re: Most influential college football player last 30 years?

Not sure what you mean by "influential".

Some thoughts:

Christian McCaffery/Leonard Fournette. Sitting out a bowl game for NFL draft position started a trend. Those two were the ones who started that happening.

I'd put Justin Fields here too but I'm not sure he was the first QB to transfer to start immediately without being a grad transfer or not. He's the first I remember, but that might be because he transferred out of UGA. Before when you sat out a year it didn't feel as much of a playing time decision, but Fields was the first time I recall it being all about wanting to start right away and being able to do so by transferring. UGA had Eason transfer away the year before but he had to sit out a year. It was more about being closer to home.

Now QB's transferring to play sooner is pretty much expected. Not that long ago that wasn't the case.