What Happened to the Mighty SEC's Heisman Candidates?
LSU running back Leonard Fournette has already missed two games with an ankle issue. Georgia running back Nick Chubb has had a similar problem in addition to coming off a major knee injury.
Like them, Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly has already lost two games, albeit against tough competition. Otherwise, most of the Southeastern Conference's best players this season are on the defensive side, which unfortunately all but eliminates them from consideration for college football's grandest award.
When it comes to this year's Heisman Trophy chase, the SEC is the visual equivalent of seeing tumbleweeds blow down an empty street. After five weeks of play, the league that has enjoyed five winners over the last nine years is notably and unusually absent.
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Only Tennessee senior quarterback Joshua Dobbs and Alabama true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts are listed on the latest leaderboard posted by Odds Shark, and not near the top.
In contrast, five weeks ago, Fournette wasn't just considered the SEC's best shot at winning the 2016 Heisman Trophy but the top overall challenger to Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, a finalist for the award last year. On August 30, Odds Shark listed them as co-favorites. Now no one is betting on Fournette.
| Deshaun Watson, Clemson | +350 | Lamar Jackson, Louisville | -250 |
| Leonard Fournette, LSU | +400 | Deshaun Watson, Clemson | +500 |
| Christian McCaffrey, Stanford | +500 | J.T. Barrett, Ohio State | +700 |
| J.T. Barrett, Ohio State | +1000 | Christian McCaffrey, Stanford | +1200 |
| Dalvin Cook, Florida State | +1200 | Greg Ward, Houston | +1600 |
| Chad Kelly, Ole Miss | +1200 | Dalvin Cook, Florida State | +2500 |
| Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma | +1200 | Josh Dobbs, Tennessee | +2500 |
| Nick Chubb, Georgia | +1400 | Jabrill Peppers, Michigan | +3300 |
| Josh Rosen, UCLA | +1600 | Mitch Trubisky, N. Carolina | +3300 |
| Royce Freeman, Oregon | +2000 | Jalen Hurts, Alabama | +6600 |
That's how the season has gone for most of the SEC players who were tabbed as early Heisman possibilities. While the field has already narrowed, with Watson, Louisville's Lamar Jackson and Ohio State's J.T. Barrett the clear front-runners, the league may not have any realistic contenders.
At running back, Fournette has 386 rushing yards in three games, but in his absence Derrius Guice has been impressive. He's averaging 8.7 yards per carry and has taken over the team lead with 402 yards.
"He's tough as nails. He runs the ball like Warren Sapp played defense, and he has an energy about him, and he has an attitude when he strikes you that he's wanting to go through you," LSU interim head coach Ed Orgeron said about Guice during his press conference Monday. "His ability to jump-cut, run to the left and jump-cut to the right is about the…one of the best I've seen. He has some Reggie Bush-like cuts."
Consequently, the chances that Fournette gets healthy enough to return and receives the necessary carries to contend seem slim at best. After all, he nearly topped 2,000 rushing yards and only finished sixth in last year's voting. The same can be said of Chubb, who is currently sixth in league rushing with 425 yards.
Among quarterbacks, the position most associated with the Heisman, the SEC has witnessed elaborate competitions, benchings and true freshmen taking over at name programs, including Georgia's Jacob Eason and Hurts.
They're still figuring things out, though. Mention the possibility of being Heisman-worthy someday and their coaches would snap at you, like Alabama coach Nick Saban did when a reporter asked what kind of issues sophomore running back Bo Scarbrough might be having while trying to follow in Derrick Henry's footsteps.
"I think you all create an expectation to people that there's no basis for," Saban said. "You do that for a lot of guys. It puts a lot of pressure on them, creates a lot of anxiety for them."
Nevertheless, consider the players who are currently leading the SEC in its most recognizable offensive categories. None of them were expected.
| Passing yards | Drew Lock | Missouri | 1,675 | 8 |
| Passer rating | Austin Allen | Arkansas | 167.69 | 15 |
| Rushing yards | Ralph Webb | Vanderbilt | 582 | T8 |
| Receiving yards | Evan Engram | Ole Miss | 479 | T17 |
It's certainly an odd year in the league, with 20 different quarterbacks having already made a start—including just Sean White for Auburn, even though he's split time with two others—and two of the four with 10-plus wins under their belt are now backups (Georgia's Greyson Lambert and LSU's Brandon Harris).
It lets critics claim that the league's quarterbacks aren't very good, while others believe this is more of a hiccup than anything.
"One of the things that's different is that defenses are very good in that league, and the type of defensive talent you face week in and week out is a little bit different for a quarterback," ESPN analyst Todd Blackledge said. "I think that has something to do with it, but overall it's cyclical.
"I don't think they do a bad job of developing quarterbacks. I think it might be a little more difficult to play week in and week out at that position."
A popular notion with the Heisman is that it often goes to the best player on the best team. Henry fit that description last year, and reigning champion Alabama still tops the polls. But even if the Crimson Tide stay at No. 1, they'll likely not have anyone in New York for the December ceremony.
Why? Because not even Saban knows who might end up being this team's best player. The candidates are numerous, including defensive end Jonathan Allen and linebacker Reuben Foster on the defensive side and wide receiver Calvin Ridley on offense.
Yet Ridley may not get the ball enough to be a viable candidate. After he had a career-high 11 receptions for 174 yards against Kentucky last week, Saban said: "We have a lot of other players we need to get involved in the passing game, we had some guys open out there, plays designed in which they should have gotten the ball and they would have made big plays. We didn't make them, we didn't make the throw and sometimes we didn't read it correctly."
Moreover, Alabama isn't featuring one running back like it did last year, although that was in part due to necessity. After Henry and Kenyan Drake departed for the NFL, there was no established veteran at the position.
Sophomore Damien Harris leads with 356 rushing yards, while true freshman Joshua Jacobs hit 100 against the Wildcats. Overall, four running backs and Hurts all have at least 100 rushing yards, as Alabama has accumulated 1,158 so far.
"Last year was very unique," Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said about Henry. "That was a very special player."
After having 90 carries in his final two games before voting, when he totaled 460 rushing yards against Auburn and Florida in the SEC Championship Game, Henry's name appeared on 86 percent of the Heisman ballots, the 10th-highest percentage in the award's history.
It was also the latest in a new trend where voters flock toward one person in particular. Among the top 12 players in highest percentage, eight have won since 2006—which was also the last time a senior claimed the award, Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith.
The one obvious exception to that was Alabama running back Mark Ingram Jr. in 2009, when he edged Stanford's Toby Gerhart by just 28 points (1,304 to 1,276). The league's other recent winners have been Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel and Henry, while the conference had previously seen just seven winners since 1935.
SEC fans have been a little spoiled of late, which makes sense considering the way the conference has been stockpiling national titles.
Perhaps Dobbs can stay in the Heisman hunt if the Volunteers can continue to pull off surprising wins, or possibly Kelly should the Rebels manage to run the table from here on out. Maybe Texas A&M defensive lineman Myles Garrett or quarterback Trevor Knight will make things interesting, or someone from Alabama may truly emerge.
Regardless, anyone from the SEC has to make the playoffs to have a shot.
A more likely scenario is that this season will be the first since 2005 that the conference doesn't have a Heisman finalist. Given the star power that exists in the league, that's certainly a surprise.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.
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