Category: Heisman Trophy Race

Top Heisman Candidates – Other Than The Obvious: 20 for 2020 Offseason Topics No. 3

20 for 2020: 20 key college football offseason topics: Who are the top Heisman candidates … besides the obvious stars?

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CFN in 60 Video: Top Non-Obvious Heisman Candidates

20 for 2020: 20 key college football offseason topics: Who are the top Heisman candidates … besides the obvious stars?

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

20 for 2020 Offseason Topics 
20. Best Teams To Not Make CFP
19: Teams That Will Rebound Big
18. Teams That Will Fall Back
17: Every Power 5 Team’s Letdown Game
16. Top 5 Instant Impact New Head Coaches
15. 2nd Year Coaches Who’ll Be Better
14. Power 5 Hot Seat Coach Rankings
13. Key Transfers You Forgot About
12. Five Big Power 5 Upset Alerts
11. Great Players About To Go Nuclear
10. Group of 5 Teams In New Year’s Six Chase
9. Power 5 Sleeper Teams
8. Most Interesting Quarterback Battles
7. 5 Teams That Might Disappoint
6. 5 Teams That Might Surprise
5. Group of Five Conference Ranking
4. Power 5 Conference Ranking

We’ll keep on doing what we do whether or not there’s a season, but all thoughts go out to those suffering and struggling, and to all the health care workers battling above and beyond the call. Please … stay safe.

It’s really, really, really hard to win the Heisman.

After what Joe Burrow did last year, and with Chase Young making a push, it’s really, really, really hard to pick who’s going to be in the race, too.

Last year we totally whiffed on just about all of the calls, but they all came with a caveat that they had to hit at least two of the three parts of the puzzle.

To even be in the mix, a player needs to 1) put up ridiculous numbers, 2) do it when everyone is watching in at least one or two big games, and/or 3) preferably be the reason a team is in a conference title chase and possibly in the mix for the College Football Playoff.

Only two players this year are easy choice for the preseason call – Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State QB Justin Fields. The odds are strong that one of them will win it, but that’s boring.

Here are the five who might just be this year’s Burrow, and the alternative choice at each spot just in case they’re not.

5. QB Sam Ehlinger, Texas

The same reasons why he was on last year’s list all apply here.

He’s a veteran star of a power program, he’s able to crank up the stats on the ground as well as through the air, and he’s got the big games on the massive stages to stand out.

Joe Burrow didn’t win the Heisman in last year’s big LSU win over Texas, but he put himself on the map. The same went for Jalen Hurts, who ran for 131 yards and a score – to go along with three touchdown passes – in Oklahoma’s win over UT.

Flip it around this time.

Ehlinger and the Longhorns have to go to Baton Rouge to face the defending national champs, and as always, they get Oklahoma in Dallas in the Big 12 game of the year.

If he struggles in either one of those two games, forget it, but he’ll have the opportunities, he’ll be deep in the Heisman hunt if Texas is in the College Football Playoff hunt, and he’ll have the stats.

With Washington State’s Anthony Gordon, Burrow, and Hurts all gone, Ehlinger is the nation’s leading returning total offense leader. He’ll have the pats around him, the team should be stronger, and he certainly knows what he’s doing.

Alternative: Another veteran QB who could take that big step up
QB Kellen Mond, Texas A&M
He’s going into what seems like his 14th season with the Aggies, and he’s got the receiving corps to work with for a massive statistical year. He’ll run well, he’ll be the unquestioned leader of the team, and he’ll have plenty of big games and moments to shine in.

NEXT: No. 4 Not Obvious Heisman Candidate

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Heisman Trophy: 2020 Latest Early Odds, March. Top 15 Candidates

Early odds for the 2020 Heisman Trophy are in. Who are the top 15 candidates, and where’s the value?

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Early odds for the 2020 Heisman Trophy are in. Who are the top 15 candidates, and where’s the value?

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

The early odds to win the 2020 Heisman Trophy are out from Covers.com, and there aren’t a whole lot of surprises up top.

However, there are a whole bunch of new names in the mix, several seemingly crazy long shots, and enough question marks to make this very, very interesting for anyone trying to handicap the race so far in advance.

What Heisman-caliber players are you going to need to know several months from now once this all gets started for real?

Keep in mind, this is trying to figure out 1) who the best player will be in the 2020 college football season on the 2) best team who’ll 3) crank up the ridiculous stats at an all-time great level.

The bar has been set higher stat-wise after the last few seasons.

Top top ten on this list are done based on what appears to be the best value – about that, here’s your advanced warning that the No. 1 is a bit quirky, but there’s a reason. 11-15 are done based on the odds according to Covers odds, and before that, the …

2020 Heisman Trophy Early Odds: Best of the Rest

So you want to take a shot for the stars? You’re not totally crazy to shoot for the stars – as will be explained later – but …

QB Charlie Brewer, Baylor 60/1
Baylor comes back loaded with talent, but is Brewer going to be able to stay healthy enough after taking monster shots late last season? He’s a terrific baller, but the ceiling – if everything goes right – is to be a Heisman finalist.

QB Brock Purdy, Iowa State 60/1
Stats. He might quickly grow in the eyes of the NFL scouts, but he’s not going to have the raw numbers or the big Big 12 wins to pull it off.

QB Tyler Shough, Oregon 60/1
Are you really sure he’s going to be the Oregon starting quarterback? He’s a big-time talent, but super-recruit Jay Butterfield will get to take his cuts for the No. 1 gig.

RB Master Teague III, Ohio State 60/1
1) JK Dobbins put up massive numbers and wasn’t remotely close to winning the Heisman. 2) Teague is hurt and going to miss the rest of spring practice. It’s being reported by Eleven Warriors that it could be an Achilles’ heel injury.

RB CJ Verdell, Oregon 60/1
Can he put up the stats to be in the mix? He only ran for 1,220 years and eight touchdowns last season, but he has the talent to blow up.

Now for the players with a real shot at pulling this off. Again, starting with projected candidates No. 15 through 11 based on the Covers odds, and then the top ten based on the best values.

NEXT: 2020 Early Heisman Early Odds: No. 15. The 40/1 Candidates

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Week 12 Roundup: 5 Things That Matter, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

The Week 12 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

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The Week 12 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

College Football Week 12 Roundup

CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 13 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– CFP Rankings Projection
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
Quick Thoughts: Big Ten |  SEC

Week 12 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means

5. Winners & Losers From Week 12

Winner: QB Trevor Lawrence, Clemson

Remember way, way back to the old days of mid-October when Trevor Lawrence was supposedly freelancing, making too many big mistakes, and throwing eight interceptions in his first seven games?

Remember when he was overrated, not worthy of being considered a slam-dunk No. 1 overall NFL prospect, and was regressing in his sophomore year?

Good times.

Yeah … in his last four games he hit close to 80% of his passes and averaged over 12 yards per throw with 13 touchdowns and no interceptions. If that wasn’t enough, he also ran for 130 yards with two touchdowns as Clemson hung up 52 points or more on the board in each of those four games.

Loser: Arizona’s passing game

In recent years, a mediocre day from the Arizona passing attack usually happened because the ground game was going off. The Wildcats only threw for 68 yards against Oregon State back in 2017, but that’s because they ran for 534.

Against Oregon on Saturday, Arizona’s Khalil Tate and Grant Gunnell combined to throw for a season-low 132 yards with no touchdown passes. Worse yet, the 4.4 yards per pass were the fewest by any Arizona team since a 51-13 loss to the Ducks back in 2014.

Winner: RB Najee Harris, Alabama

Alabama’s passing game carried the team, but now with Tua Tagovailoa done for the year, it’ll be up to Harris and the ground game to start doing a whole lot more. Harris has rushed for eight touchdowns in the last four games and caught touchdown passes in each of the last two. He wasn’t needed much in blowouts over Arkansas and Mississippi State – running for 86 and 88 yards, respectively – but he took off for over 100 yards in the other three of the previous five games.

Loser: Georgia Tech’s running game  

Going back to early in the 2009 season in a loss to Miami, Georgia Tech failed to run for 100 yards just three times in a span of 134 games.

It has failed to run for 100 yards twice in the last three weeks.

The program went on a run of 40 straight games going back to 2016 with 100 yards rushing or more. That streak snapped a few weeks ago when Pitt allowed just 86 yards in a 20-10 win. On Saturday, Virginia Tech beat the Yellow Jackets 45-0, allowing just 53 yards on 31 carries.

It was the first time Georgia Tech was held to under 75 yards since Clemson gave up just 71 in the middle of the 2015 season.

Winner: The quarterbacks in the LSU 58-37 win over Ole Miss

Defense, schmefense. In LSU’s wild and crazy win over Ole Miss, Joe Burrow further cemented his Heisman credentials by completing 32-of-42 passes for 489 yards and five scores, and he ran for 26 yards.

Ole Miss freshman QB John Rhys Plumlee came up with 212 yards and four touchdowns … rushing. He also threw for 123 yards with a pick, and Matt Corral threw for 89 yards and a touchdown.

In all, the quarterbacks in the game accounted for 945 yards of total offense.

Loser: Northwestern’s quarterback play

The good news: Northwestern finally won a game again. It rocked a miserable UMass team – with the nation’s worst defense, by far – 45-6.

The bad news: the passing game completed 7-of-13 passes for 76 yards and two picks. Two weeks earlier, the Minutemen gave up 488 passing yards and five touchdowns to Liberty.

Winner: Kent State’s fourth quarter vs. Buffalo

0-60. That’s what Kent State was in its previous 60 games when down by 21 points or more. It was down 27-6 to a Buffalo team looking for its sixth win, bow eligibility, and a big step forward in the MAC East race.

Instead, in the final eight minutes of the game, Kent State scored a touchdown, recovered the onside kick, scored on a 41-yard pass play for a score, blocked a punt, tied the game on a fourth down touchdown pass, and won on the last play of regulation with a 44-yard Matthew Trickett field goal.

Loser: Baylor in the second half vs. Oklahoma

Everything was going so well. Baylor was up 31-10 at halftime, the party was just getting started, and then … Oklahoma score 24 in the second half – 31 unanswered overall – and Baylor suffered a brutal collapse. It couldn’t move the chains at all after halftime – Oklahoma ended up controlling the clock for over 41 minutes.

Winner: Rice

Rice had one win over an FBS program in its previous 31 games going back to September 9th of 2017. It won last year’s season finale against Ole Dominion, and it was competitive through most of the first part of the season despite the 0-9 start, and then … Rice 31, Middle Tennessee 28. The Owls failed to score in the second half, and it got WAY too tight, but it was the program’s first win of the season.

Loser: Duke

Didn’t you used to be Duke? The Blue Devils started the season 4-2 with acceptable losses to Alabama and Pitt, and since then they’ve not only lost four straight, but the offense has gone bye-bye.

They scored 30 or more in five straight games, and 44 total in the last four losses in blowout after blowout. A once sure-thing bowl season is now destined to be a loser, bottoming out in a 49-6 home loss to a Syracuse team that hadn’t won an ACC game.

Week 12 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means

NEXT: The really big thing was …

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Week 11 Roundup: 5 Things That Matter, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

The Week 11 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

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The Week 11 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

College Football Week 11 Roundup

CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 12 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– Chad Morris fired: 5 possible options
– Predicting Second CFP Rankings
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
Quick Thoughts: Big Ten | Big 12 | SEC
– 10 Quick Thoughts On LSU 46, Alabama 41

Week 11 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means

5. Winners & Losers From Week 11

Winner: Ohio State’s defense 

The offense might be hanging up ridiculous numbers, but the defense – with or without Chase Young – has been more impressive. The Buckeyes lead the nation in total defense, allowing just 215 yards per game. To put this into perspective, Wisconsin is second, giving up 231 a game. No defense since 2011 Alabama has finished a season allowing fewer than 250 yards per game.

Loser: Missouri’s offense

This got bad, fast. QB Kelly Bryant has been less than 100%, and he was out in the loss to Georgia. Now, the Mizzou offense that came up with 400 yards or more in five of its first six games hasn’t hit the 300-yard mark in any of its last three.

Getting stuffed and shutout by Georgia is one thing, but the Tigers have scored a total of 21 points over the last three weeks playing Vanderbilt and Kentucky before going to Athens. However, they’re 5-0 at home, 0-4 on the road, and they host Florida this weekend.

Winner: Tennessee

Well would you look at that. Tennessee, after starting 1-4 with losses at home to Georgia State and BYU along the way, has ripped off wins in four of its last five games to get to 5-5. And now, after all the pain, and all the suffering, it just has to win one of its last two games at Missouri or at home against Vanderbilt to go bowling. As a warning, thought, the Vols were 5-5 last year before playing Mizzou and Vandy, too, and were outscored 88-30 in the two losses.

Loser: Kentucky  

Kentucky is keeping it all together with Scotch tape and bubble gum, but the lack of offensive punch has now become a problem. It had its shot late in the 17-13 loss to Tennessee, but couldn’t get into the end zone. Now, after failing to score 14 points in four of its last six games, it has two win two of its last three to go bowling. At Vanderbilt, UT Martin, Louisville – beat the Commodores, or else.

Winner: Illinois 

And they did it with room to spare. Not three weeks ago, the Illini were done. The Lovie Smith era was a disaster, there was no hope for anything positive, and the idea of going to a bowl game for the first time since 2014 and the second time since 2011 seemed ridiculous. And then it beat Wisconsin, rolled by Purdue and Rutgers, and last week, took down Michigan State on the road to get to six wins with two games to go. It also helped that …

Loser: Michigan State collapsed

There was the 12-men on the field debacle in the 10-7 loss to Arizona State. There was the blowout loss at Ohio State. There were the losses to Wisconsin and Penn State by a combined score of 66-7. There was the suspension of heart-and-soul LB Joe Bachie to a PED test.

But everything was back on track with a 31-10 lead against Illinois going into the fourth quarter, and then … it was the biggest comeback win in Illini history. Now MSU has lost four straight and has to win two of its last three against at Michigan, at Rutgers, and Maryland to get bowl eligible.

Winner: Florida program bowl projections

USF is the one team probably out of the hunt – needing to win two of the last three games against Cincinnati, Memphis and at UCF to get to six wins – and FIU has to win one of its last two games against Miami or Marshall, but everyone else in the Sunshine State will get a vacation.

UCF became bowl eligible a few weeks ago, and so did Florida. Florida Atlantic is all but locked in with seven wins. After a win over Louisville, Miami is set, and now … Florida State is there. After the win at Boston College – despite the loss of head coach Willie Taggart – all the Noles have to do is beat Alabama State and it gets to start a new bowl streak.

Loser: The Pac-12 bowl projections

The Pac-12 needs some crazy things to happen in a hurry to get more teams bowl eligible. Arizona, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington State and UCLA are all 4-5 and need to win two of their last three games. Arizona State is no lock, needing to win just one more with at Oregon State, Oregon, and Arizona to go, and 4-6 Colorado has to beat both Washington and Utah. Cal is 5-4, and it has to win one of its last three against USC, at Stanford and at UCLA.

Winner: SMU 59, East Carolina 51

1,280 yards of total offense. 912 yards of passing. Just four penalties, one turnover each, and a finish that went down to the wire. Both teams are incapable lately of playing uninteresting games.

Loser: UCF

There was some thought that UCF was going to rip through the rest of its schedule, catch a big break, and get right back to a New Year’s Six bowl game. And then the O came to a complete stop with just three points in the second half of the 34-31 loss to Tulsa.

Week 11 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means

NEXT: The really big thing was …

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