Christine Brennan has been voting for Heisman Trophy winners for the past 35 years. This year's race for the most coveted award in college football_if not all of sports_offers a returning winner in Louisville's Lamar Jackson and a cadre of challengers, including four high-profile quarterbacks from the Pac-12.
The Pac-12 contingent_Washington's Jake Browning, Washington State's Luke Falk, USC's Sam Darnold and UCLA's Josh Rosen_isn't unique due to its size, but the quality of the quartet has many thinking this group might be the most impressive to ever play in the conference.
"If it has happened before, it certainly hasn't happened very often," said Brennan, a USA Today sports columnist, when asked if it's unusual to have four quarterbacks from the same conference compete for the sport's highest individual prize.
"I can't think of anything like this," Brennan said. "I'm sure there's been some great quarterbacks coming out of the same conference, but four in one year is pretty significant.
"You can make a strong case right now to keep an eye on all four of those players."
Of course it's early and the season promises many twists and turns before the Dec. 9 Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York, but let's make a case for each of the Pac-12's top quarterbacks, starting with the most likely to win.
The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook tabbed Darnold the preseason 5-to-1 favorite to hoist the 25-pound bronze trophy of the stiff-arming football player.
If so, he'll be the third USC quarterback to win the award, the eighth Trojan and just the 12th player from the Pac-12.
After taking over the starting job in Week 4 last season, Darnold threw for 3,086 yards and 31 touchdowns while leading USC to nine straight wins capped by a dramatic last-second Rose Bowl, in which he was the game's MVP.
The 6-foot-4, 220-pound junior from Capistrano Beach, Calif, began the year with an unspectacular performance (289 yards, 2 INTs and 0 TDs) during a harder-than-expected 49-31 win over Western Michigan.
But the odds say Darnold will rebound.
"I think Darnold will win it," said KJR-AM radio host Dave Mahler, who coordinates the 10 Heisman Trophy voters in Washington state. "I think he makes it to New York. I think Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma makes it. I think Saquon Barkley of Penn State makes it. I think Lamar Jackson makes it.
"And I think between Jake Browning, Luke Falk, Josh Rosen and J.T. Barrett, one of those four will find a way to get in. And I think Sam Darnold wins. I think his profile is too big. And I think USC is too big of an animal to not give him the exposure that he deserves. He was the preseason favorite for a reason. I think he'll play a tougher schedule than Lamar Jackson, and I think in the end he'll put up big enough numbers to win it."
Browning finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy balloting last year after a record-breaking season in which he posted 3,430 yards with 43 touchdowns and only nine interceptions, while leading Washington to a Pac-12 championship and the College Football Playoff.
He also finished last season as the Power 5's most efficient quarterback outside of Mayfield, another Heisman hopeful.
"At the end of the season, there's going to be two quarterbacks who don't even make All-Pac-12, let alone finish up high in the Heisman Trophy balloting," said Don Williams, a sportswriter for the Lubbock Avalanche Journal who has been covering Texas Tech since 1986.
"I think ultimately what it's going to come down to_and this isn't a new opinion or anything_but if you want to be the guy who wins it or who is among the finalists, then your team needs to do really well," Williams said. "And those head-to-head matchups will serve as tiebreakers, so to speak."
There's a belief among college football observers that a Heisman Trophy winner needs a signature moment to announce or in some instances close the case of his candidacy.
If so, then Rosen might have had his Heisman moment last week when he orchestrated a 34-point comeback in the second half to beat Texas A&M 45-44 in the final minutes. The 6-foot-4, 218-pound junior finished 35-of-59 passing for 491 yards with four touchdowns.
"He certainly vaults into the thick of the conversation, no question about it," said David Jones, a columnist for The Harrisburg Patriot-News in Pennsylvania who is keeping tabs on a pair of Heisman Trophy contenders in Penn State running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Trace McSorley.
In just the fourth quarter, Rosen threw for 292 yards and four touchdowns, which was more than Darnold, Browning and McSorley tallied in each of their respective openers.
"I watch a lot of Pac-12 football because it's the only thing on when I get home (on Saturdays), but I admit there's something to the whole East Coast bias thing that hurts the West Coast guys," Jones said. "Personally, I think the Southern guys are sometimes in a bubble. They think SEC football is the only football. They probably have as much East Coast bias as anyone, and it's really Southern bias.
"Numbers are one thing. Lots of guys are going to have big numbers. But when you have a game like that UCLA game, that gets talked about and resonates for weeks. So if you're keeping score, Josh Rosen won Week 1."
Falk, a 6-4 redshirt senior, is the elder statesman of the Pac-12 quarterbacks who is taking aim on the conference's records for yards (13,600) and touchdowns (116). He has 11,199 yards and 92 TDs.
"Luke Falk seems to me like he's been around forever, so there's a familiarity there, which helps his case," said Williams, who covered WSU coach Mike Leach during his 10-year stint at Texas Tech. "Because of his (Air Raid) system, Mike's quarterbacks are going to put up some pretty impressive numbers."
Williams said Falk compares favorably to former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell, who set the NCAA career record for touchdown passes (134) and established a school record for passing yards in a career with 15,793 (fourth in NCAA history) in 2008.
That year the Red Raiders finished 11-2 and Harrell was fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting.
"There are so many good quarterbacks nationally and within the Pac-12 that I think it's going to be hard for one guy to win it or finish in the top three unless his team does really well," Williams said. "You're probably not going to be in it if your team goes 7-5 or even 8-4."
And hence, the absence of defined voting criteria is what's so frustrating and captivating about the Heisman Trophy race.
"It may not be perfect, but it's perfect for what it is," Brennan said. "That's why it endures. That's why it's so popular, because people care so much. College football is to the United States what soccer is to Europe or other places around the world. It is our passion.
"The best thing I can do as a Heisman Trophy voter is to keep my eyes and my ears open. It's a very crowded field. It's very exciting. It's going to be great to see how it all plays out over the next month or two."
