3 OF 4 HEISMAN FINALISTS ODE TO PORTAL/NIL ERA

This year’s Heisman Trophy ceremony will be an ode to the new era of college sports, transformed by the transfer portal and NIL.

Three of the four Heisman finalists are quarterbacks who blossomed into stars at their second schools and were having so much fun in college that they decided to stick around an extra year — or two.

“It’s different for everybody. It depends on how they want their life to go,” LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels said Friday. “We decided to transfer, and to start fresh, and to stay an extra year because we felt like we had something more to prove.”

Whether it is Daniels, Oregon’s Bo Nix or Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., the Heisman Trophy winner is likely to be a transfer QB for the fifth time in the last seven years.

The 89th Heisman will be handed out tonight in midtown Manhattan. Those three QBs and Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. are the finalists. Daniels is the favorite to take home the big bronze statue.

Daniels, named The Associated Press player of the year on Thursday, then on Friday won the Davey O’Brien Award as the top QB in college football, and Payton Wilson of North Carolina State won the Chuck Bednarik Award as the top defensive player.

Even before transfer rules opened up in 2021, the number of QBs switching schools was on the rise, with some finding stardom with a new team.

Oklahoma helped make Baker Mayfield (2017) and Kyler Murray (2018) Heisman winners in their second college stops. I 2019, former Ohio State quarterback Joe Burrow won a Heisman and national championship at LSU. USC’s Caleb Williams, last year’s Heisman winner, was part of a new wave of portal transfers.

Notable

Tulane filled its coaching vacancy with Troy’s Jon Sumrall, who like his predecessor has posted consecutive seasons with more than 10 wins. Sumrall is replacing Willie Fritz, who left Tulane after eight seasons on Sunday to take over at Houston.