Stanford’s offense has been carried by running back Bryce Love. Due to his amazing play through the first month, he’s become a Heisman contender.
Coming into the college football season, many had pegged Lamar Jackson as the heavy favorite to repeat as the Heisman Trophy winner. Penn State’s Saquon Barkley has been a monster through the first month of the season and has rightfully deserved the attention. Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny have also been atop the Heisman watch lists due to their outrageous performances so far.
But there’s a key name that’s constantly being left out, but his play every week is only bringing more attention to himself. Some thought the Stanford running game was going to dip with the loss of Christian McCaffrey to the NFL. Um, actually it might’ve gotten better with his backup — Bryce Love.
The Stanford running back has been sensational through five weeks of the college football season. As an entire team, the Cardinal haven’t played well and their quarterback play hasn’t been great, thus their entire offense has been carried on the legs of Love.
Against Arizona State on Saturday afternoon, Love carried the ball 25 times for 301 yards, including three touchdowns and a long run of 61 yards. That shattered McCaffrey’s single-game rushing record of 227 yards. He rushed for nearly double what Keller Chryst threw for, just think about that.
For the season, Love has 98 carries for 1,088 yards. He has over 1,000 yards and we’re still in September. His lowest rushing total of the season was 160 against USC. In his last two games, he’s rushed for 263 and 301 yards, respectively.
If he keeps down this road, he’s easily on pace for 2,300 yards rushing this season, which would be close to the top of the single-season rushing leaders. This kind of a season, where he’s basically carrying the Cardinal offense, warrants significant Heisman consideration.
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People were mesmerized with McCaffrey and his ability to make plays on offense, and Love is doing the exact same thing, if not more. It’s on Love to keep up this pace for the rest of the season, but if he can, I don’t see any reason why he holds up the Heisman Trophy at the end of the year.