Burrow likely earned Heisman months ago
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Heisman Trophy moment – it is what several candidates have achieved in winning the iconic award that has been given to the nation’s best college football player since 1935.
There’s Desmond Howard of Michigan doing a Heisman pose after a touchdown against Ohio State in 1991. Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass beat Miami in 1984. And LSU’s Billy Cannon won the trophy after his famed 89-yard punt return in the fourth quarter helped the No. 1 Tigers beat No. 3 Mississippi in 1959.
LSU quarterback Joe Burrow is expected to be the runaway winner of the award Saturday in New York after his own memorable performances throughout a record-breaking season.
Not considered one of the top Heisman candidates at the start of the year, Burrow started his path to the award by throwing for 471 yards and four touchdowns in a win at No. 9 Texas on Sept. 7. The victory was highlighted by a 61-yard scoring pass to Justin Jefferson with 2:27 to go.
He slowly moved up the charts in leading the Tigers to the top of the poll, helped by top 10 wins against Florida and Auburn. And he effectively sealed the award when LSU defeated Alabama in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup on Nov. 9.
Burrow completed 31 of 39 passes for 393 yards and three touchdowns in the victory.
More impressively, he directed the Tigers to two touchdown drives of 75 yards in the fourth quarter to put the game away after he had cut their 20point deficit to 33-27.
His statistics are equally impressive. Burrow is No. 2 in the nation with 4,715 passing yards, which is the all-time SEC record for a season. He also ranks second in passing yards a game and passing efficiency. His totals include 48 touchdown passes and just six interceptions. Burrow could also break the NCAA record for completion percentage in a season. Burrow is at 77.9% with possibly two games left. Texas quarterback Colt McCoy holds the mark at 76.7%.
Burrow threw for less than 300 yards in a game only once this season, as he totaled 293 yards and three touchdowns passing in a defeat of No. 7 Florida. In only one game did Burrow throw more than one interception – a 58-37 win at Mississippi on Nov. 16 when he threw two.
Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts and Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa were the early leaders in USA TODAY Network’s Heisman Watch survey. But the Sooners fell to Kansas State and Tagovailoa was lost for the season after injuring his hip against Mississippi State on Nov. 16.
Burrow was a 200-1 pick to win the Heisman before the season. Now he could be one of the more overwhelming winners in the history of the award.
Southern California tailback O.J. Simpson had the largest margin in 1968 when he received 2,853 total points compared to 1,103 points for Purdue’s Leroy Keyes – a margin of 1,750 points.
The rest of the top five most-lopsided wins were:
❚ Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith in 2006 with 2,540 points to 878 for Arkansas tailback Darren McFadden (1,662-point margin).
❚ Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward in 1993 with 2,310 points to 688 for Tennessee quarterback Heath Shuler (1,622-point margin).
❚ Michigan wide receiver/returner Desmond Howard in 1991 with 2,077 points to 503 for Florida State quarterback Casey Weldon (1,574-point margin).
❚ Texas tailback Ricky Williams in 1998 with 2,355 points to 792 for Kansas State quarterback Michael Bishop (1,563-point margin).