FAU Football: 5-step roadmap for how Devin Singletary wins the 2018 Heisman Trophy

1. Singletary needs to lead FAU to a C-USA title and New Year’s Six berth

For any Group of Five player hoping to win a Heisman Trophy, it is critical that his team has a strong season. When Ty Detmer won his Heisman in 1990, for instance, he led BYU to a 10-2 regular season and another WAC title. All of Detmer’s big numbers were bolstered by his leadership of the top offense in the regular season.

If Singletary puts up another season filled with big numbers, it is inevitable that the Owls will take the C-USA East title and earn another chance to host the conference championship game. Once there, Florida Atlantic will need to roll up a blowout on the participant from the West. And Singletary will need to be the catalyst for that blowout.

Detmer’s Cougars earned a spot in the Holiday Bowl. But at that point in college football history, the Bowl Alliance and Bowl Coalition hadn’t even come into existence. The BCS was eight years from its inception. And the College Football Playoff was still two dozen years off in the future. The increased access to major bowl games means that mid-major Heisman hopefuls are likely only going to emerge from teams in the running for a New Year’s Six spot.

FAU will be a longshot to snatch that berth, especially with UCF and Boise State both featuring their own Heisman contenders and even better shots at running the table in 2018. Singletary will get a shot to overtake the Knights and end their FBS-leading winning streak, at least.

But even a perfect C-USA champion would have an uphill battle against the Mountain West winner. Singletary will have to have a transcendent season to earn FAU that elusive New Year’s Six berth, and that would be enough to push him over the top.