Eyes are on college football’s biggest individual prize. Who will hoist it? Here are the five top candidates.
Leonard Fournette
Write it down. The unstoppable back will win the Heisman Trophy. Shaquille O’Neal, like Rick Reilly, had it first on Twitter. The only people who came to this conclusion before Shaq are people with eyeballs who have seen Fournette play. All the frontrunner did this week is carry the ball 26 times for 244 yards and two touchdowns. He also had an 88-yard scoring scamper negated by a penalty. He’ll face Eastern Michigan on Saturday, a team ranked 126th in rushing defense. The only intrigue will be how early Les Miles will call off the dogs.
Nick Chubb
There are no questions about his skill. But his light workload continues to hurt him in the numbers department. Against Southern he touched the ball just 16 times and turned that into three touchdowns and a 131-yard performance. He’ll get a chance to gain some ground on Fournette by putting up an impressive performance against Alabama.
Trevone Boykin
All stats aren’t created equally. We need to admit that a 485-yard, four touchdown performance against Texas Tech’s defense isn’t as impressive as it looks on paper. We also need to admit Boykin’s Heisman hopes are tied directly to the Horned Frogs’ playoff dreams. Each was resuscitated thanks to a lucky bounce on an errant throw by the quarterback. He should continue to shred this weekend against an exceptionally porous Texas defense.
Cody Kessler
The USC quarterback would be higher had the Trojans’ defense not allowed Stanford steal a win at the Coliseum. Fair or not, an early loss tends to drop players out of the debate. Kessler is doing his best to stay relevant, completing 73 percent of his passes and toting a 15:1 touchdown-interception ratio. With a bye upcoming, he’ll likely fall back off this board. No one said the Heisman race was fair. Or logical.
Ezekiel Elliott
Now that his missing dog has been found safe, it’s time for the Buckeyes’ back to find the dominant streak missing up to this point. That’s not to say Elliott’s been mailing it in. Against Western Michigan he notched his ninth consecutive 100-yard game. He’s been the only consistent star on the Ohio State offense. The most productive player on the nation’s top team tends to get an invitation to New York.
Image via USA Today
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