Dwayne Haskins: The forgotten Heisman Trophy finalist

All the Heisman talk has been about Tua Tagovailoa and Kyler Murray, but don’t forget about the record-breaking season by Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins.

Tua this. Kyler that. But don’t sleep on the season turned in by Dwayne Haskins who has numbers that would win the Heisman in any other year.

The Heisman has been whittled down to a two-person race with Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray. The two will meet in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 29 in the College Football Playoff semifinal, but they’ll go toe-to-toe for the Heisman.

But there are three finalists at the Heisman ceremony and one of them has been constantly forgotten about.

The seasons from Tagovailoa and Murray have been spectacular and they are incredibly worthy of being finalists, but it’s been a shame that Haskins hasn’t received the same spotlight to reflect on his record-breaking campaign this year at Ohio State.

Haskins had the greatest season any Ohio State quarterback ever had after leading the nation with 4.580 yards and 47 touchdowns. Both are Big Ten single-season records, shattering the mark by Purdue quarterbacks, Curtis Painter and Drew Brees, respectively. He also broke former Michigan quarterback, Denard Robinson’s total yards record. In short, Haskins had an unprecedented season that raised the bar for quarterback excellence in the Big Ten.

Anytime you can break a touchdown record held by Brees, you had a helluva season that deserves more than being shoved under the rug to talk about Tagovailoa and Murray some more.

Haskins was named the Big Ten player of the week a record six times, meaning he was the best player in the conference for half the year. By comparison, his predecessor at Ohio State, J.T. Barrett, was named the Big Ten player of the week nine times in his four-year career.

He was not your traditional Ohio State or Urban Meyer quarterback, however, as Haskins revolutionized the Buckeyes. Ohio State had no choice but to adopt more of an air raid philosophy to take advantage of Haskins’ emerging skill set that could make him the top quarterback taken in the 2019 NFL Draft. Haskins, a redshirt sophomore, gave a small hint about what’s in store for his future with a tweet on the morning of the Heisman ceremony.

Haskins was able to bring a downfield passing threat to the offense that wasn’t there with Barrett and was last seen for a brief time when Cardale Jones was the quarterback. His play took off with offensive coordinator Ryan Day dialing up the perfect game plan every week that took advantage of Haskins’ ability to drop 40-yard bombs in the waiting hands of his wide receivers.

No more were there horizontal routes run near the line of scrimmage that had been commonplace. They were replaced with big strikes down the field that changed the complexion of games in a flash. The best example came during Ohio State’s 62-point outburst against the then-No. 1 defense when they embarrassed rival Michigan to advance to the Big Ten Championship Game.

Haskins played his best football in the clutch. His last three games saw him throw for 1,300 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also added three rushing scores in the one-point win vs. Maryland to keep their Big Ten title hopes alive. In the Big Ten Championship, he threw for a jaw-dropping 499 yards vs. Northwestern.

And it feels like it’s all been forgotten because of the attention paid to Tagovailoa and Murray.

The Heisman is a three-man race with Haskins firmly entrenched in that picture. Unfortunately, it feels like he’s Marty McFly in Back to the Future and he’s been erased from that picture because all anyone wants to talk about is the Tua vs. Kyler debate.

It’s a great debate. Both are worthy of winning, but so, too, is Haskins who likely would have won the Heisman in any other year.