As the college football season heats up, so does the race for the coveted Heisman Award. Through two weeks of the season, there have been several dominant performances, but who is in the lead? Two of our contributors give their takes on the race so far.
Ashton Jeanty
By Jacob Hypke
A running back has not won the Heisman Trophy in nearly a decade. The last one to do so was Derrick Henry in 2015. Therefore, history dictates that Quinn Ewers is the likely Heisman front-runner. I would like to propose another candidate, though: Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.
Jeanty is currently off to a generational start. He has 426 yards and nine touchdowns in just two games. In Jeanty’s most recent game, he rushed for 192 yards and three touchdowns against Oregon, who was ranked the 11th-best run defense in 2023. Jeanty is on pace to finish the regular season with 2826 yards and 54 touchdowns.
Before Henry, there was Mark Ingram, who won the Heisman in 2009. Ingram rushed for 1675 yards and 12 TDs in his regular season campaign. Jeanty wont score 4.5 touchdowns per game, but even if he had a 2.5 touchdown pace for the next ten games, he finished with 31 TDs.
If Jeanty can keep that pace, it will surpass what Henry and Ingram combined for in their Heisman seasons. Few others, if any, have a bigger impact on their team’s success than Jeanty.
Dillon Gabriel
By Mark Wagner
After the Denver Broncos drafted Bo Nix with the 12th overall pick in the NFL Draft, Oregon needed a new starting quarterback. The Ducks looked to the transfer portal and found Heisman hopeful Dillon Gabriel.
Gabriel spent the 2023 season with Oklahoma, throwing for 3,660 yards and 30 touchdowns in his redshirt senior season. Before Oklahoma, he spent three years with Central Florida, starting in his freshman and sophomore years before succumbing to an injury three games into his junior year.
Gabriel was chosen by the Big Ten as their Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, beating out Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins. As of this point in the 2024 season, he’s thrown for 623 yards and four touchdowns. In Oregon’s week one game against Idaho, he became the eighth quarterback in college football history to surpass 15,000 passing yards in their career, joining the aforementioned Bo Nix.
So far, there are a few quarterbacks with better stats than this; however, players like Shedeur Sanders of Colorado already have one loss on the year, and most quarterbacks above Gabriel in passing yards aren’t in the running for the Heisman because their teams are out of championship contention.
