Heisman Watch 2017: 3 reasons why Baker Mayfield will take home award

Oklahoma football starting quarterback Baker Mayfield capped a record-setting season with a Big 12 title. Nobody else has a shot at winning the 2017 Heisman Trophy.

All season long, we have tracked the Heisman field. Contenders have climbed up the list, and others have fallen down the list of hopefuls. Many of the preseason favorites couldn’t put up the level of production that matched the hype, while other names emerged out of the woodwork to insert themselves into the discussion.

Saquon Barkley was either hot or cold, rising and falling with each week. Bryce Love made people forget about the loss of Christian McCaffrey at Stanford. Sam Darnold had a slow start to the season, but came on strong in the second half of the year as USC won its first conference championship since the Pac-10 days. And defending champion Lamar Jackson regularly posted video-game numbers but came up short in the ACC race.

One name that stood out all season long, though, was Baker Mayfield. The Oklahoma quarterback was a dark-horse candidate entering the season, and he lived up to the billing and then some. Playing for a new head coach after Bob Stoops stepped down and Lincoln Riley was promoted, Mayfield dominated throughout the course of the 2017 season.

Mayfield along with Louisville’s Lamar Jackson and Stanford’s Bryce Love have been named this season’s Heisman finalists. They too will be invited to the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan for the Heisman ceremony, but Jackson and Love will merely fill out the audience. Saturday night will be a night for crowning Mayfield, whose only question is how many first-place votes he will receive. Here are three reasons why nobody else can catch Mayfield for the Heisman this year.