Welcome to the Heisman of the Week, 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 most based on just this one week of competition ... and which players are actually setting themselves up for contention for the thing. (They’re not always the same.)
Clemson’s Deshaun Watson can make his Heisman case against Florida State
He’s not the nation’s most obvious Heisman contender at QB -- but he’s got a great shot.
Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports
Heisman of the Week: Trevone Boykin, TCU
Look, it’s simple. Throw for 388 yards and three TDs, run for 84 yards and another score, and get dapped up by the opposing coach, and you’re the Heisman of the Week.
Boykin now has five games of 300-plus passing yards and 50-plus rushing yards to his credit. In a 2010 season I once argued was one of the best by a player in college football history, Cam Newton had one such game. The last two Heisman winners, Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston, have averaged 9.01 and 9.06 yards of total offense per play in their Heisman campaigns. Boykin's currently at 8.96.
TCU does play three ranked teams in November, but none is in the top 20 nationally in total defense (Oklahoma, at No. 22, is close), and the fourth team the Horned Frogs will see is Kansas, which ranks dead last. There’s every reason to believe Boykin will just keep putting up numbers.
Heisman Hopeful of the Week: Deshaun Watson, Clemson
The most intriguing non-favorite Heisman candidate after Week 9 is Clemson’s trigger man, who threw for 383 yards and five touchdowns against N.C. State, and added 54 yards and a touchdown of his own on the ground.
Watson was arguably better in limited action in 2014 than he has been this year. He threw for more than 10 yards per attempt and tossed just two picks on 137 throws as a true freshman, and had a better passer rating than Mariota did. But he played through a torn ACL during a Clemson win over South Carolina, and injuries kept him from playing in the 75 percent of Clemson’s games necessary to qualify as the FBS leader in passer rating.
Watson's just eighth in passer rating this year. (Boykin is third behind Baylor's Seth Russell, who will fall victim to the same eligibility requirements Watson did, and Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield.) That's not a dramatic drop from last year, however, and Clemson's much better. He's also about to get his first full chance at helping the Tigers take down Florida State after splitting time with Cole Stoudt in their 2014 loss in Tallahassee.
And after FSU, Clemson shouldn't see another team with a winning record until the ACC Championship Game.
Boykin and LSU's Leonard Fournette are locks to go to New York, barring injury. Baylor's Corey Coleman has a really good shot at joining them. TCU's Josh Doctson's candidacy is going to fall victim to the idea that he's dependent on Boykin. But with Russell out for the year, Dalvin Cook hobbled and no Ohio State player standing out, the door is wide open for a dark horse to at least make a run at being a finalist.
Ha-Hasman of the Week: Matt Breida, Georgia Southern
While we’re talking about total offense per play: Just eight players have finished on that 9.0 yards per play plateau since 2008. But just two of those players, New Mexico’s Jhurell Pressley in 2014 and Kent State’s Dri Archer in 2012, haven’t been quarterbacks, and neither of those players topped 160 touches in their explosive seasons.
Georgia Southern’s Breida, who can still be written up as “the best running back you’ve never heard of,“ is on pace to threaten 9.5 yards per play on 213 carries in 2015.
And, frankly, I’d be surprised if he didn’t get it. Three of the Eagles’ final four foes rank in triple digits in the FBS in run defense, and Georgia, the only one within the top 100, just gave up 258 rushing yards despite Florida completing just eight passes.
Georgia did give up just 102 rushing yards to Georgia Southern when last it saw the Eagles in 2008, but that was in a season opener, after an offseason of preparation for the Eagles’ option run game. The Dawgs haven’t held similarly tricky Georgia Tech under 200 rushing yards since 2008.
They Can't Win The Heismen of the Week: Vernon Hargreaves III, Florida; Shawun Lurry, Northern Illinois
Just six FBS players have at least four interceptions and at least 100 yards on interception returns in 2015. Of them, only Hargreaves and Lurry have not pulled off a pick-six this year.
For Hargreaves, who has zero pick-sixes in his illustrious career for the Gators, that distinction seems almost unbelievable. For Lurry, a pint-size corner who kick-started a string of five games in which he recorded interceptions by picking off Ohio State’s Cardale Jones twice back in September, it’s the lone blemish on a tremendous sophomore season.
Maybe one or both of Hargreaves and Lurry will eventually pick-six someone. But the fact that both are among the nation’s best corners and best ball hawks and still don’t have one two-thirds of the way through this season says plenty about the immense difficulty of winning the Heisman as a non-offensive player.
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