Who are the leaders in the race for the 2019 Heisman Trophy?
Top Heisman Contenders After Week 3 Are …
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If you don’t have the stats, you can’t and won’t win the Heisman.
If you don’t have the big performances in the big games, you can’t and won’t win the Heisman – and that’s the issue for the Clemson stars.
Trevor Lawrence and Travie Etienne might be two of the nation’s best players, but that might have been it – they likely won’t get a chance to play against a strong team the rest of the way.
This can and will wildly change in a hurry, but if the Heisman voting was done right now …
Player of Week 3 (outside of the five main guys on this list)
QB Dillon Gabriel, UCF
The Knights got back their main quarterback options. Darriel Mack was rusty, but apparently ready to go after suffering an offseason leg injury, and Brandon Wimbush was fine after getting backed up last week. It was Gabriel who took it to Stanford, completing 22-of-30 passes for 347 yards and four scores in the 45-27 win over Stanford.
5 Players On The Radar …
In alphabetical order.
QB Ian Book, Notre Dame
RB JK Dobbins, Ohio State
RB Travis Etienne, Clemson
QB Jake Fromm, Georgia
QB Anthony Gordon, Washington State
5. QB Joe Burrow, LSU
Now the spotlight is on.
The nation’s second-most efficient passer behind Mr. Hurts, Burrow followed up his brilliant performance against Texas with a stat-padder against Northwestern State.
It all worked out well. The Tigers were a bit sluggish to start, but they weren’t in any real danger. And then it was leg-stretching time, opening up the offense and letting Burrow do his thing.
Taking target practice, he connected on 21-of-24 passes for 373 yards and two scores with an interception, and he ran for 30 yards and a score in the 65-14 win.
So far on the season he’s hitting over 83% of his throws for 1,122 yards and 11 touchdowns with two picks, averaging a ridiculous 12.5 yards per pass. Next up is a Vanderbilt defense that’s giving up over 500 yards per game, is 126th in the nation in pass defense, and doesn’t have any semblance of a pass rush.
Time to eat.
NEXT: But could he do it on the road against a decent team?
4. QB Justin Fields, Ohio State
Could this possibly be going any better so far?
Could Fields be consistently accurate? He’s hitting over 70% of his passes so far with nine touchdowns and no interceptions.
Could he be the explosive dual-threat playmaker everyone was hoping he’d be coming in as the No. 1 overall recruit last season? 114 rushing yards and four touchdowns, and he could’ve taken off for more if he had needed to.
Could he handle a little bit of adversity in a road game? He wasn’t razor-sharp against Indiana, but he still threw for close to 200 yards and three scores with a rushing touchdown in the 51-10 win.
Granted, he’s got the NFL weapons around him the any decent quarterback would shine with, and he hasn’t played a total killer yet, but after three games, and with Miami University up next, he’s been close to perfect.
NEXT: And now it’s Game On …
3. RB Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin
Oh sure, the first two games were a blast, and the resumé is there after his first two seasons, but if Taylor is really going to be in the Heisman race, this is the week to do it.
There will be other big tests. He’ll have to face the Ohio State defense on the road, and he’ll have to try to produce against Northwestern, Michigan State, and Iowa, but rock against Michigan, and the Heisman hunt is for real. Get stuffed, and it’s all but over.
It wasn’t his fault the Badgers were rocked by the Wolverines last year. He ran for 101 yards and averaged six yards per pop in the blowout loss. The Badgers got by Michigan in Camp Randall in 2017, and Taylor was a big part of it with 132 yards.
He hasn’t scored a touchdown yet against the Maize and Blue, but this has to be his week. Wisconsin has to win, and he has to be one of the main reasons why.
NEXT: It helps when you have NFL skill players all around you …
2. QB Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama
It helps when you can flip the ball to Najee Harris and have him go all Beast Mode on the way to the end zone, and it doesn’t hurt to have a ridiculous array of top targets around you who can take a short pass 81 yards for a score.
Someone has to be the conductor.
South Carolina is a real team with real SEC players and athletes, and Tagovailoa carved them up without the slightest of hiccups. It took just a wee bit to get going, and then he finished with 444 yards and five touchdown passes hitting 78% of his throws.
On the year he has yet to throw a pick and is well ahead of the pace set over the first three games of last season. Up next? A Southern Miss defense that’s better than it’s played so far, but is giving up 276 passing yards per game.
NEXT: He’s college football’s biggest show right now …
1. QB Jalen Hurts, Oklahoma
There was no reason whatsoever to watch Oklahoma play UCLA.
The Bruins aren’t very good at this whole college football thing, and the Sooners were more than happy to make it a light scrimmage before going off to do bigger and better things.
The game was marketed as a chance to watch Jalen Hurts, and he performed just as expected hitting 15-of-20 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns to go along with 150 rushing yards and a score on just 14 carries.
In total control of the Oklahoma offense, he’s got an impossible QB rating of over 250, hitting 80% of his throws for 880 yards and nine scores with no picks, and he’s leading the team with 373 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
Okay, so he hasn’t played a good team yet, and he’s not going to face a defense that can hit until TCU in late November, but in the Heisman race, it’s about stats, performance, and hype, and he’s dominating in all three areas.
