Historic year still not enough to lift Murray to Heisman favorite

Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray will almost certainly spend next weekend in New York, his trip there culminating in the Heisman Trophy ceremony Saturday, Dec. 8.

It seems unlikely that Murray comes home with the trophy, though, as Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is considered by many to be the solid favorite to win.

The two most prominent Heisman polls — ESPN and USA Today —have Tagovailoa with a healthy lead.

But why?

First, there’s the preseason momentum.

A year ago, Tagovailoa played mostly in mop-up duty — until the College Football Playoff title game against Georgia.

That’s when Tagovailoa

replaced an ineffective Jalen Hurts at halftime and led the Crimson Tide to a 26-23 come-from-behind victory.

Murray didn’t quite have the same wave of momentum going into the season.

Not only was he taking over for last season’s Heisman Trophy winner, Baker Mayfield, but Murray wasn’t even named the starter until a little more than a week before the season opener.

Since, he’s become the first ever Division I quarterback to average 300 or more passing yards and 60 or more rushing yards per game.

“Do I feel like I deserve to win? Yeah,” Murray said. “But at the end of the day all I can do is go out and play.”

Tagovailoa’s lofty stats have been compiled with little help from late-game padding.

Alabama has won by an average of nearly 35 points per game. Because of that, Tagovailoa has attempted just three fourth-quarter passes all season.

Murray hasn’t gotten the opportunity to sit much, thanks to the porous defense that has forced the Sooners’ offense to remain on the field. Backup Austin Kendall has played in just two games because of the margin.

Another factor is just bad luck.

Plenty of years, Murray would be the runaway Heisman Trophy winner.

He’s set to break Mayfield’s passing efficiency record established last year, at 206.8 through the regular season. But Tagovailoa is ahead of even that, at 212.5.

In the polls, the margin closed a bit over the last few weeks, though Tagovailoa extended his lead after Alabama’s win over Auburn last weekend.

In both polls, no other player received either a first- or second-place vote as all of the combined 26 voters in the polls voted for some combination of Murray and Tagovailoa as the top two choices.

Both will get a chance to make their final cases this weekend, with Murray and the No. 5 Sooners taking on Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game (11 a.m., ABC) while No. 1 Alabama and Tagovailoa will play No. 4 Georgia (3 p.m., CBS).

“I don’t vote. I don’t have a say-so,” Murray said.

“All I can do is go out there and play.”