Heisman ballot: Why Alabama’s Bryce Young had the edge in this voter’s mind
The Heisman Trophy’s voting criterion is simple: Select college football’s most outstanding player.
For the 2021 season, according to yours truly, that player was Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, who won the Heisman on Saturday night.
Voting for Young wasn’t reached until after the conference championship games last weekend. It was a toss-up going into those games with the idea that a defensive player such as Alabama’s Will Anderson or Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson would emerge as the top player on my ballot.
But, as I texted a friend that day, “Unless Young goes off today vs. UGA.”
Well, Young did just that against a top-notch Georgia defense and made my decision easy. Young threw for 421 yards and three touchdowns, leading the Crimson Tide to a 41-24 victory over the Bulldogs.
The victory propelled Alabama to the top-seed in the College Football Playoff, where it’ll face No. 4 Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
For Young, it put a stamp on his Heisman-worthy season. This is a guy who threw for 4,322 yards with 43 touchdowns to only four interceptions. He completed 68% of his passes (315 of 463) and also rushed for three TDs. The 43 TD passes are more than 2018 winner Kyler Murray of Oklahoma and the same number as 2017 winner Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma. His interception total is less than Murray, Mayfield and 2019 winner Joe Burrow.
Young, who won the Fort Worth-based Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top quarterback earlier this week, ranks second in both passing touchdowns (43) and total quarterback rating (88.9) in the country. He’s third in points responsible for (284) and fourth in passing yards (4,322). His 559 yards passing against Arkansas on Nov. 20 set a school record.
Alabama is the NCAA’s fourth-best scoring offense, averaging 42.5 points, and sixth in total offense, averaging 495.5 yards.
In other words, Young earned his way into the exclusive Heisman fraternity.
Nos. 2 and 3 on my ballot went to Hutchinson and Anderson. Hutchinson finished second in the voting with Anderson just missing the cut for “finalist” honors by finishing fifth. Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett finished third, while Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud was fourth.
I debated which defender deserved the No. 2 ranking, and solid cases could be made for both. But Hutchinson graded out higher by evaluators I reached out to, which tipped the scales in his favor.
Those were the three players who appeared on my ballot. If the ballot allowed up to five players, the other two would have been Michigan State running back Kenneth Walker III and Stroud.
Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis was a trendy candidate, and understandably so, but Hutchinson and Anderson were more impact players on the defensive side for their respective teams in my view. Georgia rotates its defensive tackles often, which means Davis plays limited snaps compared to the others.
In years where there are two clear contenders — for instance in 2018 it was between Murray and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa — yours truly may use the third-place vote on a player such as Davis. Or, if it was a two-horse race this year, Iowa State running back Breece Hall would have landed on the ballot. Quite simply, Hall was the best player I saw in person this season.
But that wasn’t the case. Young became the clear favorite after the SEC championship, but it felt like defensive players such as Hutchinson and Anderson deserved recognition.
It is surprising that Anderson didn’t make the “finalist” category given his season, but I’d push back on the notion that voters aren’t ready to give the award to a defensive player. After all, people felt the same way about wide receivers being overlooked until DeVonta Smith won the 2020 award and became the first wide receiver to win it since Desmond Howard in 1991.
A defensive player will eventually win the award again, but it’s difficult to ignore a great quarterback season. That is the most important position on the field, and Alabama isn’t the top-ranked team without Young. That’s why he became the 18th quarterback to win the award this century.
Editor’s note: The Star-Telegram’s Drew Davison has voted for the Heisman Trophy since 2018.
This story was originally published December 11, 2021 at 7:58 PM.
