Heisman rankings – Week 4: Race of the quarterbacks
Through four weeks of the 2018 college football season, it’s become abundantly clear that the Heisman Trophy race is quarterbacks over everyone else.
It’s another Sunday, which means that another week of the 2018 college football season is officially in the books. Through four weeks, things have already started to get a bit calamitous throughout the country, most recently with the Virginia Tech Hokies falling to a previously winless Old Dominion team with a backup quarterback at the helm. As crazy as it’s been, however, the 2018 Heisman Trophy race is starting to take shape.
By taking shape, that doesn’t mean that there is a sure-fire winner. In fact, you could argue that each passing week thus far makes the decision as to who should be the Heisman Trophy favorite becomes more difficult. What has become clear after four weeks of action is to what position the award is going to be handed out. Though this shouldn’t shock many, it’s going to be a quarterback hoisting the trophy in December.
The reason for that is two-fold. First, there are just a multitude of ultra-talented quarterbacks throughout the country. From the blue-blood programs like Alabama and Penn State to lesser-so teams like UCF and Hawaii, quarterbacks throughout college football are putting up ridiculous performances week after week. Secondly, however, the running backs and wide receivers just simply haven’t been at the same impressive level of these quarterbacks.
As such, get ready to see a lot of quarterbacks talked about moving forward in regards to this race. With that in mind, let’s get into the 2018 Heisman Trophy rankings after Week 4, looking at the top 10 candidates to this point.
10. Ed Oliver, DT, Houston
Nick Bosa had previously been the obligatory defensive player inclusion in these rankings in recent weeks. However, with Bosa now out for a few weeks following surgery to repair a core muscle injury, he’s obviously going to drop out of the race. Lucky for the defensive minded fans that want players to get love in Heisman rankings, Ed Oliver continues to be a monster.
After four games this season, the Houston Cougars star defensive tackle has yet to record a sack. However, he’s done just about everything else you could ask from him. Oliver already has 27 total tackles on the season, and an incredible 5.0 tackles for loss to this point. He’s been a force on seemingly every single play for this Houston team and, if a defensive player is going to get love at this point, he’s surely the most deserving.
9. Jonathan Taylor, RB, Wisconsin
Following the Wisconsin Badgers getting upset by BYU last week, the Heisman stock of running back Jonathan Taylor undoubtedly took a hit, especially in a game where he averaged only 4.5 yards per carry (low by his standards) and didn’t find the end zone. To re-insert himself in the mix, he needed to come back extremely strongly against the Iowa Hawkeyes on the road this week.
Unfortunately for Taylor, his performance wasn’t overly impressive. At the very least, Wisconsin was able to get a win this time around, but Taylor’s production was quite pedestrian. He finished with a mere 113 yards on 25 carries and again failed to punch any of his touches into the end zone. If he doesn’t step it up in the near future for the Badgers offense, he’s going to find himself out of the race entirely.