Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
JOYOUS JACKSON
Louisville quarterback, awed by moment, beats out Clemson QB Watson
Louisville sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson proudly shows off the Heisman Trophy after being named the top college football player in the country on Saturday in New York.
NEW YORK — Lamar Jackson was trying to remember the last time he cried. He was pretty sure it involved losing a football game.
On Saturday night, Louisville’s spectacular sophomore quarterback found out winning can get a guy choked up, too.
Jackson became the first Louisville player to win the Heisman Trophy, beating out preseason favorite Deshaun Watson of Clemson despite some late-season struggles.
Watson, who finished third last season, was a distant second. Baker Mayfield finished third and Oklahoma teammate and fellow finalist Dede Westbrook was fourth. Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers was fifth. San Diego State’s Donnel Pumphrey, a Canyon Springs High product, finished 11th.
Jackson, wearing a red velvet blazer with shiny black lapels, said he could feel his heart pounding in his chest right before his name was announced, and he barely held it together while giving his speech with the former Heisman winners standing behind him onstage.
“I almost cried,” Jackson said. “I never get emotional, but to have my name called and see all those great players …”
Early in the season, Jackson leapt over a loaded field of Heisman contenders that included five of the top seven vote-getters from 2015 to become the front-runner. By the time he slowed down nobody could catch him.
Jackson outdid them all in his first season as Louisville’s full-time starter, accounting for 51 touchdowns and averaging 410 yards per game.
“He surpassed everything I thought he could do,” Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said.
Jackson ultimately won the Heisman going away, with 2,144 points to Watson’s 1,524. By percentage of possible points received, Jackson’s victory was the seventh largest in Heisman history, and he became the youngest winner at 19 years, 337 days, a few days younger than 2013 winner Jameis Winston of Florida State.
Jackson credited his mother, Felicia Jones, and said the trophy will go anywhere she decides to put it. Jones raised Jackson as a single mom and would put on football pads to help her son work on his game when he was a kid.
“Everything I do is for my mother,” Jackson said.