By Siddharth Anmalsetty So at the midseason mark of college football, the race to capture the most prestigious award in all of college football is catching fire. We have some of those we expected, namely: Tua Tagovailoa at +115, Jonathan Taylor at +1200, Jalen Hurts at +300 and some newcomers to the table: Joe Burrow at +300 and Justin Fields at +900. I’ll be discussing these players and their current cases for the Heisman (sorry Chuba Hubbard and Justin Herbert). As it is with college football, anything can happen in any week and this article will probably be out of date by then. Also at the midseason mark, any player can suddenly heat up in the latter end of the season. Could Trevor Lawrence start throwing 400 yards and five touchdowns every game? I couldn’t tell you, but these five are the best players in the country in my opinion right now. We’ll start with the only running back at this table, Jonathan Taylor. Taylor has been the engine of a dominant Wisconsin team that has not disappointed. He is no stranger to being a college football star though. Taylor has the record for most rushing yards for a freshman back, rushed for over 2000 yards in his sophomore year and is on pace for another monster year in his junior season. He’s already compiled 825 rushing yards and a combined 18 total touchdowns. Taylor is the Wisconsin offense and if they win out, you could see his name as one of the finalists. It’s a shame that Taylor had to go against quarterback heavyweights because otherwise, it would be really hard to take it from him. Let’s move into the quarterback armada. We’ll begin with the player many believe that the award is his to lose: Tua. Tua has been absolutely ridiculous and he might even be better than last season’s fireworks. Alabama is an absolute buzzsaw demolishing opponents to the tune of Tua’s 2011 passing yards (good for third in the nation), 27 TD passes (first in the nation), completing 73.6% of his passes and only one interception. His gaudy stats on an unbeaten Alabama team that will go to the college football playoffs make him one of the top contenders. That doesn't mean nobody can surprise me. And some definitely have. One is my current favorite to win it, Joe Burrow. This is Joe Burrow’s statline from last year: 2,894 passing yards, 16 TDs, five picks and a 57.8% completion percentage. These numbers scream serviceable to any level. Who would have expected this? Joe Burrow has probably the best resume in college football right now. Two top 10 wins with gaudy stats including: 2157 passing yards (second in the nation), 25 TD passes (second in the nation), a mind boggling 79.3% completion percentage (an NCAA record if he keeps up this pace), three picks and probably the most impressive: Two top 10 wins (Florida and Texas). This is at the midseason mark. Joe Burrow is dominating through the air and LSU is 6-0 to show for it. His influence at LSU has changed the culture there. LSU has always been a run-first suffocating defense type team, but Burrow has changed it into a pro style offense that can win the game through any facet. I mean the last prominent LSU quarterback was JaMarcus Russell whose only accomplishment is that he’s probably the greatest bust of all time. If LSU makes the CFB playoffs, you better believe that Burrow is going to be a Heisman finalist. The two oddballs in this race in my opinion are Justin Fields and Jalen Hurts. Jalen isn’t necessarily an oddball in this equation as much as Justin is. I don’t really recognize Justin as great as the others on this list simply because he shares the backfield with another dominant star, J.K. Dobbins who is second in the country in rushing. For this reason I can’t really consider Fields a true Heisman contender. I mean, all he is doing is not making mistakes for a great Ohio State team and his numbers reflect that (69.5% comp%, 1298 passing yards, 18 TDs, one interception, 283 rushing yards and eight rushing TDs). He has great numbers but I feel like the rest of the list just dwarfs him in value they provide. A little bit of a different story with Jalen Hurts. Jalen has been playing fantastic for an unbeaten Oklahoma team that's going for another Big 12 title. He’s been efficient and has made almost no mistakes. Keyword being almost. Jalen is the only one of these guys who has looked mortal at times making bad reads like he did in his earlier years at Alabama. These mistakes are few and far between, probably due to the genius of Lincoln Riley, but the problem still remains. He has thrown some bad interceptions and has only played one real game, last week’s Red River Rivalry Showdown. If Jalen can run the table, win the Big 12 and take Oklahoma to the CFB, I'd be hard pressed to take the award away from him. His numbers (71.5 comp%, 1758 yards, 17 passing TDs, three interceptions, 630 rushing yards and eight rushing TDs) are better than Kyler Murray’s, the previous Heisman winner, numbers last year. Are the voters going to get sick of an Oklahoma winner and not give the school three straight winners? I don’t know, but we'll find out at the end of the season. Personally, as I said earlier, I’ll take Joe Burrow for now, but if Alabama plays LSU and destroys them and Burrow plays badly, I’ll take Tua.
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February 2020
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