Lamar Jackson's Ascent from Heisman Non-Factor to Potential Back-to-Back Winner

The first time we saw Lamar Jackson—Sept. 5, 2015, 15 months ago—it was hard to say what he was doing, really. Even he didn't know. He didn't realize we were going to be seeing him that day at all. Sure didn't think he'd be playing.

The only thing he knew was that he really didn't want to be tackled. Then he threw an interception on his first play.

So yes, there was panic involved.

"I choked a little bit," he told Bleacher Report.

Sure, maybe, but also, whatever it was that he was doing out there, he was very quickly doing it better than anyone else could.

"There was no rhyme or reason," said Rick Neuheisel, the former UCLA star quarterback who broadcast the Louisville-Auburn game that day for CBS. "But in the second half, he brought Louisville almost completely back sheerly by being an athlete. And you knew right there this was a very raw, very rare diamond."

Jackson won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, beating out three finalists from blue-blood programs—Jabrill Peppers of Michigan, and Baker Mayfield and Dede Westbrook of Oklahoma—along with Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, the preseason favorite whose team is in the College Football Playoff with a chance at its second straight title-game appearance.

In other words, Jackson beat the establishment, which makes this even more amazing.

Year	Pass Yds	TD-Int	Rush Yds	TD
2015	1,840	12-8	960	11
2016	3,390	30-9	1,538	21

Just like that, he went from no rhyme or reason to the best player in college football, producing 3,390 passing yards, 1,538 rushing yards and a combined 51 touchdowns.

"That's unheard of," Neuheisel said. "Especially where he came from."

Jackson is the face of college football. He brought Louisville into the national picture, finished rebuilding coach Bobby Petrino's name, leaped a tall Syracuse defender in a single bound, embarrassed Jimbo Fisher and Florida State and added some juice to a sport that needed it.

And he did it all in 378 days, from that first game of 2015 until that blowout of Florida State.

Jackson wasn't on any of those preseason Heisman watch lists that Watson dominated. Then, by the third game of the season, it was his to lose. That's unheard of. Third game of the year—before the stars of the nation's most watched programs had even had a chance to emerge yet.

It was over. And why?

Well, at Alabama, the parts are replaced, but the machine runs the same every year. Maybe the defense is a little stingier this year or the quarterback a little less reliable, but to most people, it looks the same. Ohio State is greatness no matter what's inside the package. Jackson was something different, a curiosity you had to keep your eyes on just to see where he might run next, other than into the end zone.

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Unlike anyone else in college football, he made a sport hold its breath.

Jackson hurdled Syracuse safety Cordell Hudson in the second game of the year and went from a no-name to the nation's curiosity. By the time he finished off Florida State, there was outright Lamarmania.

Michael Vick tweeted at the time:

The future. That's an interesting thing to think about with Jackson. Only one player, Ohio State's Archie Griffin, has won the Heisman Trophy in back-to-back years.

Jackson isn't eligible for the NFL draft yet and has to be the favorite going into next season.

"Sure, but remember: When you're the favorite, things don't always go well," Neuheisel said. "That's what happened to him in the middle of this year. As the season wore on, it became clear he was the story.

"When protection became an issue, which it did, it became his job to be able to save the day. And in trying to save the day all the time, sometimes you put yourself at risk, whether it's throwing the ball errantly down the field or losing it out of your hands while being sacked. That just happens."

Jackson did struggle late in the year, including throwing three interceptions and fumbling once in a loss to Kentucky.

When you've already amazed everyone, it's hard to keep topping that every week. Jackson's learning curve was a rush job, but even with the Heisman, there's a lot of learning to go.

"Coach Petrino's done a really good job with him," said Neuheisel, who has been the head coach at Colorado, Washington and UCLA. "In the spring game last year, Lamar ended up throwing [a whole lot of] passes, and I don't know that he ran once.

"I think Bobby Petrino realized he had a unique athlete at quarterback, but rather than short-cut it and and let Lamar's legs be the story and throw every now and then, I think he really wanted to develop him as a passer with the idea, No. 1, it would help the team and, No. 2, it would also help Lamar in his quest to become a quarterback beyond just Louisville."

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Neuheisel said that to get to the NFL, Jackson still needs to learn more about the "craft of being a quarterback," including anticipation, timing of his footwork and "how to be a metronome in terms of how to deliver the ball."

But it is all coming so fast.

Jackson, now a sophomore, said that in high school, at Boynton Beach in Florida, his team didn't even use a playbook. And when Petrino gave him Louisville's playbook, "It looked like foreign letters. I can't study this."

At one point, Louisville's coaches made Jackson come into the football office at 6 a.m. every day to study film of himself to see what he was doing, learn about blitzes and understand defenses. It was just Jackson, there alone (usually with McDonald's hash browns) trying to learn the craft.

Petrino put him in virtual reality goggles, where he could see a play and all the formations and how the defenses were moving, and rewind and watch it over and over to learn.

But even Petrino admitted that by the time Jackson arrived on campus—last year—he wasn't sure at first whether he could play quarterback or might need to move to some other position. He didn't even know if Jackson knew how to take a snap from under center, rather than in the shotgun.

By spring practices this year, that wasn't a question anymore, of course. But Petrino ran drills and blew the whistle to stop a play any time Jackson started to run. He wanted Jackson to win by passing.

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"We took away his legs," Petrino told Bleacher Report.

To think that was just months ago.

Meanwhile, Jackson was so nervous about speaking in front of the local media that Louisville enlisted the help of a Louisville TV person, Jackson said, to teach him how to deal with press conferences. And it was a big deal to him this summer when Petrino decided to take Jackson to ACC media days to represent the team in front of reporters.

And now on Saturday, there he was, comfortably getting the Heisman in the biggest spotlight.

For Jackson, it's all rhyme and reason now.

Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @gregcouch.