The 2024 college football season is nearly halfway done, and the race for the Heisman Trophy, the award given annually to the best player in college football, is starting to heat up. In recent years, going into week nine, most people would have a good idea of who was the front-runner for this award. This year, it will likely come down to who can come out hot at the end of the season.
Candidates such as Cam Ward for the University of Miami, Ashton Jeanty for Boise State University and Travis Hunter for Colorado University have risen to the top of the rankings for networks like ESPN and Fox Sports, which both have these players in their top three.
Cam Ward has led the Miami Hurricanes to a perfect 7-0 record as quarterback, throwing for 2,500 yards and 24 touchdowns. His ability to be poised in the pocket and under pressure puts him in a category of his own. Ward has played exceptionally well all year, but Miami has had some tough games.
Heading into the fourth quarter of their game against the University of California, Berkeley, they were down 38-18. In those last 15 minutes, Ward accounted for three TD passes to lead his team to a 39-38 victory.
Not only was that comeback victory a qualification to add to his resume, but his team has not scored less than 38 points all year. Ward’s performance in Miami’s extremely efficient offense makes him very difficult to leave out of the Heisman conversation.
Ashton Jeanty, who many fans believe deserves the Heisman trophy, posted 1,248 yards with 17 touchdowns in just six games at the running back position. Boise State fans were arguably the only people who knew how good Jeanty was, and even they could not have predicted the production he has given their program.
Boise State has had a relatively easy schedule, playing teams like Georgia Southern University and Utah State University.
What some may forget is that they played the University of Oregon, which is now the No.1 team in the country. They lost a very close game against the Ducks, but Jeanty ran for 192 yards and three touchdowns.
In the first game of his season, Jeanty ran for 267 yards and six touchdowns against Georgia Southern. That stat line was thought by many to be a fluke, but he has backed up his talent all year.
Some fans and analysts are giving Jeanty comparisons to Barry Sanders, the 1988 Heisman winner and Oklahoma State University product who is widely considered to be the greatest college running back of all time.
“I have never seen a guy run the ball at the collegiate level like Ashton Jeanty,” said Trey Pratt, a junior business major. “The way he lines up in the backfield standing straight up has to look intimidating for opposing players.”
Travis Hunter came into this season as the talk of college football. He is an elite wide receiver as well as a cornerback. He is one of the only two-way players in college football and is excelling at both positions.
He has 51 catches, along with 604 yards and six touchdowns on the offensive side of the ball. On top of that, he has been playing stellar defense, shadowing opponents’ top receivers. This is Hunter’s second year playing for Colorado and third year being coached by Deion Sanders, one of the most successful and influential two-way football players of all time.
Hunter was a former five-star prospect who followed Sanders to Colorado after choosing to go to Jackson State University, where Sanders used to coach. There has been talk for Hunter’s entire college career about how he needs to select one position that would lower his chances of injury.
Still, Sanders has continued to tell the media that he will continue to play Hunter on both sides of the ball. He could be a first-round draft pick as a receiver or a cornerback. Hunter may not have the stats that some of these other contenders have, but the fact he is playing both sides of the ball as a D1 athlete at such an elite level is something that cannot go unnoticed.
“Watching Travis Hunter play is unbelievable,” said Griffin Taylor, a sophomore marketing major. “He can do everything. I don’t know how an opposing coach can scheme against a guy like that.”
With plenty of time still left to play in the regular season, Ward, Jeanty and Hunter, as well as any other players that may try to make a late push for the award, will continue to go out there on Saturdays and prove why they should be honored as the best player in college football.
