Plenty of players shined during the first week of college football. Who is leading in the race for the Heisman Trophy for 2019?
It’s never too early to talk about the Heisman Trophy. We are just one week into the college football season, but we already have plenty of players making names for themselves. Who is in the top five of the Heisman watch?
To be clear: this list takes into account both the hype and the play from Week 1. This is not just a list of the five best performances in the first week of college football. With that being said? Who made the cut?
Honorable mentions
Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State
Fields is a great quarterback, and he looks as if he will have a great year at Ohio State. There are two reasons I’m not putting him in the top five, though. He was going against a very bad defense, and he also couldn’t sustain the success he had in the first quarter. I’m not saying he has to average four touchdowns in a quarter, I’d rather him play well for the whole game than play great for a quarter and average for the rest of it.
Jacob Eason, QB, Washington
The other former Georgia quarterback had himself a day as well for the Washington Huskies. I don’t see a Pac-12 quarterback winning the Heisman Trophy with only one season of success just because of the bias against West coast teams, but Eason will likely have the stats and success to at least earn some votes.
Adrian Martinez, QB, Nebraska
Adrian Martinez did not play well enough to deserve being a part of the Heisman discussion. However, many analysts had him as a sleeper candidate to win the trophy in 2019. You can’t just ignore that hype over one game. If he plays that bad for another game, he can be firmly out of the race. However, his team still won, and he has the potential to win the Big Ten.