GAINESVILLE, Fla. (FWAA) – Two freshman players who helped take their teams into the College Football Playoff and another who became one of his team’s most versatile young stars are the trio who make up the 2025 Freshman Offense, Defensive and Special Teams Players of the Year presented by Chris Doering Mortgage and awarded by the Football Writers Association of America.
Miami wide receiver Malachi Toney, who will face Indiana’s vaunted defense in Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game, is the Freshman Offensive Player of the Year. Ellis Robinson IV, Georgia’s outstanding defensive back starting on a team that held its top-five place in the polls for most of the year, is the Freshman Defensive Player of the Year. Colorado’s Quentin Gibson, who stood out from the start as one of the Big 12’s biggest return threats and is the Buffaloes’ first Freshman All-American in 12 seasons, is the Freshman Special Teams Player of the Year.
All three are a part of the FWAA’s 25th Freshman All-America Team presented by Chris Doering Mortgage announced yesterday. The three awards are based on regular-season performances. Toney, Robinson and Gibson will be honored during a ceremony Feb. 23 at Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille in Gainesville, Fla., along with UNLV head coach Dan Mullen, who earned the FWAA’s First-Year Coach Award in a separate announcement today.
Toney, a 5-11, 188-pound true freshman from Liberty City, Fla., had a record-setting regular season and has helped catapult Miami, the No. 10 seed, through three playoff wins and into Monday’s national title game. Toney had 84 receptions for 970 yards and seven touchdowns during the regular season, leading all FBS freshmen in receptions and averaging 80.8 receiving yards per game. The 970 receiving yards established a new Miami freshman single-season record.
Most recently, Toney caught five passes for 81 yards and an acrobatic touchdown catch-and-run in the Hurricanes' 31-27 win over Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl national semifinal. Toney’s next catch will be his 100th on the season. He has 1,089 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in 15 games. The Ohio State backfield tandem of quarterback Julian Sayin and running back Bo Jackson were the other finalists for the Offensive Freshman Player of the Year.
Toney is Miami’s fourth FWAA Freshman All-American of the last three seasons. The Hurricanes’ two prior Freshman All-America honorees from the 2023 season, defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. and offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa, will also start on Monday. Miami defensive back Bryce Fitzgerald also made the FWAA’s 2025 Freshman All-America team.
Robinson, Georgia’s 6-0, 180-pound redshirt freshman defensive back from New Haven, Conn., notched his team-best fourth interception in the regular-season finale against Georgia Tech, which tied him for the SEC lead and are almost half of Georgia’s nine on the season. The Bulldogs were fourth nationally in rushing defense at 79.2 yards per game and 11th in scoring defense. Robinson was one of a trio of Georgia players on the All-America team along with true freshmen Dontrell Glover on the offensive line and defensive lineman Elijah Griffin. Robinson earned the award past fellow finalists and defensive backs DJ Pickett of LSU and Brandon Finney of Oregon.
Gibson, a 5-9, 155-pound true freshman return specialist and wide receiver from Fort Worth, Texas, is Colorado’s first FWAA Freshman All-American since 2013, its first on special teams since 2006, and only its fifth overall. Gibson was Colorado’s lone true freshman to start the season opener and led all true freshmen with 626 total return yards, between kickoff and punt returns, 120 more than the next closest freshman. He was third in the Big 12 in kickoff returns (25), kickoff return yards (597) and kickoff yards per return (23.9). Bowling Green’s return specialist Cameron Pettaway and Wake Forest kicker Connor Calvert was also Special Teams Freshman of the Year finalists.
Chris Doering Mortgage, based in Gainesville, Fla., was established in April 2007 as a residential lending company providing mortgage products including conventional, FHA, USDA, and VA loans. The branch is a division of MortgageAdvisors.com – 3940 NW 16th Blvd., Suite A, Gainesville, FL 32605 – NMLS 70168/1937321. FHA Lender ID 2631500094. For more information, visit ChrisDoeringMortgage.com. College football analyst Chris Doering, a former wide receiver for Coach Spurrier both in college and the NFL, serves as the branch manager.
Founded in 1941, the Football Writers Association of America consists of journalists, broadcasters, publicists, photographers and key executives in all areas of college football. The FWAA works to govern media access and gameday operations while presenting awards and honors, including an annual All-America team. For more information about the FWAA and its programs and initiatives, contact Executive Director Steve Richardson at (214) 870-6516 or tiger@fwaa.com.
All-Time FWAA National Freshman Players of the Year
2018: Trevor Lawrence, Clemson (QB)
2019: Kenneth Gainwell, Memphis (RB)
2020: Will Anderson Jr., Alabama (LB)
2021: Brock Bowers, Georgia (TE)
2022: Drake Maye, North Carolina (QB)
2023: Noah Fifita, Arizona (QB); Dillon Thieneman, Purdue (S)
2024: LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina (QB); Leonard Moore, Notre Dame (DB); Nolan Hauser, Clemson (K)
2025: Malachi Toney, Miami (WR); Ellis Robinson IV, Georgia (DB); Quintin Gibson, Colorado (RS)