Heisman debate: Making the case for Tua Tagovailoa and for Kyler Murray

The 2018 Heisman Trophy race is likely coming down to Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray, and both have a case to be the winner.

The 2018 college football regular season has come to a close, with only the conference championship games and bowl season remaining. And with that, the 2018 Heisman Trophy race, which has fluctuated relentlessly since the first week of the season, has finally started to take a clear shape as to who the viable candidates to hoist trophy in New York City are.

Though there have been a litany of fantastic individual performers throughout the 2018 college football season that deserve Heisman consideration, the final week of the year truly cemented one thing: This is a two-man race. The winner of the sport’s most prestigious individual award is almost surely going to be either Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa or Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray.

With all due respect to the likes of Will Grier and Dwayne Haskins, no two players have dominated the college football landscape quite like Tagovailoa and Murray. And yes, it certain doesn’t hurt — even with being an individual award, that their respective teams have a combined one loss on the season (that defeat belonging to the Sooners). Though team success isn’t the end-all in this argument, when the player is the catalyst behind that success, it has to be factored in.

For much of the season, it seemed as if Tua was going to run away with the award, but Murray has made a late push. Now, it’s not crazy to think that the Oklahoma quarterback and soon-to-be Oakland A’s prospect could take home the hardware. Then again, has Tagovailoa really done anything to have been overtaken in this race?

At this point, it’s difficult to decipher. So to try and make sense of it all, we’re going to have a great Heisman debate, presenting the case as to why each of Tua Tagovailoa and Kyler Murray should win the award.