A decade into the four-team Faculty Soccer Playoff period, the Heisman Trophy race has turn into more and more predictable. If Week 1 is any indication, the start of a brand new period within the sport might reinvigorate the season-long pursuit of soccer’s highest honors.
Probably the most beautiful particular person efficiency on the primary full Saturday of the 12-team playoff period got here from a place or program not usually related to hard-arm trophies. There are solely 4 large receivers in Heisman historical past, with DeVonta Smith ending a 32-year receiving drought in 2020.
However each receivers have set a excessive bar for 2024, taking the highlight in Saturday’s opening and shutting moments of Week 1. It took simply three video games for Tennessee’s Dont’e Thornton Jr. to introduce himself to the nation with a 69-3 win over Chattanooga in his first three faculty seasons in relative obscurity.
Thornton spent his first two seasons at Oregon, catching 26 passes for 3 touchdowns and 541 yards. In his first season after transferring to Tennessee, Thornton suffered a season-ending leg damage on his solely landing catch.
Thornton returns towards the alma mater of Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer Terrell Owens and has related measurement, physicality and breakaway pace to the legendary TO. The 6-foot-5 Thornton seems just like the lacking hyperlink in an offense for the Vols, who dropped from fifth nationally in passing yards in 2022 to fifty fifth a season in the past.
“You’ll be able to see how comfy Donte is with this offense … figuring issues out,” Tennessee quarterback Nico Yamalewa stated within the postgame press convention. “He was dialed in all fall camp, spring camp. He is been placing in an excellent effort and he confirmed that on the sphere right now.
Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan enters 2024 as a stable anchor for the workforce’s prolific passing assault. He caught for 702 yards and eight touchdowns as a freshman in 2022, then elevated his manufacturing to 1,242 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2023.
Whereas it is unrealistic to proceed along with his pace previous Week 1 in 2024 — nobody in Arizona historical past had 304 yards receiving earlier than McMillan within the Wildcats’ 61-39 victory over New Mexico — McGrady Ought to surpass his lofty statistics as a sophomore.
Arizona’s protection wants work to compete in a brand new convention, the Large 12.
Quarterback Noah Fifita took up the game just a few months in the past.
“If individuals had been listening to my interviews all offseason, they could have thought I used to be being overly dramatic. I feel him coming in completely proves my level: He is the perfect participant within the nation,” Fifita stated stated on the post-match press convention.
Along with being a quarterback-driven award, the Heisman Trophy can be carefully tied to the playoffs. Since 2014, seven of the ten winners have superior to the four-team event, and 21 of the 37 finalists have superior to the competitors. Excluding the anomaly of 2016, when just one of 5 finalists made the playoffs, the quantity is 20 of 32 finalists.
The extent to which the postseason growth broadens the scope of the Heisman race shall be an fascinating storyline all through the primary season, together with the addition of the five-man group.
It is in all probability no coincidence that just one 5-man workforce made it to the four-team playoff, and no 5-man participant was a Heisman finalist, together with Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds in 2015 and San Diego in 2017 Stunning omissions embody State operating again Rashad Penny.
Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty is the perfect again 5 since Penny’s 2,248-yard season. Because the Broncos head into the playoffs, Jeanty’s excellence can’t be ignored.
He had arguably his finest efficiency of Week 1 with 20 carries for 267 yards and 6 touchdowns within the Broncos’ 56-45 victory over Georgia Southern.
The Boise State soccer workforce’s official Instagram account began constructing the Heisman hype early, posting a hashtag that learn “HEI2MAN” — the linebacker’s jersey quantity is 2 — on Jeanty’s exploits. The 2 additionally inadvertently described what could also be crucial week for Jeante’s Heisman candidacy.
