Who are the leaders in the race for the 2019 Heisman Trophy? Here are five candidates who aren’t in the race, but should be.
Top Heisman Contenders After Week 6 Are …
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We know who the five real contenders are.
Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Jonathan Taylor, Justin Fields, and Joe Burrow. It will take something otherworldly for anyone outside of those five to win it. However, plenty of other stars are having massive seasons and at least will get a few votes across the board.
After the first five top Heisman candidates, here are the next five who are most likely to round out the final list. These five would make for a great Heisman race in just about any other year.
5. QB Sam Ehlinger, Texas
He’s only No. 5 on this list because he’s out of the chase entirely if he doesn’t have a good game this week against Oklahoma. However, if he goes off and pulls off the upset, all of a sudden, he comes off of this list and goes on to the big one for next week.
His one big problem is that he was amazing in his one huge national moment, and the team lost. Against LSU, he threw for 401 yards and four scores without a pick, ran for 60 yards and a score, and America came away from the game talking about Joe Burrow.
He’s got the prerequisite numbers, hitting 69% of his passes for 1,448 yards and 17 touchdowns with just two picks, to go along with 236 rushing yards and three touchdowns. For a team that’s struggling to find itself defensively, he’s carrying this thing on his back way too much.
And again, now he has his shot. Outduel Jalen Hurts in Dallas this week, and it’s Game On both for the Longhorn College Football Playoff chances and in the Heisman race.
NEXT: Speaking of guys who went off in a big game and lost …
4. RB Chuba Hubbard, Oklahoma State
Jonathan Taylor is the best back in college football. He’s averaging over seven yards per carry, has rushed for 12 scores, and came up with a historic day against Michigan. However, he still has plenty of tough tests to go – like against Michigan State this week. One or two poor performances, and the Doak Walker Award is up for grabs.
And Chuba Hubbard could take over as the top running back option in the Heisman race.
Taylor is averaging 149 rushing yards per game, partly because he hasn’t been used in blowout after blowout. Hubbard has been needed far more by Oklahoma State, and he’s averaging 182 yards per outing.
No one else is averaging more than 140, and only six backs are averaging more than 120.
The lightning fast Hubbard is the game’s ultimate home run hitter, but he’s also proving to be able to handle the workload with three games with 32 carries or more.
With 1,094 yards and 13 touchdowns, he’s on pace to easily obliterate the 2,000-yard mark, but his big chance to make a national statement won’t come until the end.
His 121 yards and two scores against Texas are great by any normal standards, but it wasn’t a huge performance to get a ton of national attention – and the Cowboys lost.
However, if he’s rocking up the stats, the hype will build and build and build for the Oklahoma showdown at the end of the regular season. Go off against the Sooners and finish as the nation’s leading rusher, and he’ll make a few Heisman ballots.
NEXT: No, really, speaking of guys who went off in a big game and lost …
3. QB Justin Herbert, Oregon
What do you want from the guy? He hit 76% of his passes for 242 yards and a touchdown in the opener against a killer Auburn defense. Bo Nix gets hot for two minute, and the young freshman is the star and Herbert’s solid game gets tossed aside.
But that’s the deal with the Heisman. The pro guys might love what he did against the Tigers, but to win the biggest individual award in sports, you have to go off when the world is watching, and if you’re a quarterback, it helps if you win.
In an offense that’s not allowing him to take a whole lot of shots or open it up enough, he’s been nothing short of flawless throughout the rest of the season, throwing his first interception last week in the 17-7 win over a nasty Cal defense. The eye-popping stats aren’t there compared to the Tuas and Jalens, but he’s connecting on 72% of his throws for 1,341 yards and 15 touchdowns, and just that one pick.
On this team, all the pressure is on him to not screw up, spread the ball around, and let the great defense win games. He’s doing all of that and more, and he’s leading the Ducks right back into the College Football Playoff chase.
NEXT: No, a defensive player can’t and won’t win it, but …
2. DE Chase Young, Ohio State
Young doesn’t lead the nation in sacks – that’s Curtis Weaver of Boise State – and eight other players have more tackles for loss, led by DeAngelo Malone from WKU. But at the highest of levels, he’s been the top one-man defensive wreaking crew – with a nod to Auburn DT Derrick Brown – in college football so far.
He’s not going to win the Heisman, but boo hoo … he might just be the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
The 6-5, 265-pounder is a flash off the ball, has upped his game from last year when he was already a special player and talent, and now he’s destroying offenses and game plans week after week. And when he’s not, he’s being double and triple-teamed, and the rest of the parts are getting the job done.
He has at least a half a sack in every game so far – the Michigan State game was the first time he didn’t have a full one – with 8.5 so far on the year with 9.5 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles – he destroyed Miami University – along with a blocked kick.
The flash is what gets him the national attention, but he’s been great against the run, too, with 21 stops on the year.
It’ll all be good enough to earn him most of the major awards a defensive lineman can receive, but in the Heisman race, he’ll have to cheer on that quarterback of his to make a push.
NEXT: It’s a stat award, but …
1. QB Jake Fromm, Georgia
It’s easy to look at the numbers and assume that Justin Fields is having a better season than Fromm. The Ohio State quarterback has been amazing so far, he’s handling all of the pressure of the position and the job as well as humanly possible, and he’s knee-deep in the hunt for the Heisman with the big games coming up.
Fromm is having an equally strong season, but in a different way.
This isn’t a flash-and-dash Georgia team. It has a great defense, arguably the nation’s best offensive line, and it wins games by wearing teams down with a relentless steamroller style.
Fromm might not be a runner, and he’s not coming up with the jaw-dropping throws that Tua Tagovailoa is making look routine, but he’s doing exactly what a team that’s in the College Football Playoff needs.
He’s not screwing up, and he’s the steadiest of steady leaders.
What this Georgia offense needs is reliable accuracy – Fromm is hitting 78% of his throws.
It needs a big play once in a while when the chances are there – he’s averaging almost ten yards per throw.
It needs a quarterback who isn’t going to let the other team in the game with the big mistake – he has yet to throw an interception.
Against Notre Dame on the big stage he completed 20-of-26 passes for 187 yards and a touchdown with no picks. That might not seem like much, but it was the exact game Georgia needed out of its guy to get away with the win.
His big moments are coming up. He still has to face Florida and he still has to go against Auburn. And if all goes well, he still has to face either Alabama or LSU in the SEC Championship.
Don’t count him out of the Heisman hunt quite yet.
