An offensive revolution took hold in college football in the 2010s, leading to numbers never before seen in the sport and plenty of competition for best-of-the-decade honors.



As college football’s 15th decade comes to a close, it’s time to honor the best players of the 2010s with The Athletic’s first- and second-team picks. This list builds off of the Best of the 2010s installment of our 150 Years of College Football in August. Players were selected based on a combination of individual achievements, including season and career numbers, on-field play and awards and other honors.



First team



Offense



QB Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma: Only seven players have finished in the top five of the Heisman Trophy vote three times; Mayfield joins Tim Tebow as the only quarterbacks. Mayfield took a unique path to stardom, starting the first game of his career at Texas Tech as a true freshman walk-on, then transferring to Oklahoma, sitting out and...