5 reasons Kyler Murray should win the Heisman Trophy
By Ethan Lee
Kyler Murray is more efficient and has produced more yards and touchdowns than Tua Tagovailoa
When comparing Heisman candidates, one should certainly take a gander at stats. This is especially important when one could take a look and compare apples to apples, as one can do here. Tua Tagovailoa and Murray are both quarterbacks and are likely going to be the top two finishers in the Heisman voting. And Murray has been more productive and more efficient between the two.
Looking at raw stats first, Murray has 700 more passing yards, three more passing touchdowns, 702 more rushing yards and six more rushing touchdowns than Tagovailoa. In total, Murray has been more productive than his counterpart at Alabama.
It’d be easy to dismiss some of that difference between the two by saying that Murray simply has more passes and has run the ball more times. Some will likely say that Tagovailoa has done more even though he is not as much of a centerpiece in Alabama’s offense in the way that Murray is as instrumental in Oklahoma’s offense.
And that’s a fair criticism of those stats alone. But, looking at some others and adding greater context to the situations helps push things even more in Murray’s favor.
First, looking at the rushing stats situation, it’s not as if Murray is the only one running the ball at Oklahoma, he’s actually third on his team when it comes to running the ball. Murray isn’t as much of a focal point in that aspect of Oklahoma’s offense as some would like to say. Kennedy Brooks and Trey Sermon each have more yards than Murray and the two running backs combine to run for 1,949 yards and 24 touchdowns on 268 carries. It could certainly be argued that the two, to some extent, took carries away from Murray.
And it’s not as if that production from Sermon and Brooks isn’t rivaled by Alabama’s running backs. It shouldn’t be said that Murray had more help on offense than Tagovailoa did. Damien Harris, Najee Harris and Josh Jacobs have combined for 1,945 yards and 22 touchdowns on 322 carries.
Secondly, looking at Tagovailoa’s and Murray’s passing numbers again, Murray bests Tagovailoa in several key categories. Tagovailoa has a PER of 202.3 while Murray has a PER of 205.7. Tagovailoa is getting 11.4 passing yards per attempt and 13.3 adjusted passing yards per attempt. Murray is getting 11.9 and 13.3 respectively.