What stands out about Texas’ 2025 season? It’s the offensive line struggles. But guess who didn’t struggle? Goosby. The 6-foot-7, 312-pounder was a former three-star prospect from Melissa (Texas) High in the 2023 class, and his development is likely part of why the Longhorns weren’t as aggressive as they needed to be in the portal for offensive linemen last offseason. When it comes to Texas, it’s easy to fall in love with Manning, Coleman and Colin Simmons, but having a stud tackle will be make-or-break for the Longhorns in 2026. Goosby could be that guy.

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