A 5-step roadmap for how Ed Oliver wins the 2018 Heisman Trophy

It will always be tough for a Group of Five player to factor into the Heisman race. Here’s what it would take for Houston football‘s Ed Oliver to win the award in 2018.

Group of Five stars have an uphill battle to earn consideration in the Heisman Trophy race. Defensive players also face a steep handicap in trying to win the most coveted individual trophy in college football. For a Group of Five defensive player, any consideration at all would require a truly transcendent season.

If anyone can pull off such a season, though, it is Ed Oliver. The five-star defensive tackle with the Houston Cougars has been hyped as a star since his high school days. In opting to stay close to home and attend Houston, Oliver helped keep the Cougars in position to remain a perennial threat for a New Year’s Six spot.

What would it take to push Oliver over the top into the stratosphere of contenders? What would it take for him to join Andre Ware as the second Heisman winner from the University of Houston? As a defensive tackle, it would probably take a season even more dominant than the one posted by former Nebraska star Ndamukong Suh in 2009. That year Suh finished fourth despite playing for a Big 12 division winner, so a Group of Five player will have an even tougher test.

Just as there are with any Group of Five candidate for a Heisman bid, there are plenty of obstacles standing in Oliver’s way of the Heisman. So let’s keep Suh’s failed Heisman shot in mind as we investigate what it would take to get the disruptive Houston defensive lineman to the top of the ballots in 2018.