In college football, there’s no greater individual honor than winning the Heisman Memorial Trophy. The award is designated to honor the most “outstanding” player in all of the country for that season. Voted on by 870 media members spanning each region of the country, 57 past Heisman winners, and one fan, 929 total people cast their ballots for the winner. The winner is selected after the regular season in a ceremony in New York City.

The Hesiman fraternity is firmly etched in college football lore. So much so, we’ve become accustomed to looking forward to the Nissan Heisman House commercials every year with past winners. While there’s little debate the award remains the top honor in the sport, there’s ongoing discourse about whether or not the award has become too quarterback skewed. We’ve all come to accept the fact that quarterbacks are the inherently the most admired players on any team. Most especially to the masses and causal viewer. We can debate all day whether that’s fair or not, but there’s no confusion about where we currently stand. Regardless, if we’re talking about strictly on field play, there’s almost always a positional player with a strong case for the award.

Then there’s the conversation that’s been spurned as of late that suggests we should wait until after the postseason to vote for an award that aims to crown the most outstanding player in the country. While in theory that notion may be unfair to players that do not play on the biggest of stages, there’s simply a level of popularity and team success needed to be considered. Since the year 2000, the Hesiman has only been given to two players that haven’t won at least 10 games and played in a New Years Six Bowl.

Those two players? Tim Tebow in 2007 when he racked up over 4200 yards & 55 touchdowns and Louisville’s Lamar Jackson in 2016 when he amassed over 5000 total yards & 50 touchdowns. As mentioned above, we know how much attention quarterbacks garner. In most cases rightfully so. Regardless, instead of doing the same old mundane Heisman predictions littered with QB’s, let’s take a look at the non-QB’s with that could have deserving years if the award held true to its definition of most outstanding player.

UGA TE Brock Bowers: 2022 Stats 63 rec 942 yards 7 TD’s 109 rush yards 3 rush TD’s

LSU LB Harold Perkins Jr: 2022 Stats 72 tackles 13 TFL’s 7.5 sacks 4 PBU’s 3 FF’s 1 INT

Alabama CB Kool-Aid McKinstry: 2022 Stats 35 tackles 15 PBU’s 2 TFL’s 1 INT 1 Sack

Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr: 2022 Stats 77 rec 1263 yards 14 TD’s

Penn State RB Nick Singelton: 2022 Stats 1061 rush yards 12 rush TD’s 1 rec TD

Best of The Rest:

FSU EDGE Jared Verse

Wisconsin RB Braelon Allen

Alabama EDGE Dallas Turner