Baylor WR Corey Coleman Deserves More Heisman Attention

Through the first half of the college football season, the recent quarterback dominance of the Heisman Trophy looked to be in huge jeopardy thanks to the standout play of several star running backs.

But the early Week 7 action showed it's beyond time for a certain wide receiver—Baylor's Corey Coleman—to be considered as a serious contender to pull the upset over the signal-callers.

Coleman recorded 10 receptions for 199 and three touchdowns Saturday in No. 2 Baylor's home rout of Big 12 foe West Virginia, which handed the Bears their only loss of 2014.

The junior wide receiver's three scores gave him an incredible 16 touchdowns for 2015, breaking the school's single-season record set by Kendall Wright in 2011. 

Wright set that record in 13 games. It took Coleman less than six full games to break it this season.

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Coleman's record-breaking performance Saturday against the Mountaineers was his best performance in a season filled with outstanding ones.

He's had at least 100 receiving yards and a touchdown in each of Baylor's six wins this season, and he's had multiple touchdowns in all but the season opener against FCS foe Lamar.

Opponent	Receptions	Yards	Average	Touchdowns
SMU	5	178	35.60	1
Lamar	6	182	30.33	4
Rice	6	100	16.67	3
Texas Tech	7	110	15.71	3
Kansas	7	108	15.43	2
West Virginia	10	199	19.90	3
TOTALS	41	877	21.39	16

Entering Saturday, Coleman had more receiving touchdowns than 103 FBS teams had passing touchdowns in 2015. With three scores against West Virginia, that number could rise after this weekend.

If he keeps up his current pace—almost three scores per game—Coleman would easily pass the FBS all-time record of 27 receiving touchdowns in a single season, which was set by Louisiana Tech's Troy Edwards in 1998.

Baylor is also guaranteed at least a 13th game this year thanks to its six-win record, and a spot in the national title game would give Coleman an extra chance to pad his touchdown totals even more.

And when he's not scoring touchdowns, Coleman is still making highlight-reel plays like this one.

It's going to take a special effort and maybe even some additional help for anyone to catch LSU running back Leonard Fournette, who is the runaway favorite to win the Heisman, according to Odds Shark.

But Coleman opened Week 7 with the ninth-best odds to take home the stiff-arming trophy. The way he's playing right now, he looks destined to be a finalist.

In fact, West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen thinks Coleman is even better than Fournette.

While Coleman might not pass the dominant Fournette in the race for the Heisman, he at least needs to be higher up in the conversation.

Last season, Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper was one of the final three in New York City for the Heisman ceremony.

And while Cooper played a much bigger role in Alabama's offense compared to Coleman's role in the point-a-minute Baylor attack—Cooper averaged close to nine receptions last season—Coleman already has as many touchdowns in six games as Cooper had in 14 a year ago.

Coleman is also averaging seven more yards per catch than Cooper had in 2014.

So while 2015 is looking more and more like the "Year of the Running Back," the top playmaker in the nation's top offense is already breaking school records less than halfway through the season—and he's on pace to have the best scoring season for a wide receiver in major college football history.

Forget Baylor's easier start to the 2015 season or the fact Coleman plays in Art Briles' big-play scheme.

Those record-breaking numbers alone are more than enough to push Coleman higher up in the Heisman conversation.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.