The College Football regular season has come and gone. Which means in the next three weeks until bowl games start college football fans get to argue about who deserves the prestigious Heisman trophy award for the best player in the country this season. And here at the Eagles Cry, us sports editors argue a lot. So it’s time for us to make a case for the 4 finalists and give our winners.

Stetson Bennett QB Georgia

Bennett has defied all the odds his whole career at Georgia going from a walk-on to a National Champion. Sadly, he won’t be adding a Heisman trophy to that resume. Although Bennett has led the number 1 ranked Bulldogs to a second straight undefeated regular season, he simply doesn’t match up the same with the other candidates. The senior has thrown just 20 touchdowns to 6 interceptions and ranks just 11th in passing yards. Georgia is a team built on their defense. Bennett has cemented a legacy at Georgia that can never be taken away but he ain’t winning no Heisman.

CJ Stroud QB Ohio State

This is Stroud’s second straight season as a Heisman finalist and to be honest he had a worse year this year than he did last. He threw for 1000 less yards, 7 less TDs, and once again in the biggest game of the year vs. Michigan, he came up short and lost. Luckily for him USC lost their biggest game of the year and allowed the Buckeyes to sneak into the playoff. Stroud is still undeniably a top 5 pick in this year’s NFL draft and he’s put together an incredible resume that can still end in a National Championship. But he hasn’t done enough, especially with Ohio State’s weak schedule to be deemed the best player in the nation. But, one student at BHS, Jett Brassey believes that Stroud has been good enough to be named the best. He says “Even though he lost the biggest game of the season, he’s led his team to the playoffs and has stats to compete against Max Duggan and Caleb Williams.”

Caleb Williams QB Southern California

In his first year with the Trojans, Williams absolutely balled out, leading all of college football in TDs with 37, and throwing for over 4,000 yards, also while adding the Pac-12 player offensive player of the year to his resume. But there is a knock on Williams, the fact that he had USC in position to make the playoff and undoubtedly lock up this award but he and the Trojans lost to Utah for the second time this year and at the same time lost the team’s bid to win a National Championship. Fellow Eagles Cry sports editor Bob Smackerly believes this should be unrelated to his Heisman campaign stating “Williams was by far the best player in the nation all year and he showed it down the stretch when he ran all over teams like Notre Dame and UCLA. He deserves this.” Personally though, Williams blew his chance to win this award by losing to Utah not once but twice, I can’t see a QB who didn’t lead his team to CFP winning the Heisman.

Max Duggan QB TCU

Duggan had a season no one expected, In the preseason he wasn’t even thought of as a candidate to win this award now he’s got as good a shot as any. The Horned Frogs QB may not have as flashy stats as Williams or Stroud but simply put he ran the gauntlet of the Big 12 to an improbable 12-1 record only losing their 1 game in overtime. Putting the Frogs in the CFP for the first time ever. Every test that was given to TCU he led them to victory. This is my guy to win this award. I like guys who win games no matter what and that’s what he did. And his stats are right there with all the others. This year he’s put himself into TCU royalty. It’s about time he etches his name into College Football royalty.

Picks:

Brett Jassey: CJ Stroud

Robbie Ackerly: Caleb Williams

James Mertz: Max Duggan