Why I voted for Jayden Daniels to win the Heisman — and left Oregon’s Bo Nix off my ballot
Saturday’s Heisman Trophy results weren’t much of a surprise. As one of the 928 Heisman voters across the country, LSU QB Jayden Daniels was first on my ballot and looked like the clear winner with the rest of my ballot being a fight for second.
What may be more surprising to some is that the third-place finisher, Oregon quarterback Bo Nix, did not make my ballot. Instead, I had Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. at second and Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at third. If I had gone to four, it would have been Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe — not Nix — although the Oregon QB would have been in that discussion.
So why didn’t I have the Oregon signal caller, who undoubtedly had a great year, on my ballot? The answer is simple. The award is supposed to go to the most outstanding college football player in the United States. Not a good quarterback on a top-10 team. Not the quarterback on the highest-ranked team or an undefeated team. The most outstanding player, a player who elevates his teammates and doesn’t rely on system to achieve his greatness. For as good as Nix was this season, it — to me — is inarguable that he was not a more outstanding player than Daniels, Harrison, Penix or Milroe.
Yes, his numbers were great. He threw 40 touchdown passes and only three interceptions along with having 4,145 passing yards. But everything was made easier for Nix by Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein. That’s not even a knock on Nix. He was really good in a system that was designed to light up opposing defenses. And that’s what Oregon did this season. Nix was an excellent distributor who fed his weapons consistently, even if he didn’t do a lot of creating on his own. But that doesn’t mean he’s the nation’s most outstanding player.
Let me make the argument for the other three, in case you’re unmoved why he didn’t qualify on his own merit.
Daniels was a force in every single game this season as both a runner and a passer. He had over 100 rushing yards in all but three games this season — two of which came in 60-plus point blowouts where his services weren’t needed for long. He nearly matched Nix as a passer with 40 touchdowns and four interceptions along with 3,812 passing yards, but did it in a much different way. Yes, Daniels had better pass catchers than almost any quarterback in the country in Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., but he amplified those players and found them even when the offense as a whole didn’t set him up to succeed.
The LSU quarterback created his own passing lanes and found his weapons even when the windows were small and the time to throw was limited. Unlike Nix, he was a cause of the team’s offensive success rather than a part of it.
That brings us to Harrison, who, if he had better quarterback play at Ohio State, might have finished much higher on other ballots. He caught 67 passes for 1,211 yards and 14 touchdowns this season and while those numbers aren’t gaudy, they’re still very impressive. When you watch Harrison, though, that’s when his argument comes to life. He is outstanding. Harrison could have approached 2,000 receiving yards if he had someone like Daniels throwing him the ball this season. Instead, the Ohio State offense sputtered all season and the Buckeyes couldn’t put together an elite unit on the side of the ball that it has been best at under head coach Ryan Day.
It did find success in spurts — the times when Harrison was being targeted frequently — but despite that lack of consistency, Harrison remained reliable.
Take the game against Penn State, Harrison’s one matchup this year that I covered in person. I can not tell you how many times he came free and the ball never came his way. I said many times after that game that he could have caught 20 balls for over 300 yards if he was hit every time he was open. Instead, he finished with a meager 11 catches for 162 yards and the touchdown that iced the game against one of the best defenses in the country.
That, of course, is anecdotal, but it’s still a good microcosm of how this season went for the receiver.
That brings us to Penix. The Washington quarterback faced many of the same opponents as Nix and didn’t have the same high-level efficiency ratio — he threw 33 touchdowns and nine interceptions — while only throwing for 68 more yards. Statistically, Nix was better. But I’ll go back to the definition of who gets the award here. Penix was more outstanding. He took far more risks than his Oregon counterpart, fitting throws into tight windows that may not have always been there. Yes, that resulted in six more interceptions throughout the course of the season, but he more than made up for those throws by nailing far more than he missed — creating more opportunities for his receivers by his willingness to be risky and make difficult passes.
Penix may not have had the numbers that Nix did, but he did win two head-to-head matchups with him. And it wasn’t just about the wins, but rather the way they happened. The Huskies defeated the Ducks because Penix made more high-level throws when it mattered most and created more chances for his team to succeed.
I’ve used variations of “create” a lot in this, but to me that’s what quarterbacking is all about. It’s about the creation of chances for the players around you, whether that’s through passing, scrambling or running. Penix and Daniels did that better, and Harrison did it, too, but in reverse — creating for his quarterback by being consistently open or by winning when he wasn’t open.
Nix had a fantastic year but, at the end of the day, this is about being an outstanding player — not putting up gaudy numbers. And those three were more outstanding this season.
