There isn’t much drama surrounding who will win the Heisman Trophy this year but there is drama surrounding who the finalists will be.
It’s been a lock for more than a month that Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield will win the Heisman Trophy. The senior signal-caller has proven to be the best player in college football and plays for one of the two best teams in the country. That’s a pretty strong argument why Mayfield will win the Heisman, and that’s before breaking down his video-game numbers.
While there isn’t much in the way of drama surrounding who will join the likes of Barry Sanders, Tim Tebow and Archie Griffin among Heisman winners, there is still plenty of drama and intrigue surrounding who will join Mayfield in New York as Heisman finalists.
As a result of that drama, there are plenty of people wondering when the Heisman finalists will be announced. The Heisman finalists will be revealed on Monday, Dec. 4 on ESPN during NFL Countdown. Former Heisman winners Charles Woodson and Desmond Howard will be the ones to announce the names that will be headed to the Downtown Athletic Club in New York this weekend.
The approximate time for the Heisman finalists to be announced is 7 p.m. ET so be sure to tune in for the start of the show as it won’t be drawn out like the College Football Playoff rankings that were drawn out to fill a four-hour block of programming. It should only be a few minutes to get to the finalists.
As for who the Heisman finalists will be?
Mayfield is already a cinch and the prohibitive favorite to win. Stanford running back Bryce Love should earn a trip after finishing second in the nation in rushing yards with 1,937. Considering he did that while nursing a nagging high ankle sprain the final month and a half, this is incredibly impressive.
Last year’s Heisman winner, Lamar Jackson, has been discounted much of the year as Louisville struggled, but his numbers are practically identical to last year when he was the runaway winner. I think he earns a second trip to New York.
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I don’t think we’ll have more than four finalists, so the last spot is a tricky one. There is the nation’s leading rusher, San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny who topped 2,000 yards. Then there is UCF quarterback, McKenzie Milton, who had similar passing numbers to Mayfield and led his team to an undefeated record while orchestrating the nation’s most prolific offense.
Ultimately, I think Penn State running back Saquon Barkley will get the nod. He was the big favorite to win the first two months of the year. Despite trailing off a touch in November, he still finished with the fourth-most yards from scrimmage among Power 5 players. I think he’ll be rewarded for his September and October, although I don’t anticipate he or any of the other two finalists challenging Mayfield for the Heisman Trophy.