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Heisman Watch 2017, Week 8: Bryce Love is in the air

By Cody Williams

PALO ALTO, CA - OCTOBER 14: Bryce Love #20 of the Stanford Cardinal scores on a five yard touchdown run against the Oregon Ducks during the first quarter of the NCAA football game at Stanford Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
PALO ALTO, CA - OCTOBER 14: Bryce Love #20 of the Stanford Cardinal scores on a five yard touchdown run against the Oregon Ducks during the first quarter of the NCAA football game at Stanford Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /
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With another electric performance, Bryce Love is only furthering his candidacy to win the 2017 Heisman Trophy entering Week 8 of college football.

Part of the beauty of college football is the unpredictability of it all. Just when you think you know something, everything can get turned on its head in an instant. We most certainly saw that from the start of Week 7 in the 2017 season all the way through the end — both in terms of team success and the Heisman Trophy race.

As far as teams go, the upsets were numerous, including three previously unbeaten teams falling on Friday and Saturday combined. Two of those came on Friday with the Clemson Tigers and Washington State Cougars both suffering bad losses to Syracuse and Cal, respectively. Not to be outdone by their in-state rivals, the Washington Huskies also suffered a bad loss at the hands of Arizona State.

With teams like Auburn and Florida also falling, the upsets were numerous. But in terms of individual players, no one may have been more out-of-character than Washington State quarterback Luke Falk. After putting together a dominant first six weeks of the season, he was abysmal as he threw five interceptions against the Golden Bears. And with each pick, he threw away a piece of his Heisman hopes until there was nothing left.

However, another thing that we all seemed to know not long ago was that Saquon Barkley was going to win college football’s most prestigious award. But thinks to mediocre showings by the Penn State running back and the continued electricity from Bryce Love, that’s far from a formality at this point.

So how is the race for the award shaking out now? Let’s take a look at the Heisman Watch as we head into Week 8 of college football.

5. J.T. Barrett, QB, Ohio State

You’d likely be hard-pressed to find a bigger critic of Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback J.T. Barrett than myself. There’s no denying his athletic ability and success throughout his collegiate career. However, his pure ability as a quarterback and thrower has always been lacking far too much for my liking. With that said, it’s becoming impossible to deny the numbers that he’s put up to this point.

In the Buckeyes’ Week 7 win over Nebraska (on the road, no less), the senior quarterback was simply magnificent. Completing 81.8 percent of his 33 pass attempts, he threw for 325 yards and five touchdowns. For good measure, Barrett also tacked on two rushing touchdowns to his total for the season.

Now, Barrett has incredibly thrown 21 touchdown passes and just one interception on the season, in addition to having five rushing touchdowns. And while his 1,838 passing yards aren’t wowing, they look much better when coupled with his 359 rushing yards. He’s simply been lights-out outside of the loss to Oklahoma.

However, the loss to the Sooners is where the problem currently lies for Barrett’s Heisman candidacy. Frankly, Ohio State hasn’t played a truly quality team since, so these are the numbers the quarterback should be putting up. With massive Big Ten matchups looming, if Barrett can keep this up, his stock for the award will only skyrocket higher.

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