Tag: Heisman

Fans go wild over Jalen Milroe’s impressive first-half against Kentucky

Jalen Milroe’s first half against Kentucky has some fans claiming the Heisman Trophy race may have a new contender.

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe has steadily improved every week during the 2023 college football season. As the team looks to make a jump in the College Football Playoff ranking, Milroe has stepped up in a big way.

In the first half against Kentucky, Milroe did make one poor decision, which led to an interception, but he has played nearly flawless football, all while being visibly hurt after he took a hard hit to the leg on the first drive of the game.

He’s completed 11 passes on 17 attempts for 185 yards and three touchdowns for an average of 10.9 yards per completion. Milroe also had five carries for 29 yards and a rushing touchdown.

Here’s what fans had to say about his first-half performance.

Dillon Gabriel still a top 10 quarterback through Week 10 per On3

Despite the recent offensive struggles, Dillon Gabriel is among On3’s top 10 quarterbacks.

Despite the offensive struggles the past two weeks, [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] has still put together a great season. At one point, he was considered one of the guys to beat for the award, if not the [autotag]Heisman[/autotag] favorite.

Gabriel has thrown for 2,646 yards which ranks No. 12 in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He’s No. 15 in the nation with 20 passing touchdowns. His 71.3% completion percentage ranks No. 8 in the country. He also ranks No. 10 in passing efficiency on the year as well.

Gabriel has been productive and is still considered one of On3’s top 25 quarterbacks for the 2023 season. The Sooners quarterback comes in at No. 9 and is the No. 1 quarterback in the conference. Only one other Big 12 quarterback made the list, and that’s Texas Longhorns‘ [autotag]Quinn Ewers[/autotag] at No. 20.

The last two weeks haven’t gone the way fans would have liked. The calls for [autotag]Jackson Arnold[/autotag] have started to grow louder and louder. Still, Gabriel continues to play really well. In Bedlam, he completed over 70% of his passes for 344 yards and a touchdown. In the Kansas game, his play-caller took the ball out of his hands, which really isn’t his fault for that performance.

Was he perfect? No. There were things in both games Gabriel has to clean up and get better at if the Sooners want to get back on the winning track. Most notably, Gabriel has to take care of the ball. He also needs to see the field a little bit better.

Gabriel is far from the problem Oklahoma is facing right now. His position in On3’s quarterback rankings further supports that.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

Roll Tide Wire’s Player of the Game Week 10: Jalen Milroe

Jalen Milroe’s four rushing touchdowns are a record by an Alabama quarterback

I doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone, but the most outstanding player to the RollTideWire staff was Jalen Milroe in Alabama’s 42-28 victory over the LSU Tigers. The win all but secures a spot in the SEC Championship game where they would likely face the Georgia Bulldogs with a College Football Playoff berth on the line. Not too bad for a team that many people wrote off after their sloppy Week 3 performance against USF.

Even though the lead went back and forth all evening, it felt like Alabama still had control over the game. LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels gave the Tide defense all they could handle, but after an early score in the third quarter, the LSU offense didn’t find the scoreboard again. It felt like Nick Saban had an answer for everything Brian Kelly wanted to do, especially in the second half.

The story of the game was Jalen Milroe as he is winning the Alabama fans over more and more each week. Tonight, Milroe was 15/23 through the air for 219 yards, but it was what he did on the ground that was so impressive. Milroe carried the ball 20 times for 155 yards and four touchdowns – the most rushing TDs by a QB in Alabama history.

After the Texas game, people were really down on Milroe and it appeared as if he lost his starting job. Here we are eight weeks later and he is establishing himself as one of the best QBs in the SEC and a dark horse contender for the Heisman.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.

Dillon Gabriel top 5 in College Sports Wire’s Heisman Poll

Dillon Gabriel is off to a strong season and has found him in the running for a prestigious award.

The Oklahoma Sooners are off to a 4-0 start after winning on the road against Big 12 newcomer the [autotag]Cincinnati Bearcats[/autotag]. [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] has played a huge part in that start.

He’s thrown for 1,227 yards on 10.4 yards per attempt. He’s also thrown 12 touchdowns and one interception and completing 78% of his passes. Some will point to the level of competition, but the fact is he wasn’t putting up these types of numbers a season ago. There are very few in all of college football that have been as productive as Oklahoma’s quarterback.

His start to the season has put him on College Sports Wire’s first Heisman poll of the season, coming in at No. 5. Gabriel has the eighth-best odds to win the Heisman, according to BetMGM.

Gabriel returned for a fifth year in college football after Oklahoma fell short of expectations with a 6-7 season. Gabriel is among the active passing leaders, just behind Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman. The offense has shown improvement with his efficient play. As Big 12 play ramps up, we will find out if the Sooners offense can keep it rolling. A big test looms next week against Texas. – College Sports Wire staff

As they said, the key game is against the Texas Longhorns. If Gabriel has a strong showing that week the [autotag]Heisman[/autotag] talk will only grow If he plays poorly, it’ll be hard for him to get back into the running by season’s end.

As for now, there’s no doubt you can see the growth in Gabriel’s game. He looks more confident. He looks like he has a strong connection with his receivers. He knows when to take the shots and when to just not make a mistake because of how well the defense is playing.

That’s what you want from your quarterback. Sure, he needs to make some of the layup throws like the ones to [autotag]Jalil Farooq[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayden Gibson[/autotag] against the Bearcats that would have resulted in touchdowns.

He’s not a perfect player, but he’s playing at a high level so far.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

Alabama football drops to No. 13 in Week 4 AP Poll

Alabama football drops three spots in Week 4 AP Poll despite two touchdown victory

Despite a two-touchdown victory, it felt like Alabama’s victory against the USF Bulls yesterday was one of the poorest games of the Nick Saban era, at least on the offensive side of the ball. The Tide didn’t find the endzone until the second half against a USF team that won just one game a season ago. The Tide has now seen three quarterbacks take significant snaps with none of the options separating themselves from the pack. However, the sky isn’t falling and there were some good things to take away with the first being all wins count the same.

Running back Roydell Williams looks like a guy that OC Tommy Rees can rely on to carry the rock 20-25 times a game as he went for 129 yards and a score while averaging 7.6 yards a carry. In hindsight, the defense played pretty as well as they only surrendered three points on the afternoon, and the only reason that happened was due to a muffed punt from the Alabama special teams unit.

Even though Alabama survived with a victory, it was reasonable to expect they might drop a bit in the AP Poll after back-to-back poor showings. The Week 4 AP Poll dropped the Crimson Tide three spots to No. 13 in the rankings. Ole Miss moved up to No. 15 after a win over Georgia Tech yesterday setting up for Top 15 showdown in Tuscaloosa next weekend.

Georgia and Michigan still hold the top two spots in the Poll, but Texas jumped Florida State after the Seminoles poor showing against Boston College. The USC Trojans round out the top five behind the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.

Deion Sanders is already lobbying for Colorado’s standout two-way player Travis Hunter in Heisman race

Deion Sanders is ready to get the Travis Hunter Heisman campaign going.

Colorado is having plenty of fun in the first game of the Deion Sanders era, and two-way superstar Travis Hunter is a big reason as to why.

In the first half of Colorado’s road opener against TCU, Hunter, a wide receiver and cornerback for the Buffaloes, hauled in a beautiful pass in the end zone that was just a hair short of being called for a touchdown.

He also reportedly played more than 60 snaps in just one half of football, per The Athletic.

The catch in question was the kind of almost-score that shows why Hunter is such a uniquely rare talent on the field, and why he’s certain to go high in the NFL Draft whenever he declares.

Hunter also made a fantastic play in the end zone on TCU wide receiver Jaylon Robinson while he was playing at cornerback.

At halftime, Colorado coach Deion Sanders lobbied for Hunter’s Heisman candidacy by saying that if he had been able to catch two long passes from quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the Heisman would be “in his crib chilling right now.”

Shedeur Sanders is also a Heisman candidate, which gives Colorado two of the most electrifying players in the game this season.

While it’s far too early to be crowning any Heisman winners, Deion Sanders sounds very ready to advocate for his guys in their strong first 2023 showing against the national title runners-up.

CBS Sports’ Emory Hunt thinks a Wisconsin Badger can win the Heisman this year

This would be something.

CBS Sports HQ’s Erik Kuselias, Emory Hunt, Mike McClure and Zack Cimini spent a segment last week discussing the ‘best bet for Big Ten player to win the Heisman’ in 2023.

Hunt is a former running back himself. So true to form, his selection was Wisconsin running back Braelon Allen.

“I’m tailing the running back here. You see that guy, he’s holding a football. Get it back to a [running] back,” Hunt said. “Braelon Allen is going to go over 2000 yards with a healthy passing game. So you know, if Wisconsin is going over [8.5 wins], you know they love and live by the run game. I know Phil Longo wants to air it out but man, you have a big dog in the backfield…You give him more space to run the football based on what he was doing prior to that with stacked boxes, he’s going to run crazy.”

Here’s the full explanation:

While this result would be legendary in every sense of the word, it feels like a nearly-impossible conclusion. A running back has not won the award since Alabama’s Derrick Henry in 2015. Since that point, quarterback play and passing numbers have completely taken over the game and its record books.

Only two Wisconsin Badgers have won the Heisman: Alan Ameche in 1954 and Ron Dayne in 1999.

Quinn Ewers viewed as one of the five Heisman contenders in the Big 12

Quinn Ewers for Heisman?

As a five-star recruit, Quinn Ewers was widely viewed as the next great quarterback thanks to his big arm and ability to throw from all sorts of angles. Continue reading “Quinn Ewers viewed as one of the five Heisman contenders in the Big 12”

Georgia players’ Heisman Trophy odds for 2023 season

Three Georgia players currently have Heisman odds listed on FanDuel

With the 2023 season rapidly approaching, the Georgia Bulldogs are gearing up to make a run at a third consecutive national championship.

They may have lost a ton of talent to the upcoming NFL draft, including last year’s Heisman finalist Stetson Bennett, but the Dawgs still have all the pieces in place to go for the three-peat.

Georgia may be familiar with winning national championships lately, but the program has not had a Heisman Trophy winner since Herschel Walker won it 1982.

Could that change this year? FanDuel recently released Heisman odds for the 2023 season, and Georgia has three players with odds listed on the site.

Those players are quarterbacks Carson Beck (+3,000) and Brock Vandagriff (+8,000) and tight end Brock Bowers (+15,000).

Beck’s odds rank 14th, Vandagriff 33rd, and Bowers 50th.

[gambcom-standard rankid=”3012″ ]

Beck will likely be Georgia’s starting quarterback this year. He has attempted only 58 career attempts in 10 games, so he does not have a ton of game experience, but that is the most of Georgia’s trio of returning quarterbacks. The former-four star recruit completed 15 of 22 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown during April’s G-Day.

There’s also Vandagriff, who came to Athens as the No. 17 player in the nation in the class of 2021. He shared first-team reps with Beck during spring practice leading up to G-Day. Vandagriff completed 13 of 25 passes for 135 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in the game.

And there’s Bowers, who may leave as the greatest receiver in the history of Georgia football after putting up 1,824 yards in his first two seasons.

Bowers isn’t just a receiving threat either. In two seasons, Bowers has amassed 165 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

Cam is back: Newton to throw at Auburn’s Pro Day

Auburn legend Cam Newton will compete in Auburn’s Pro Day in hopes to work his way back onto an NFL roster.

One of Auburn’s most electrifying players in history is returning to campus.

[autotag]Cam Newton[/autotag], the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who led the Tigers to the 2010 BCS National Championship, is returning to Auburn to compete in Pro Day exercises on Tuesday.

Auburn made the announcement on Twitter by showcasing special gear that Newton will wear while working out. Newton also shared the news on Twitter by tweeting a video of him inside of Auburn’s indoor practice facility.

Newton will work out in front of NFL scouts in hopes of reaching a deal with a new franchise. Newton has played 11 pro seasons, most recently with the New England Patriots in 2021, with the ten prior seasons spent with the Carolina Panthers.

He has completed 59.9% of his passes for 32,382 yards and 194 touchdowns. He has also rushed for 5,628 yards and 75 touchdowns during his pro career. Several of his accolades include winning NFL offensive rookie of the year in 2011, and MVP in 2015. He also led the Panthers to Super Bowl 50.

According to AuburnUndercover, Newton will be throwing to his brother, fellow former Tiger, [autotag]Caylin Newton[/autotag] during Pro Day exercises. Pro Day is set to begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

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