Santa Fe New Mexican

Heisman race officially begins as Ohio State’s Fields in hunt

- By Ralph D. Russo

Now that Justin Fields has arrived, the Heisman Trophy race can begin. Though the front-runner might not be the quarterbac­k you think.

Fields made up some ground Saturday, with a spectacula­r season debut for No. 5 Ohio State against Nebraska.

He went 20 for 21 for 276 yards and a couple of touchdowns. His only incomplete pass was a deep ball that hit Chris Olave in the hands in the end zone, but the receiver couldn’t hold on after hitting the turf hard.

“You guys saw the arm we saw,” Nebraska linebacker Collin Miller said. “He’s making throws guys on Sundays make.”

Fields also ran for 54 yards and a score, with a nice spin move to get into the end zone.

Fields and fellow Georgian Trevor Lawrence came into the season as the presumptiv­e Heisman favorites, but with the Big Ten starting late Fields will only get nine games tops to make his case. That could be enough.

Meanwhile, Lawrence had his worst game of the season throwing the first pick-6 of his career and averaging only 6.7 yards per attempt as No. 1 Clemson messed around for a little while before putting Syracuse to sleep. Of course a “bad: game for Lawrence was still pretty good.

So who’s the Heisman favorite? Probably Alabama’s Mac Jones. He is surrounded by blue-chippers and he had a high bar to clear in Tuscaloosa as Tua Tagovailoa’s replacemen­t. But he’s not just another guy. The junior has three 400-yard passing games already and just missed another, going for 387 against Tennessee.

The big news out of that game was Alabama star Jaylen Waddle breaking his ankle. The injury ends his season and deprives college football of one of its most thrilling players.

If Jones can keep up his torrid pace and excellent play without him, it will only bolster his Heisman resume.

BYU’s Zach Wilson and UCF’s Dillion Gabriel, who is putting up crazy numbers, deserve to be on the radar of Heisman voters but it sure looks like the trophy will go to one of the quarterbac­ks playing for the three best teams in the country: Clemson, Alabama and Ohio State.

IU breakthrou­gh

Tom Allen pulled one over on James Franklin and No. 8 Penn State and Indiana pulled out a victory against a Top 10 team for the first time in 33 years.

The Hoosiers’ coach let Penn State score a late touchdown just to get the ball back. After Nittany Lions freshman running back Devyn Ford obliged, Michael Penix Jr. and the Hoosiers made all the big plays, and Indiana had its biggest victory since beating Ohio State in 1987.

Franklin’s been one of the best coaches though he does draw some criticism for handling of late-game situations.

Whether that’s fair is debatable. In this case, no doubt Penn State blew the end game. Franklin said he went over the do-not-score scenario with his offense, but clearly not enough.

And really, Penn State didn’t even need to run a play. Four quarterbac­k kneel downs from the IU 14 would have given Indiana about 15 seconds to get into field-goal position with no timeouts. Then in OT, Allen went for and the win to break a 42-game losing streak against Top 10 teams.

“We’ve been close, and I’m sick and tired of being close,” Allen told reporters. “In my gut, it seemed like the right thing to do.”

The Nittany Lions are now staring at an 0-2 start with Ohio State coming to Happy Valley next week.

Winning with defense

Just when the SEC looked as if it was turning into the Big 12, the best team in the conference known for wide-open offense and suspect tackling is doing it with the defense.

No. 6 Oklahoma State remained the only unbeaten team in the Big 12, grinding down No. 17 Iowa State.

During Mike Gundy’s long run as Cowboys coach, Oklahoma has been a quintessen­tial Big 12 squad. Spread offense. Up-tempo. Not much D. Not this year.

Cowboys came in leading the nation in yards per play allowed at 4.05. Other than a couple long runs by Cyclones star Breece Hall, defensive back Tre Sterling, linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez and the Pokes mostly held Iowa State in check.

To be clear, this isn’t 2011 Alabama level defense, but the Cowboys make their opponents uncomforta­ble.

If the Big 12 wants to get a team in the playoff, Oklahoma State is pretty much the only hope.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

Two coaches who really needed victories had good weekends: Tom Herman’s Texas team buried Baylor to snap a twogame losing streak. Maybe more importantl­y, the Longhorns players stayed on the field for the playing of the “Eyes of Texas” after a week of drama in Austin about song. In the SEC, Auburn got a late score to beat Ole Miss and take some heat off Gus Malzahn. For the second time in three weeks, the Tigers got the benefit of a fortuitous replay decision on a play that could have decided the game. Regardless, Auburn is 3-2 ... Rutgers snapped a 21-game Big Ten losing streak by winning at Michigan State in coach Greg Schiano’s first game in his second stint at the school. Not to take anything away from the Scarlet Knights but no Big Ten team was positioned to fail this season more than Michigan State. The Spartans had a late coaching change to Mel Tucker after Mark Dantonio stepped down in February. Then the pandemic hit and wiped out the spring and summer. Even in a typical year this would have been a rebuilding season in East Lansing. Now, the Spartans will be fortunate to win a game or two.

 ?? JAY LAPRETE/ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Nebraska linebacker Will Honas, left, tackles Ohio State quarterbac­k Justin Fields on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.
JAY LAPRETE/ASSOCIATED PRESS Nebraska linebacker Will Honas, left, tackles Ohio State quarterbac­k Justin Fields on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.

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