Leonard Fournette continues to dominate the college football landscape and has even elicited talk of sitting out a year in order to preserve his health for when he is eligible for the NFL draft. Trevone Boykin continues to impress all college football fans as last Saturday TCU had a last-minute win against Texas Tech. We have the top five Heisman candidates listed below with one change from last week:
5. Paul Perkins / UCLA / RB: Perkins is in the top five, for now. Although, Perkins rushed for three touchdowns against the Arizona Wildcats, he was held to just 3.5 yards per rush. It wasn’t a stellar week for Perkins but he did enough to stay in the top five. On the season, Perkins has rushed for 514 yards (6.3 yards per carry) and six touchdowns. UCLA has the week off but will have two tough Pac-12 games against Stanford and Cal in back-to-back weeks.
4. Jared Goff / Cal / QB: As far as accuracy is concerned, Goff had a terrible game against Washington. He was just 24-of-40 but managed to throw for 342 yards and two touchdowns. One of the concerns for Goff is his penchant for throwing interceptions a la Jay Cutler. He has thrown one interception in three of four games this season.
However, he still has a 69.2 percent completion percentage with 1,240 passing yards. Cal will face off against Washington State this week followed by a tough three game stretch; Utah, UCLA, Southern Cal. These three games will make or break Goff in the Heisman standings.
3. Nick Chubb / Georgia / RB: Chubb has dropped one spot this week and it’s mostly due to the player that is above him and not necessarily Chubb himself. Chubb and the Bulldogs played a weak Southern team and he got minimal playing time. He ran the ball 15 times for an impressive 131 yards (8.7 YPC) and two touchdowns. Chubb also showed that he may have the ability to be a threat out of the backfield in the pass game with one 24-yard reception for a touchdown.
The Bulldogs and Chubb have, what I am calling, a season defining game against the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs are two teams that are trying to show that they belong. I believe Chubb is trying to show that he is on Leonard Fournette’s level. This is the game for the Bulldogs and Chubb to prove themselves.
2. Trevone Boykin / TCU / QB: Yes, Trevone Boykin was the recipient of a miraculous touchdown catch that kept the Horned Frogs undefeated. But, sometimes luck is what you need. Boykin had a spectacular game against the Red Raiders in a 55-52 win for TCU. He threw for his second consecutive 450+ yard passing game of the season along with four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Boykin has video game numbers on the season; 1,470 yards, 14 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. These numbers should increase dramatically when TCU faces off against a struggling Texas Longhorn team.
1. Leonard Fournette / LSU / RB: At some point this season, there won’t be much to write when it comes to Fournette because everybody will have seen his highlights. In LSU’s win against Syracuse, Fournette ran for 244 yards and two touchdowns on just 15 attempts. That computes to an amazing 9.4 yards per carry.
As I mentioned earlier, there has been talk about Fournette sitting out next year until he is draft eligible. That would be a terrible idea for him and I believe he realizes that. If you have not watched a LSU game, do it – just for the mere fact that when Fournette gets the ball in his hands, he will run over an entire defense.
Honestly, Fournette is running away with the Heisman. The only way I see him not winning it is if he suffers a season ending injury and Boykin leads his team to a National Championship. But, Fournette is such a strong young man who no defender in this country can hit him hard enough to injure him.
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