Written by Chris Johnson at SI.com
Matchups between top-10 teams can radically affect division and conference championship races as well as the College Football Playoff picture, but they can make an even larger impact on the Heisman Trophy race. Marquee showdowns in prime television windows enable candidates to shine when the stage lights are brightest or, alternatively, stumble with everyone watching. These are the sort of games that stick in voters’ minds.
The outcome of the contest factors heavily into the impression it leaves on a player’s Heisman stock, but it’s possible to enhance one’s case even in defeat. The line separating those two scenarios could not have been illustrated more clearly than it was this weekend. On Friday night, Washington shut down Stanford star Christian McCaffrey in a 44–6 win in Seattle.McCaffrey finally met his match in a ferocious Huskies defense, and Stanford’s seemingly unassailable formula of unforgiving defense and physical offense fell flat. On Saturday, Louisville went into Death Valley looking to effectively seal the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Atlantic division and become the league’s clear top playoff threat with a win over nationalchampiomship runner-up Clemson. The Cardinals fell one yard short, but their quarterback, Lamar Jackson, performed so well that the resulting L on Louisville’s schedule will register as nothing more than a footnote on his Heisman résumé come December. Even though he didn’t guide his team to a win, Jackson seized the opportunity to put on a show in a high-profile setting.
Both Jackson and McCaffrey remain in the Watch’s top five this week, but McCaffrey’s chances have dropped. Meanwhile, a new name claimed the No. 4 spot. There also was a shakeup in the honorable mention section, with three new quarterbacks entering the conversation.
1. Lamar Jackson, QB, Louisville
It took a while for Jackson to get going against Clemson, but once he did, a sense of inevitability crept in: Even though the Cardinals had never notched a win of this magnitude with Jackson under center, it was difficult to shake the feeling that he was about to lead them to one of their biggest victories in program history. After going into the half trailing 28–10, Jackson orchestrated five unanswered scoring drives to give Louisville a 36–28 lead midway through the fourth quarter. He evaded pressure from maybe the nation’s best defensive line North of Tuscaloosa, showed off his blurring straight-line speed and mobility in the open field and, most impressive in the Watch’s eyes, exhibited the kind of poise that allows fornonchalant sidesteps of would-be tacklers in crunch time. Had Cardinals wide receiver James Quick somehow gotten into the end zone (or a first down) with under a minute remaining, Clemson linebacker Ben Boulware would have drawn more scrutiny for provoking Louisville’s dual-threat star with a lengthy choke hold.
Jackson totaled 295 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception as well as 162 rushing yards and two scores on the ground. That’s a relatively unremarkable line for him, but Jackson probably won’t face a better defense over the rest of the regular season. The Tigers currently rank third in Football Outsiders S&P + metric. The next three opponents Jackson will face? Duke (41st), NC State (62nd), Virginia (94th).
2. J.T. Barrett, QB, Ohio State
You would have thought Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer might take it easy on former defensive coordinator and current Rutgers coach Chris Ash when the two programs met Saturday in Columbus. The Scarlet Knights are on the early stretch of a long road to respectability in the Big Ten East, and the Buckeyes are a fully formed juggernaut brimming with NFL talent on both sides of the ball. Meyer ensured this distinction would be clear to anyone who tuned in Saturday by turning Barrett loose on a defense with virtually no hope of limiting him and the bevy of potent playmakers at his disposal. Barrett connected on 21 of his 29 throws for 238 yards with four touchdowns, making him the program leader for career passing scores (58). That figure and the time at which Barrett reached it are especially notable given that Barrett spent part of his sophomore campaign working his way through an unwieldy quarterback rotation with Cardale Jones and that he’ll have another year to add to it if he decides against entering the NFL draft.
This is beginning to resemble Barrett’s stellar 2014 season, when he rose to the top of the depth chart after Braxton Miller went down with a shoulder injury, guided Ohio State to an 11–1 record and finished fifth in the Heisman voting. Buckeyes fans will recall that season ended with Barrett on the mend (he suffered a broken ankle in a win over Michigan), but that didn’t stop Ohio State from hoisting the first CFP trophy. The way Barrett is playing right now, it won’t be surprising if he leads them to another one in January.
3. Greg Ward Jr., QB, Houston
It’s been fun watching Ward rip through American Athletic Conference defenses on Thursday nights two of the last three weeks. While top Heisman candidates often have to fight for viewers’ attention with other marquee tilts taking place on Saturdays, Ward can count on less channel-flipping from a national audience.
His latest victim was Connecticut. Ward delivered one of his best games of the season, completing 32 of his 38 throws for 389 yards with three touchdowns, good for a 196.3 passer rating. He also rushed for 65 yards and two scores. Unfortunately for Ward, the game did not extinguish concerns about the possibility of his health eventually derailing his candidacy. He absorbed a huge hit from Huskies linebacker Junior Joseph early in the second quarter and he’s still battling a shoulder injury that forced him to sit out the Cougars’ win over Lamar last month. When he’s at full strength, Ward is an explosive playmaker who can unhinge Power 5 defenses and make Group of Five ones look utterly clueless. If he’s not, his output inevitably will decline, and Houston’s offense will suffer as a result.
The Cougars will need him at something close to top form this weekend, when they’ll face a Navy team hoping to rebound after suffering its first loss of the season on Saturday at Air Force. If Ward and his receivers are clicking like they were against UConn, the Midshipmen won’t be able to stop him. Still, this is one of the few games on the Cougars’ conference schedule that bears monitoring, if only because it’s not completely certain they’ll be able to put it away before halftime.
