We’re about a quarter of the way through the 2015 season,
and the first few weekends have provided plenty of storylines: underdog wins,
injuries to key players and spectacular individual performances. That is, of
course, what the Heisman Trophy is all about, so four weeks down, here are my
top five Heisman candidates (in no particular order) as the race to win college
football’s most prestigious individual award really hots up.
Leonard Fournette
(Louisiana State, Sophomore, Running Back)
Surely, Fournette is the leader in the club house, and the
rest of the nation is chasing him. If you were unsure fourteen days ago, the
fact that the giant LSU back has run for nearly five hundred yards in two
weekends’ worth of work should have convinced you.
In four games so far, Fournette has amassed 642 yards. That
amounts to just a touch over 160 yards a game, and he’s scored eight touchdowns
to boot. Extrapolate those numbers out over twelve or so games, and they’re
staggering.
The fact that Les Miles’ squad doesn’t have a quarterback of
note means that Fournette is the main man in their offense, and that equals
plenty of carries. Plenty of carries, of course, equals plenty of exposure. The
flip side of that is that a heavier workload means more chance of injury. Safe
to say that everyone in Baton Rouge will be hoping and praying that Fournette
stays healthy.
Fournette has already had success against two SEC squads,
Mississippi State and Auburn, and, the way he is running – finding the gap,
hitting it, and accelerating away into the secondary almost in the blink of an
eye – I don’t see why he won’t have similar success as LSU heads into the teeth
of their conference schedule. A few more performances like we’ve seen the last
two weeks, and the voters would be hard pressed to award the trophy to anyone
other than Fournette. Each week, the guy makes a case for being the best
running back we’ve seen in the last decade. Certainly, he’s right up there.
Cody Kessler (Southern
California, Senior, Quarterback)
Arguably the most underrated quarterback in the entire
nation, Kessler is having himself another whale of a season. His most recent
accomplishment was orchestrating a rout of Arizona State in Tempe, throwing
five touchdowns to just one interception – in the red zone, and his first of
the year – as the Trojans offense had their way against a bad Sun Devil squad.
The thing about Kessler is that he’s been playing well even
when the defense hasn’t. Case in point, the Stanford game that the Trojans lost
41-31. He was just as good as counterpart Kevin Hogan but didn’t get the
chocolates because his defense didn’t turn up. He completed passes at better
than 78% in the Stanford loss, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Generally, Kessler makes few mistakes, and has the benefit
of an absolute plethora of targets, both out of the backfield and at wide
receiver. Having the likes of two-way star Adoree’ Jackson and gun receiver
JuJu Smith-Schuster is all well and good, but Kessler consistently puts the
football on the money, helping those guys, and so many others, to make big
plays in Clay Helton’s offense.
So far on the season, Kessler has thrown for 1297 yards, at
an average of 324.3 per game, and has fifteen touchdowns to the lone
interception he threw in Tempe. Those are definitely Heisman-type numbers. My
concern is that Smith-Schuster and Jackson are taking away some of Kessler’s
attention.
Trevone Boykin (Texas
Christian, Senior, Quarterback)
The Horned Frogs quarterback was many people’s (including
mine) pre-season Heisman pick, and he hasn’t done much wrong so far, leading
TCU to a 4-0 record that has been all about offense and scarcely about defense.
That’s the Big XII to a tee, I guess.
Luckily for Boykin, the Heisman Trophy is – or, at least,
should be – about the best individual performance on the season, which means we
can remove from the conversation the shoddy defense that the Horned Frogs have
been playing. In some ways, perhaps, the fact that TCU can’t stop anyone on
that side of the ball is actually furthering Boykin’s legend. Week in, week
out, he has to bail his defense out of trouble. He’s going to get many more
opportunities to do that this season.
Last week’s 485-yard passing effort to drag TCU to a lucky
55-52 victory over Texas Tech in Lubbock, was arguably Boykin’s best offensive
performance of his career. He was slinging it all over the joint, but particularly
to Josh Doctson, who snagged eighteen passes and three of Boykin’s four
touchdowns. It was a nationally-televised game, and surely Heisman voters were
taking notice of what Boykin was doing. Sure, Tech’s defense isn’t great, and
that’s putting it nicely, but, even so, he shredded them completely.
On the season, Boykin has thrown for 1470 yards and fourteen
touchdowns. Like Kessler, he’s relatively safe with the football, having thrown
only three interceptions, and he is throwing an average of 367.5 yards per
game.
Maybe Boykin has fallen a little behind Leonard Fournette in
the Heisman race, but he’s right amongst it, and only needs a little Fournette stumble
to leap back to the lead.
Nick Chubb (Georgia, Sophomore,
Running Back)
Something of the forgotten explosive back in the SEC due to
Leonard Fournette’s recent exploits, I still love what Chubb can bring to the
table, and think he’s right up there as a legitimate Heisman candidate.
Granted, his numbers don’t yet hold a candle to Fournette’s –
599 yards and 6 touchdowns on the year, at just under 150 yards per game, and
one receiving touchdown to boot – but they’re still very respectable numbers,
but perception is key, and with Fournette dominating headlines it’s been hard
for Chubb to sneak in and grab some column inches for himself.
That should change, because the Bulldogs have Alabama this
week, and if Chubb can find some holes against a pretty solid Crimson Tide
defense, there’s going to be a lot of people tuned into the game on CBS, and
they’re going to take note. Georgia are probably the best team in the SEC East –
apologies to Florida – and that’ll help.
Perhaps the one downside to Chubb is that he shares time in
the Georgia backfield with Sony Michel and, to a lesser extent, Keith Marshall.
He also has a pretty good quarterback in Greyson Lambert vying for exposure,
and, of course, Fournette doesn’t have that problem down in Baton Rouge.
Regardless, I love the way Chubb plays. If he keeps rolling
up yards and scores, he’ll be well and truly in the conversation come November.
C.J. Prosise (Notre
Dame, Senior, Running Back)
We all expected to be talking about Irish QB Malik Zaire or
perhaps RB Tarean Folston as Notre Dame’s serious Heisman threats, but
season-ending injuries to those two – not to mention a raft of others – has seen
unknowns stepping up to fill the void in South Bend, and the Irish remain
undefeated at 4-0 ahead of a giant game at Clemson this weekend.
Prosise has numbers very similar to Nick Chubb at Georgia,
amassing 600 yards at 150 per game as the Irish have fought off Massachusetts,
Georgia Tech, Virginia and Texas to open the season. His best game was against
the Yellow Jackets, a 198-yard/three touchdown performance that included a
scintillating 91-yard run to pretty much ice the game for the Irish. In many
ways, it was his breakout performance, and one that made the national media sit
up and take notice.
Opening with a 98-yard rushing effort against Texas, after
he was thrust into the main role in the Notre Dame backfield, Prosise has gone
from strength to strength. Particularly over the last two weeks, we’ve really
seen how good the senior from Virginia can be. Another big test against Clemson
on the road and in a hostile environment, which looms as a great chance for
Prosise to further his Heisman credentials.
A few more big performances by Prosise against the meat of
the Irish schedule – Stanford and USC – and he’s going to be talked about for
the Heisman.
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