Travis Hunter deserves the Heisman

I was recently listening to an episode of my favorite podcast, Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take, and one of the hosts brought up a good point — going by the letter of the law for Heisman Trophy voting, Travis Hunter should be the unanimous winner.

He won’t get it, though. Some SEC quarterback, like Jalen Milroe, or even Miami’s Cam Ward will have a couple good games and jump to the top of the voters’ minds, securing yet another Heisman for QBs. And I didn’t even mention Ashton Jeanty, who is currently the betting favorite at +225 odds to win it. He’s a case in-and-of himself, with a rushing campaign that could see some big records absolutely shattered.

The same issues I have with the baseball HoF and their voting, I have with the Heisman committee. They are easily influenced and are often struck by recency bias. The SEC and quarterbacks are always at the top of their mind instead of who it truly should be: the best player in all of college football. Five of the top six finalists for the trophy last year were quarterbacks, with Marvin Harrison, Jr. being the lone wide receiver. Seven total QBs made the top 10, plus three running backs. In fact, 19 of the recipients since 2000 have been quarterbacks.

Also to note, out of the 24 total that have received it in this century, 10 have been from the SEC, including four of the last five — I’m not counting Baker Mayfield or Kyler Murray, because Oklahoma was still in the Big 12 when they won it. Six of those 10 SEC Heisman recipients have been quarterbacks. The next closest conference, in terms of how many Heisman winners they’ve had this century, is a tie between the ACC and the once-defunct-now-rejuvenated PAC-12, with four apiece.

You can surely tell by now, that the Heisman is repetitive in nature, often selecting a QB from the southeastern portion of the country, who I would argue was a product of his environment — not often do we see SEC quarterbacks succeed in the NFL, but we surely hear about wide receivers, running backs, defensive backs, and linemen. I’m fairly confident that I could waddle myself into an Alabama backfield, take the snap, and hit my wide-open NFL-caliber receiver on a five-yard slant that he takes 80 yards for the score. And if I was somehow intercepted, I’m one hundred percent confident that my NFL-caliber defense could stop the opponents from scoring, and you could crown me a national champion. Do you get what I’m saying here?

The Heisman Trophy’s official website lists the recipient as the “most outstanding college football player”, which I don’t believe to be factually correct, especially as of late. The biggest example of this is the fact that no defensive player has won it since Charles Woodson did so in 1997. Even rarer is the lineman recipient — the last one was Notre Dame’s Leon Hart in 1949. That one is a bit more excusable, albeit not really in today’s game. Today’s highly-analytical game, where we can see statistics in real-time during the broadcast, is now able to track lineman stats. You’re telling me that there were people in the game of college football that were better than Orlando Pace? Prove it, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Pace would go on to change the game for linemen, and I’m not just saying that as a Buckeye fan.

Ndamukong Suh’s 20.5 tackles-for-loss and 12 sacks in 2009 weren’t a better campaign — for the “most outstanding college football player” — than Mark Ingram’s 1,542 rushing yards, 15 rushing touchdowns, 322 receiving yards, and three receiving touchdowns? Ingram was fourth in rushing yards, not even top-20 in rushing yards per attempt, and tied for 11th in rushing touchdowns — the leader, Toby Gerhart, had 11 more than him. Statistically, Gerhart is was the best running back, not Ingram. Which exposes the flaws in the voting.

As it sits, Colorado’s Travis Hunter is ninth in receiving. He has 46 receptions for 561 yards, giving him an average of 12.2 yards and six touchdowns. But this isn’t just about his receiving skills. Hunter plays both sides of the ball — something that is rarely seen at the higher echelons of football. We see it a lot in high school, which has a much smaller talent pool and thus a smaller roster. In college, the talent pool is much deeper, and the rosters have a maxium size, instead of a minimum. He currently has 15 total tackles, three pass deflections, a forced fumbled, and two interceptions.

He has played 300 snaps on offense and 320 on defense through the first five weeks. With a total of 620 snaps, he averages 124 per game. That is absolutely insane. He also plays a mile above sea level — far from his hometown in Florida, or where he played high school football in Georgia. As someone who lived in Colo. for three years, it’s a night-and-day difference than somewhere close to sea level.

So, before the Heisman voters rush to give it to Jalen Milroe or Cam Ward, they need to think about what it’s supposed to represent. I think that Ashton Jeanty ultimately wins it, because of the insane numbers he’s putting up, but if he gets hurt or tails off — which I truly hope doesn’t happen — Hunter should be the unanimous Heisman recipient.