Heisman rankings – Week 3: Dwayne Haskins cements himself near top
The 2018 Heisman Trophy race is starting to heat up after Week 3 of the college football as big-name quarterbacks affirm their place in the conversation.
One of the beautiful things about college football is that the narrative is always changing. Coming into the season, it’s all about what you and everyone else thinks they know. However, until the games are played, that is all supposition and nothing more. Then, once teams take the field for a couple of weeks, the narrative then shifts to how these teams and players will be tested, which is where we were entering Week 3, particularly in regard to the 2018 Heisman Trophy conversation.
To this point in the young season, numerous players throughout college football and in the early Heisman conversation have put up big numbers. The question that remained, though, was how these players would handle some type of adversity or at least handle being tested by a quality team. We got some answers to those questions in that regard.
Unfortunately, there were some factors that kept some other candidates from proving anything. West Virginia quarterback Will Grier didn’t play in Week 3 with his game being cancelled by Hurricane Florence, and so too was the matchup for UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton. Meanwhile, Stanford running back Bryce Love, who bounced back in a big way last week, was out injured in Week 3.
Thus, with chances for players and candidates to prove themselves throughout the country and with windows of opportunity opening, how did things play out this weekend in college football? Let’s take a look at our updated 2018 Heisman Trophy rankings after Week 3.
10. Nick Bosa, DE, Ohio State
Though he’s a defensive player, which already severely limits his chances in regards to the Heisman, Nick Bosa would actually be higher on this list if not for the groin injury that he suffered against TCU that forced him out of action. Not only did that keep him from accumulating more stats, but it obviously also puts his immediate future into question a bit. However, his production this season is still noteworthy, indubitably.
Against TCU before leaving, Bosa racked up five tackles, one sack and a forced fumble n the night. He was continuing the dominance that he’s shown all season to this point, having amassed four sacks and six tackles for loss through just three games this season. Hopefully he can get healthy quickly and vault back up these rankings.
9. Trace McSorley, QB, Penn State
If Penn State Nittany Lions quarterback Trace McSorley were a bit more efficient, he might come in substantially higher in these Heisman Trophy rankings (and it might help if Penn State also looked better in Week 1 against Appalachian State, too). However, he’s completing just 51.7 percent of his passes to this point, which is certainly troubling when trying to determine college football’s best.
What McSorley has working in his favor, however, is his ability to find the end zone. While he has just 603 yards passing and 143 yards rushing, the quarterback has been getting six points often this season with five passing scores and six rushing touchdowns now through three games. Thus, if he can get the other stats trending upward while still scoring at that rate, there’s a Heisman case for him to make.