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Top 5 Heisman Trophy Candidates to Watch in 2024
By Pete Fiutak,
9 hours ago
A quarterback will win the 2024 Heisman Trophy.
It took a global pandemic everything-is-weird year of 2020 for another position - DeVonta Smith - to take home the best individual trophy in sports for the first time since Derrick Henry did it in 2015.
Now that Reggie Bush is a Heisman winner again (ha! … he never wasn’t) 15 of the last 18 and 19 of the last 22 winners have been a quarterback.
Put up gigantic numbers for a top team in the national title hunt, and come up with a few big moments along the way. That’s how you win the Heisman, or do something with such flash - like Jayden Daniels did last season - to be too good to ignore.
With all of that in mind, here’s the preseason call on five players who’ll make a ton of noise in the 2024 Heisman trophy race.
Oct 21, 2023; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe (4) celebrates with fans after the Crimson Tide defeated Tennessee 34-20 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Why Riley Leonard Will Win the Heisman Trophy: Do you have the opportunities to shine when the light is brightest? Leonard starts the season against Texas A&M, will have a huge showdown against Florida State to deal with, and closes at USC. If Notre Dame is 11-1 - at least - and is a lock for the College Football Playoff, he should be one of the main reasons.
Why Riley Leonard Won’t Win the Heisman Trophy: The numbers probably won’t be anything fantastic. Forget about last year when he was banged up and threw just three touchdown passes in seven games, he should shine in his new attack. The stats still won’t rock like they’ll need to.
What Will Happen: He’ll run well, ball out in a few big moments, and he should be in the mix into November. But again, the stats won’t be quite good enough. At +2000, though, he’s the best and most realistic of the crazy fliers.
Why Carson Beck Will Win the Heisman Trophy: He’ll be on everyone’s screen each week.
Georgia was missing a ton of big games last year with a relatively light SEC schedule. That’s not the case this year. Blow up against Clemson to kick things off, look great at Alabama, look better at Texas, beat Ole Miss on the road, take care of Tennessee in a shootout, knock out Florida at The Party, and win the SEC Championship … few quarterbacks will have a bigger spotlight.
Why Carson Beck Won’t Win the Heisman Trophy: The stats won’t be mesmerizing enough. He’ll get credit for a big season, and some voters will like him in a Best Player in College Football sort of way, but there won’t be anything numbers-wise to stand out enough.
What Will Happen: I’m not there when it comes to the Heisman. I can be sold that he’ll be a top ten overall pick with the right size, arm, and NFL tools, but being efficient and talented won’t be enough. He’ll be third on a lot of ballots as the leader of the No. 1 team in the nation.
Why Quinn Ewers Will Win the Heisman Trophy: At Michigan.
For this to work and to be in the Heisman mix, you need the name recognition - check. You need the stats - they’re coming. You need the big moments in the big games - possible. And you need to get everyone buzzing right away.
If Ewers does to Michigan in Week 2 what he did last year in the win over Alabama - 349 yards and three scores in the win, by the way - that sets the tone.
The wheels came off the Heisman train in the middle of the season when he missed a few games, but Oklahoma, Georgia, and Texas A&M are big enough moments to keep making splashes.
Why Quinn Ewers Won’t Win the Heisman Trophy: Again with the stats. They’ll be good, but will he have the giant numbers to blow away a field of elite quarterbacks also in the mix?
What Will Happen: All it takes is one bad day against a fantastic Georgia defense, or a misfire against someone like Florida, and this all crashes. To keep saying the same thing, he’ll have the opportunities, and he has the offense to explode. There are too many landmines, though, to pull this off.
Why Dillon Gabriel Will Win the Heisman Trophy: It won’t exactly take the nation by storm, but there’s a real shot that he closes his season as the NCAA’s all-time leading passer.
The Oregon system should get him the Bo Nix-type of stats and attention. Unlike others on this list, the passing numbers to win the Heisman won’t be a problem. If he’s awesome when Ohio State comes to down on October 12th, he’ll be the front-runner.
Why Dillon Gabriel Won’t Win the Heisman Trophy: Ohio State’s defense is built to keep quarterbacks from becoming Heisman front-runners.
In a strange way considering it’s Oregon and it’s in the Big Ten, it’ll be off the grid a wee bit - there aren’t a ton of giant games everyone will pay attention to. There can’t be a bad day in one of the big moments over the second half of the season because …
What Will Happen: The lifetime achievement award stats will be enough to get everyone excited, but to win the Heisman has has to be terrific against loaded Buckeyes, win at Michigan, at Wisconsin, and take down Washington over the last seven games.
That won’t happen, and he won’t have Nix’s stats, either. He’ll still be deep in the hunt for a finalist spot behind …
Why Jalen Milroe Will Win the Heisman Trophy: I couldn’t convince anyone of this last year because everyone was so mesmerized by the Jayden Daniels stats - helped in a big way out of necessity thanks to a non-existent defense.
Who had the biggest play of the season? Milroe against Auburn.
Who led the way to the best win of the season? Milroe in the SEC Championship over Georgia.
Who was actually better of the two quarterbacks in the win over LSU? That’s even, but Daniels didn’t have moments that mattered like Milroe did.
4 was the signature player of the 2023 season, but … yeah, Daniels was amazing. This year, though, Milroe has the Kalen DeBoer offense to run, and if he’s anything like Michael Penix Jr. was under the head man over the last two years at Washington, look out.
Why Won’t Win the Heisman Trophy: This might not exactly be the Washington high-flying attack of the last two seasons. Milroe’s stats might be stronger than his 2023 version, but he won’t have to keep bombing thanks to a great defense and nasty ground game to help the cause.
What Will Happen: Can Milroe be consistent? The 2023 Heisman argument falls a tad flat considering he struggled early, but can he be great at Wisconsin? Can he shine against Georgia, and at Tennessee, and against Missouri, and on the road at LSU and Oklahoma, and …
If he can be as magical as he was over the second half of last season, and have bigger stats as a thrilling downfield bomber, at +1400 he’s the reasonable shot at the stars.
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