Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon's Insane 408-Yard Game Makes RB Heisman Front-Runner

Entering this weekend, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota was the Heisman Trophy front-runner, and justifiably so. The Ducks junior is enjoying an excellent season for the College Football Playoff contender: 29 touchdown passes, two interceptions and 2,780 passing yards.

But while Mariota enjoyed a well-deserved off day Saturday, another candidate surged past him in snowy Madison, Wisconsin.

Following the best single-game rushing performance in NCAA history, Wisconsin junior tailback Melvin Gordon is the Heisman Trophy front-runner. Against a solid Nebraska defense, Gordon carried 25 times for 408 yards and four touchdowns, breaking former TCU tailback LaDainian Tomlinson’s FBS single-game rushing record of 406 yards and keying the Badgers’ 59-24 demolition.

It was the most impressive effort by any player in college football this season, and it should put Gordon into pole position for the Heisman Trophy when it is awarded Dec. 13 in New York City.

Make no mistake: Gordon had been good this season. He entered Saturday with 1,501 yards and 19 touchdowns in nine full games. He’d rushed for at least 122 yards in all but one of those games, going over 200 yards three times (including a 13-carry, 253-yard, five-touchdown effort against Bowling Green).

But Saturday was Gordon’s magnum opus. Nebraska’s rushing defense had been solid this season (allowing 123.8 rushing yards per game, No. 19 nationally), but he ground it into dust, leaving flailing bodies and missed tackles in his wake.

He made all the runs. Gordon was good going up the middle. He was good going around the edges. And you’d better believe he was good streaking down the sidelines with Nebraska tacklers futilely chasing after him. He averaged 16.3 yards per carry.

Most impressive? He didn’t even carry the ball in the fourth quarter. With two regular-season games remaining, Gordon has 1,909 rushing yards and averages 8.6 yards per carry.

While Wisconsin is not a College Football Playoff contender following losses to LSU and Northwestern, the Badgers are a Top 20 team that will challenge for the Big Ten championship.

The Heisman qualifications say nothing about a player’s team and its overall success, or lack thereof. It is ultimately an individual award. As the qualifications read, it is awarded to “the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity." 

That certainly fits Gordon. That said, where would Wisconsin be without him? The Badgers have struggled to find consistency at quarterback this season, with neither Joel Stave nor Tanner McEvoy finding sustained success. Take Gordon away, and they’d be average at best.

Mariota has been a key for Oregon, but the Ducks also have an excellent running game featuring Royce Freeman, Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner as well as a passable defense. Take away Mariota, and the Ducks would at least win the Pac-12 North.

Mississippi State junior quarterback Dak Prescott has been touted as a prime Heisman candidate, but he struggled Saturday on his biggest stage at No. 5 Alabama. Prescott threw three interceptions and passed for 290 yards and two touchdowns in the No. 1 Bulldogs’ 25-20 defeat.

Gordon has been the nation’s most outstanding individual player this season. When he hoists the stiff-arm trophy in mid-December, Saturday’s effort will be a prime reason why.