Ohio State Football: 5 reasons J.K. Dobbins will win 2018 Heisman Trophy
By Phil Poling
College football’s most coveted individual award is the Heisman Trophy and Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins is ready to add his name to the conversation.
Like many freshmen under head coach Urban Meyer, J.K. Dobbins got an opportunity. He took full advantage by recording the most rush yards by a Buckeye freshmen running back since Maurice Clarett’s 2002 season. He led the Buckeyes to the BCS National Championship over Miami that season — with a little help from the officials — but I digress.
Will Dobbins duplicate his freshmen season? Or can he take that next step as a sophomore? Mike Weber’s still in Columbus so there’ll be competition, but the quarterback room won’t include J.T. Barrett for the first time since 2013. How will that affect the program?
Dobbins, much like Barrett was, is on every Heisman watch-list’s top-eight or so, but how much of that is Ohio State simply not having a seasoned quarterback? The Buckeyes are a popular team with talented players, somebody’s getting those votes.
The Buckeyes have produced six Heisman Trophy winners, but none since 2006. The list of those winners is as follows.
- Les Horvath (1944)
- Vic Janowicz (1950)
- Howard Cassady (1955)
- Archie Griffin, twice (1974, 1975)
- Eddie George (1995)
- Troy Smith (2006)
What will get Dobbins on the above list of Buckeyes? I’ll lay out five reasons that give him the best opportunity to do so. His first advantage? Urban Meyer.