The Heisman of the Week is a totally serious column in which we dissect the performances of literally thousands of college football players to tell you which ones deserve the Heisman Trophy mostly based on just this last week of competition ... and which players are actually setting themselves up for contention for the thing. (They’re not always the same.)
Ezekiel Elliott needs more games like that to catch Leonard Fournette in the Heisman race
Ohio State’s running back may be the Buckeyes’ most consistent option, but he’s still well behind of the unquestioned leader of the Heisman pack.
Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Heismen of the Week: Will Grier, Florida; Leonard Fournette, LSU
Florida's quarterback was in this column for funny reasons last week, but now he's here for serious ones. Grier barbecued Mississippi for 271 yards and four touchdowns, completing 24-of-29 throws against a defense that largely stopped Alabama. Grier is the first Gators passer to throw for 270 yards in consecutive games since Tim Tebow did it in his Heisman campaign in 2007. He's leading a team that is primed to get so much hype if it can continue to win games, yet is still a distant third behind two of his younger brothers in Twitter followers.
Fournette *only* had 233 yards and two touchdowns against Eastern Michigan, merely raising his yards per game average to 216. He’s now had one fewer 200-yard game in a row than LSU’s Kevin Faulk (the school’s leader in the category) had in his entire career ... and Faulk spread those out over four years in purple and gold. Ho-hum.
Heisman Hopeful of the Week: Ezekiel Elliott, Ohio State
Elliott had a wonderful game Saturday, rampaging for 274 yards against Indiana. But he also has two games of fewer than five yards per carry on the season, and ran for 166 fewer yards against Northern Illinois (No. 58 nationally in rush defense) than he did against the Hoosiers (No. 72) on the exact same number of carries. Against Hawaii, ranked No. 117 nationally in rush defense, Elliott managed just 101 yards on 27 carries.
That kind of inconsistency has felled Heisman hopefuls who didn’t have competition anywhere near as stiff as Fournette. If Urban Meyer’s bunch tries to ride Elliott out of its rut, and he holds up, then maybe his stats will balloon to the point of him being a Fournette-level candidate.
But right now, he’s not. There’s a difference between “has” and “might eventually have,” one that seems to be lost on ESPN’s Mike Greenberg.
Ha-Hasman of the Week: Larry Rose III, New Mexico State
Rose ran 21 times for 260 yards and three touchdowns against New Mexico, topping Fournette in both yards and TDs and Elliott in yards per carry. And he accumulated 251 of those yards over the first three quarters of play. Yet his Aggies blew a 15-point lead and are now on a 14-game losing streak.
Oh, and now they get to travel to Mississippi to face a team that’s likely to be quite angry after being shellacked by Florida.
Sometimes, the ha-ha is a legitimate Nelson Muntz guffaw. Sometimes, it’s a laugh of sympathy.
He Can’t Win The Heisman of the Week: Lamar Jackson, Louisville
Louisville improved to 2-3 with its win over N.C. State Saturday, but not even Paul Hornung, who claimed the 1956 Heisman Trophy by starring for a 2-8 Notre Dame outfit, hoisted the trophy after his team started 0-3.
Despite his dark horse status, Jackson -- the Cardinals’ star quarterback -- is magical on the hoof. Through five games, only four of them games in which he’s thrown more than one pass, Jackson is leading all freshmen in rushing and is on pace to easily surpass Michael Vick’s rushing yards total from his electrifying 1999 season at Virginia Tech.
Jackson already has two more 100-yard games on the ground than Vick did that year, and Louisville appears to have grasped that he needs to run to be most effective. He had more carries than completions in each of the Cardinals’ last two games, both wins. It’s hard to imagine enough big wins left on a schedule that includes Florida State and no other ranked teams, but it’s worth finding Louisville on your dial. You never know what Jackson will do next.
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