Heisman Trophy Watch 2015: Why these Top 15 contenders won’t win
Ezekiel Elliott is the third Heisman candidate from the defending national champions, and he’s the only one with a serious shot at winning, but that will all depend on Urban Meyer and how much he leans on the junior running back.
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Why Elliott won’t win it:
The Buckeyes ran the ball at all most a 2-to-1 ratio to passing it last season. While some of that was by necessity through changing quarterbacks twice in midstream, a lot of it has to do with Urban Meyer’s approach to playing in the Big Ten.
He wants to play SEC football and cram it down the throats of the opponents. That could be both good and bad for Elliott. Last season Elliott was by far the leading rusher in terms of carries, taking the ball in his gut 273 times. The closest to him in terms of carries was quarterback J.T. Barrett.
That’s a lot of mileage in just one season.
Meyer may turn to a rotation at quarterback this season, and to keep his backfield healthy, he’d probably like to do the same thing at running back. The problem is he doesn’t have the horses to do it. The only back who was given any number of carries last season other than Elliott was Curtis Samuel, and he got 15 of his 58 total carries against Kent State.
The Buckeyes don’t have much entering in as freshmen in the backfield either, with only 4-star Michael Weber coming in as someone who could possibly spell Elliott.
In the lineup of top running backs who have the potential to run out of gas in 2015, Elliott is by far the leading candidate.
Next: Top 15 Dark Horse Heisman Trophy Contenders
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