College football season is back which means Heisman watch is officially on! This year’s crop of players has quite a few candidates, and the true contenders should establish themselves soon.
But it should also be noted that as deep as the pool is, some contenders for the award given annually to college football’s best player already have a greater chance than others at having their name called to the podium this winter. These are five men who last season proved themselves as some of the best in the game, and not ones that will simply fade into the background as the competition gets deeper.
These five men are players who, from Day One, will be the top Heisman Trophy contenders entering 2015.
No. 5: Connor Cook, QB, Senior, Michigan State
Cook has a fine quarterback’s build at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds and has underrated athleticism, but tends to get forgotten by some since his Spartans often play in the shadow of Big Ten rival Ohio State. That’s a crying shame, as Michigan State has gone 22-3 since he became the full-time starter under center three games into the 2013 season.
Cook has thrived in that role from a statistical standpoint as well, throwing for 5,969 yards, 46 touchdowns and just 14 interceptions over the past two seasons. He has also led the Spartans to two BCS bowl wins, and his high level of play has Michigan State ranked No. 5 in the polls and on the cusp of a spot in the College Football Playoff. This young man is definitely something of a dark horse in the Heisman race, but his name is going to be hard to ignore so long as he keeps his team playing at a strong pace from start to finish.
No. 4: Leonard Fournette, RB, Sophomore, LSU
The Tigers ranked 24th in the nation with 2,919 team rushing yards in 2014, and Fournette was a big reason why. on just 187 carries last season, he rushed for 1,034 yards and 10 touchdowns his freshman year while also adding seven receptions for 127 yards. Given how much coach Les Miles likes to run the ball in his offense, chances are Fournette will be called upon quite a bit more in his sophomore season.
This means that if he is going to be in the Heisman conversation, Fournette needs to get better at reading defenses and having more confidence. Last season, against teams that had strong defensive lines and linebackers, he all too often let himself get eaten alive and taken out of LSU’s attack entirely. In the team’s 17-0 loss to Arkansas last season, he managed just nine yards on five carries before being taken out of the game by Miles.
But a new season is dawning, and with it Fournette’s chance at redemption. He too is a dark horse, but has what it takes to put himself over the top and into the Heisman conversation at the drop of a hat.
No. 3: Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Junior, Ohio State
The Buckeyes are entering the 2015 season as the defending national champions, and a strong campaign from Elliott greatly depends on the team retaining that status going into next year. As a sophomore last season,his first as Ohio State’s starter, Elliott managed 1,878 rush yards and 18 touchdowns to go with 28 receptions for 220 yards.
Though it may have taken him a couple of games to get the motor running fully, the fact remains that Elliott is borderline impossible to stop. His versatility is through the roof and though Ohio State’s schedule this season is a bit on the easy side, an absolute lights-out season from Elliott will put him directly into the Heisman race and make his team’s lack of strong competition get put on the back burner.
No. 2: Cody Kessler, QB, Senior, USC
Cody Kessler, at 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, does not have a conventional quarterback’s build, let alone that of a traditional pocket passer. Thus, his outrageous numbers from his junior season last year are enough to make anyone do a double take.
In 2014, Kessler threw for 3,826 yards, 39 touchdowns and just five interceptions. That was good enough to lead his Trojans to a 9-4 (6-3 Pac-12) record, the team’s best since going 10-2 under Lane Kiffin in 2011. Though one of his favorite targets in Nelson Agholor is now in the NFL, that shouldn’t hold Kessler back as he wraps up his college career, since he still has another excellent target in sophomore JuJu Smith-Schuster. Just how well USC does record-wise remains to be seen, but everything is still set in place for Kessler to have a strong senior season and immediately put himself in the Heisman debate.
No. 1: Trevone Boykin, QB, Senior, TCU
You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. This year, the Heisman Trophy is Trevone Boykin’s to lose. This young man and his teammates are going to be playing with a massive chip on their shoulders after TCU was kept out of the College Football Playoff, so the Horned Frogs may need to change their names to the Angry Horned Frogs depending on how they perform this season.
All of that starts with Boykin, who is an excellent dual-threat quarterback that threw for 3,901 yards, 33 touchdowns and just 10 picks last season while rushing for 707 yards and eight scores on the ground. Simply put, after last year’s Heisman winner Marcus Mariota raised the bar for dual-threat quarterbacks on the collegiate level, Boykin is now in a position to either match it or raise it once again.
With the Big 12 rival Baylor Bears no longer having star quarterback Bryce Petty, TCU is in a prime position to run away with the conference in 2015. Boykin is going to be a major part of that and so long as he stays healthy and doesn’t take a step back, there is little reason to believe that he won’t be the favorite to win the Heisman for most if not all of the season.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
