The 2015 Heisman race is officially in its third week. Continuing our traditional weekly feature on Heisman.com, we’ve rounded up the latest news and updates from around the media world to help keep you posted on what’s happening with current contenders and past winners.
(Disclaimer — The Heisman Trophy Trust and Heisman.com does not endorse any college football player for the Heisman Memorial Trophy. The information contained here serves as a platform of information for fans and media, and is not intended to contain a definitive and comprehensive list of possible contenders.)
The Buzz…
Heisman Watch watch
LSU running back Leonard Fournette is getting all kinds of praise after his 228-yard, 3-touchdown performance against Auburn. The sophomore leads the nation in rushing after three games. Accordingly, the USA Today has Fournette on top of its Heisman list, as does Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, Fox Sports and The Washington Post.
There’s plenty of buzz about other candidates as well: The Oklahomanspeculates on how Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield could enter the Heisman conversation … Bleacher Report is talking up UCLA running back Paul Perkins … TCU’s Trevone Boykin, who finished fourth in last year’s Heisman vote, accounted for six touchdowns and 504 yards of total offense against SMU … Georgia’s Nick Chubb is second in Stew Mandel’s Heisman watch.
Heisman vs. Heisman (again)
Week two of the NFL season saw yet another Heisman vs. Heisman quarterback matchup as 2012 trophy winner Johnny Manziel took on the 2014 winner Marcus Mariota. While Mariota got the best of 2013 winner Jameis Winston last week, it was Manziel who came out on top this time around as Cleveland beat Tennesse, 28-14. Manziel was 8 of 15 for 172 yards and two touchdowns while Mariota was 21 of 37 for 257 yards and two scores.
Lest we forget another Heisman vs. Heisman matchup, Winston led the Buccaneers to a 26-19 victory over New Orleand and 2009 Heisman winner Mark Ingram. Winston was 14 of 21 for 207 yards and one touchdown while also adding 23 yards and one score on the ground. Ingram ran for 53 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries.
More former Heisman performances
* Carson Palmer, the 2002 winner from USC, is off to a hot start for the Arizona Cardinals. He went 17 of 25 for 185 yards and four touchdowns as Arizona beat Chicago, 48-23. He has seven touchdown passes so far this season and has not been sacked. Oh, he’s also won 15 of the last 17 games that he’s started.
* Cam Newton, the 2010 winner from Auburn, threw for 195 yards and two scores and also added 76 yards rushing and a touchdown on 10 carries as the Panthers downed the Texans, 24-17.
* Charles Woodson, the 1997 winner out of Michigan, had four tackles as the Raiders beat Baltimore, 37-33.
* Sam Bradford, the 2008 winner from Oklahoma, had a rough outing against the Cowboys, throwing for 224 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions in Philadelphia’s 20-10 loss.
Odds and Ends
The governor of Texas wants the Dallas Cowboys to sign 2007 Heisman winner Tim Tebow following the loss of quarterback Tony Romo for the season due to injury … Other rumors have Tebow landing with the Bears, where starter Jay Cutler also got hurt, and 2011 Heisman winner Robert Griffin III maybe landing in Dallas … A central Louisiana Nissan dealership hosted the Heisman for a couple days last week … Check out this profile of Tim Brown by Lancaster Online … And this interview of Archie Griffin by SBNation, where Archie says this regarding the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry:
The rivalry means the world to me, as a matter of fact. During the time that I played that was the Bo and Woody era, and that made it even more special because not only did you have two teams that were gonna compete extremely hard against each other but you had two coaches that were more competitive, you might say, and that just added something to the rivalry. When I played at Ohio State we practiced all year long to play Michigan. Our first day of practice every week was geared towards Michigan. The game meant that much to us, it meant that much to our coaches, so we felt that all year long we had to practice for Michigan. Spring practice was geared towards Michigan, first day of practice every week during the regular season was geared towards Michigan because we wanted to win that football game, it was just that important.
Hurricane’s Comin’, huh?
