A Tall Task: Replacing A Heisman Winner

The first full slate of the 2024 college football season is upon us this weekend and among the highlights — maybe the biggest matchup on the docket — is USC against LSU on Sunday night in Las Vegas.

The Trojans and Tigers are set to tangle at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders.

In a town built on marquee names, both teams enter Sunday’s game in sin city having replaced two of the biggest stars in college football — namely USC’s 2022 Heisman winner Caleb Williams and LSU’s 2023 Heisman winner Jayden Daniels, the pair now in the NFL.

Their replacements are a pair of redshirt juniors in Trojan Miller Moss and and Tiger Garrett Nussmeier. Both signalcallers stepped in and led their respective teams to bowl-game victories to wrap the 2023 season and used the performances as springboards to win starting jobs this fall.

Neither QB is totally green. Nussmeier has appeared in 18 games and has completed 129-of-219 passes for 1,720 yards and 11 TDs. He earned MVP honors in LSU’s ReliaQuest Bowl win over Wisconsin after throwing for career bests of 395 yards, 31 completions and 3 TDs.

As for Moss, he has completed 66-for-92  passes for 914 yards with nine TDs. He was named the Holiday Bowl Offensive MVP after totaling 372 passing yards and six TDs. The half dozen scoring tosses were the most thrown in a Holiday Bowl, the most in a USC bowl game and also tied the Pac-12 Bowl Game passing TD record.

Neither begin the season as Heisman candidates, per se, but considering LSU and USC have produced three of the past five Heisman winners, if either QB gets off to a big start Sunday, don’t be shocked to see them rocket up the Heisman hopeful list.

Which leads to a natural question, how have recent Heisman replacements fared?

This week’s Heisman Trophy Podcast features an interview with Moss, who discusses the challenges of replacing Williams and what he’s doing to keep the task at hand manageable. The podcast also features an interview with the most recent player to replace a Heisman winner in second-year Alabama starter Jalen Milroe, who took over for 2021 winner Bryce Young in 2023.

Milroe turned in a strong season and finished with 3,365 yards of total offense with 35 TD passes and earned enough Heisman votes to finish sixth overall.

That’s saying something as he is one of just three players to finish in the Heisman voting top 10 after taking over for a Heisman winner in the past 15 years.

The biggest success story in filling the shoes of a Heisman winner is Kyler Murray, who backed up Baker Mayfield in 2017.

In 2018, Murray took over the job as Oklahoma’s QB1 to the tune of 4,054 passing yards and 40 TDs to go with another 892 rushing yards en route to winning the Sooners’ second straight Heisman.

A year later, Jalen Hurts took over for Murray after transferring from Alabama and had another huge year. He passed for 3,851 yards and 32 TDs while rushing for 1,298 yards and 20 more TDs, earning Heisman runner-up honors.

You’ve got to go back to 2010 to see another top 10 Heisman finisher among players who took over for Heisman winners. That was Alabama’s Trent Richardson, who, in spelling Derrick Henry, ran for 1,679 yards and 21 TDs, taking third in the Heisman balloting.

Prior to that, USC’s Matt Leinart was the last replacement to go on to win Heisman. He took over for 2002 winner Carson Palmer in 2003 and threw for 3,556 yards and 38 TDs, leading USC to a share of the national title and finished sixth in the 2003 Heisman vote.

In 2004, Leinart won it. Time will tell if Moss or Nussmeier will have a similar fate.

Click here for a full list of players who replaced Heisman winners.