Kyler Murray steals Heisman from Tua Tagovailoa in photo finish

It looked as if Tua Tagovailoa was the runaway 2018 Heisman Trophy winner, but Kyler Murray did enough at the finish line to edge out the Alabama star.

On Monday, the voters will cast their ballots for the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner before that player is announced on Saturday, Dec. 8 in New York City. However, coming into conference championship week, it had become clear that we were in a two-man race between Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray and Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

For much of the season, the latter seemed to be running away with the award. After all, he was the electric quarterback for an explosive offense leading the most dominant team in the country. And really, that didn’t look like it was going to change, no matter what Murray was able to do on a weekly basis — until it indeed started to change.

Starting in a win over Mississippi State, Tua opened the door a bit for someone to creep into the Heisman race at the top, and Murray stuck his toe in as the Alabama quarterback was both pedestrian and banged up in the win over the Bulldogs. Then, though Tagovailoa dominated against The Citadel and Auburn, Murray did more of the same and, perhaps, was even more impressive in his own efforts.

Essentially, there was a viable case for both players coming into conference championship week and any kind of lopsided showing for either could have entirely swung the race. As fate would have it, Kyler Murray took full advantage of the opportunity at hand in the Big 12 Championship Game while Tua Tagovailoa cracked in the SEC Championship Game.

It would feel cheap to hold Tua getting injured and having to leave the game as the only thing against him that would cost him the Heisman Trophy. However, the sophomore quarterback was downright bad against Georgia before that point. He threw two interceptions to just one touchdown, was 10-of-25 throwing the ball and those lackluster numbers don’t even give the full scope of how bad and reckless his play was to the eye test.

In fact, it was after Tagovailoa was pulled from the game due to injury and replaced by Jalen Hurts that Alabama was able to mount their comeback and topple the Bulldogs in come-from-behind fashion for the second-straight time. That, in itself, damaged Tua’s case. But then Murray had already submitted his performance, and that made Tagovailoa’s candidacy look that much worse.

Facing rival Texas for the second time this season, Murray was masterful in the Sooners’ win. Though Oklahoma was rusty to start and fell behind, the junior quarterback was as poised as ever and led his team back with a dominant performance. By game-s end, Murray was 25-of-34 for 379 yards, three touchdowns, no turnovers and had added 39 rushing yards to his total as he led his team to the conference title and avenged their only loss in the regular season.

Entering this final week before the Heisman voting, the argument could’ve been made for either Kyler Murray or Tua Tagovailoa to win the most prestigious individual award in college football. Murray had the edge statistically, but the dominance of Tagovailoa and the narrative aspect seemed on his side. After this final week, however, it seems like it’s all falling the way of the Sooners quarterback.

Perhaps the voters won’t all see it this way, but after the conference championship games, Kyler Murray did the unthinkable and took the Heisman Trophy right from under Tua Tagovailoa.