Heisman Trophy Watch 2017: Quarterbacks take center stage after Week 2

The Heisman Trophy has become a quarterbacks’ award in the modern era. Here are five passers that vaulted up the Heisman Watch in Week 2 action.

1991 marked the last year before the Bowl Coalition formed. The Coalition begat the Bowl Alliance, Bowl Championship Series, and now the College Football Playoff. As such, it serves as a logical demarcation point for the modern and pre-modern eras of college football history.

Between Jay Berwanger’s inaugural Heisman Trophy victory in 1935 and 1991, quarterbacks won 17 of the 57 Heisman awards over that period. Since 1992, however, the Heisman Trophy has largely become a quarterback-driven prize. Over the past 25 years, quarterbacks have won 17 of the Heismans.

For the first six decades of the award, quarterbacks were deemed the best player in college football around 30 percent of the time. Since the advent of the modern era in 1992, that percentage has crept up to 68 percent. We are at the point where a quarterback is named the top player in two out of every three seasons.

Thus it is dangerous these days to choose anything but a quarterback when watching the Heisman race unfold. That is especially true given the glut of passing talent found all around the country. Last week, Penn State running back Saquon Barkley led our Heisman Watch. This week, he doesn’t even appear among the top five.

Instead, look for one of these five quarterbacks to take over the Heisman race this week. Click ahead to read more in our Week 3 Heisman Watch.