Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
STRONG FINISH BOOSTS MURRAY
Oklahoma QB’s steady play propels him past Alabama’s Tagovailoa for Heisman
When Kyler Murray stepped up and hoisted the Heisman Trophy into the air Saturday night in New York, the Oklahoma quarterback completed one of the most impressive rallies of his young career, overtaking Alabama’s Tua
Tagovailoa down the stretch to capture college football’s top individual prize.
If this were a horse race, Murray was a longshot (22-1) when the season started, buried behind the likes of Tagovailoa (7-1), Stanford’s Bryce Love (7-1), Wisconsin’s Jonathan
Taylor (8-1), Georgia’s Jake
Fromm (12-1) and Arizona’s
Khalil Tate (15-1).
Much like a summer sunburn, many of those players faded away down the stretch, leaving many to believe Tagovailoa would join the likes of Oklahoma’s
Baker Mayfield (2017),
Louisville’s Lamar Jackson (2016) and Oregon’s
Marcus Mariota (2014) as runaway winners.
But despite building what many perceived as an insurmountable lead through the first 10 weeks of the season, Tagovailoa struggled down the stretch as he battled injuries. He was forced to leave the SEC Championship Game, with backup Jalen Hurts leading Alabama to a comefrom-behind win over Georgia.
Murray, meanwhile, accounted for 2,100 yards and 17 total touchdowns during the final five weeks of the season, including leading Oklahoma to its fourth consecutive Big 12 championship and a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals.
All in all, it was enough to convince me and the majority of the Heisman voters to give the trophy to Murray.
“This is crazy. This is an honor,” Murray said following the announcement. “It’s something I’ll never forget. Something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.” Oklahoma joins Yale (Larry Kelly and Clint
Frank, 1936-37), Army
(Doc Blanchard and
Glenn Davis, 1945-46), Ohio State (Archie Griffin,
1974-75) and USC (Matt
Leinart and Reggie Bush,
2004-05) as schools to feature back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners, although Bush technically was forced to give back his trophy due to NCAA sanctions.
While it wasn’t the closest race in Heisman history, the 296 points that separated Murray and Tagovailoa was the smallest gap since Alabama’s Derrick
Henry claimed the award over Stanford’s Christian
McCaffrey by 293 points in the 2015 voting, but it seemed much closer.
All three finalists put together magical seasons and you can make a case for all three, but there can only be one winner.
Tagovailoa was my favorite throughout much of the first half of the season, but as we drew closer to conference-championship week, that opinion began to shift.
Last Sunday, I compared the two players’ statistics side-by-side:
Tagovailoa passed for 3,353 yards and a schoolrecord 37 touchdowns with just four interceptions, completing nearly 68 percent of his attempts, and his 42 combined touchdowns is also a school record.
Murray passed for 4,053 yards and 40 touchdowns with just seven interceptions, completing nearly 71 percent of his attempts while combining for 51 total touchdowns. He set a Football Bowl Subdivision single-season record with his passer rating of 205.7.
Numbers aside, the question I then asked myself was: How critical was each player to his team’s success?
While Tagovailoa certainly put together a career-best year, Alabama would most likely have earned a double-digit win season without him. His backup, Hurts, was 26-2 as a starter for Alabama before being replaced by the talented sophomore, and Hurts’ experience was invaluable when he took over leading the Tide to a win in the SEC Championship Game. The Tide quarterbacks also were surrounded by talented skill-position players who helped guide the team to one of its most productive offensive seasons in school history.
Oklahoma, on the other hand, would most likely have been a seven- or eightwin team without Murray. The Sooners feature one of the worst defenses in college football, and without Murray and that highpowered offense most likely would have lost games to Army, Texas
Tech, Oklahoma State and West Virginia and would not be playing in the semifinals.
In the end, it was a razor-thin decision.
Tagovailoa will get a chance to get some revenge when he leads No. 1 Alabama against Murray and No. 4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, one of the College Football Playoff semifinals.