Ohio State football: Case for, against 3 Buckeyes Heisman hopefuls

Ohio State’s dreams of a Big Ten title, a College Football Playoff berth and a national championship are all still very much alive. The Buckeyes (8-0), ranked third in the Associated Press poll, have four more B1G challenges in front of them before they can reach for all of that stuff.

Meanwhile, 3 players wearing scarlet and gray are committed to team goals, but are also reaching for college football’s highest honor.

The Heisman Trophy.

Quarterback Justin Fields, running back J.K. Dobbins and defensive end Chase Young have all been mentioned prominently as Heisman candidates.

For good reason.

But how do you build a case for each player? And what does each player have working against him?

For starters, there’s a fear that anybody inclined to vote for a Buckeye has to choose only one to put first. Outside of the Midwest, a lot of voters will naturally gravitate toward the two top SEC candidates, LSU quarterback Joe Burrow (an OSU transfer) and Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa, last season’s Heisman runnerup.

The regional nature of Heisman Trophy voting is part of the reason it’s so hard to get multiple players from one school in true contention. In fact the last time a school had 3 players finish in the top 10 in Heisman voting in one season was 1973. The school? Ohio State.

On the plus side, OSU has very special history with the Heisman. A Buckeye has earned the honor seven times, tied with Notre Dame and USC for the most ever. And of course OSU is still home to the only two-time award winner, Archie Griffin.

As for 2019, here’s how we see the 3 Buckeyes contenders stacking up:

The case for Fields

Fields, a Georgia transfer, is fourth in the nation in passing efficiency (185.2) and is responsible for 198 points, third behind only Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts and Burrow. Most amazing of all, Fields has 24 touchdown passes to just one interception, remarkable for a player in his first season as a college starter.

That kind of efficiency, poise and athleticism is hard to find. Add in Fields’ ability as a runner and you have one of the hardest quarterbacks to stop in the nation. Fields has piled up the highlights and has drawn Heisman respect as a result. Plus, QBs have won the big prize every year but 3 since the year 2000 (and one of those non-QB winners was Reggie Bush, who vacated his trophy). So Fields is certainly playing the right position to contend for the Heisman.

The case against Fields

Did you know the two stud SEC quarterbacks also play for the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked schools in the country? Maybe you heard.

But more than Alabama and LSU’s places in the rankings, Fields is up against sheer numbers where Tagovailoa and Burrow are concerned. Burrow is second in the nation in yards passing per game at 350.6; Tagovailoa is not far behind at 309.4, which ranks 7th. Fields? He’s in 66th place at 207.4 yards a game.

The Buckeyes star is much closer in TD passes with 24 (Burrow has 30, Tagovailoa 27 despite missing a game) but the volume of passing yards that the two SEC stars are putting up might just be too much to overcome, especially if one of them leads their team to an unbeaten regular season and an SEC championship.

The case for Dobbins

Dobbins is third in the nation in rushing yards per game (138.8) and total rushing yards (1,110) and is fourth in all-purpose yards even though he’s rarely a big part of OSU’s passing game.

“J.K. is a tough guy there,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said after the Wisconsin game on Oct. 26. “If you tell him something, you can scream or yell at him or you can say it just like this, he’s going to do the same thing. He’s that kind of character kid.”

The case against Dobbins

Has Dobbins been so effective because teams fear Fields? Or has Fields been so hard to stop because opposing defenses want anybody but Dobbins to beat them? Voters will likely ask themselves these questions when assessing Heisman candidates.

Ohio State is fourth in the nation in rushing, which bodes well for Dobbins’ candidacy, but Fields and backup running back Master Teague have been a significant part of that success. And the offensive line, as with any good running back, deserves a huge amount of credit as well.

Dobbins was running neck-and-neck in his own conference with Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor until OSU walloped Wisconsin and held Taylor down. But Dobbins trails the national leader, Oklahoma State’s Chuba Hubbard, by 40 rushing yards per game and Hubbard has less talent around him, so the running back vote is likely to be split. Even if Dobbins is the clear leader among running backs, again, nowadays it’s difficult for anybody but a quarterback to win the stiff-armed statuette.

The case for Young

Young went from All-America lock to Heisman Trophy buzz in one week, thanks to his nearly single-handed demolition of Wisconsin. The Buckeyes junior had four sacks and five tackles for loss and added two forced fumbles in OSU’s 38-7 victory. Young leads the nation in sacks per game at 1.69 — 13.5 sacks in 8 games — and is tied for second with an average of 1.9 tackles for loss per game.

“(Young’s) impact was felt throughout the game, and he’s probably the most dominant player in all of college football now,” Day said after the Badgers game.

The national media consensus seems to agree — at the very least Young is considered to be probably the best defensive player in the nation. And in the past 10 years, 10 defensive players have finished in the top 10 in Heisman voting.

The case against Young

We said defensive players often finish in the top 10 in Heisman voting. We didn’t say they truly contend for the honor that often.

Here comes that familiar refrain: Only one defensive player has ever won the Heisman. That was Michigan defensive back Charles Woodson in 1997. The last defensive player to finish in the top 3 for the Heisman was 2012 runnerup Manti Te’o of Notre Dame. In fact he’s the only defensive player in the past decade to finish in the top 3.

Young is having a special season, but is it special enough to beat out all of those great offensive players? Including the 2 in his own locker room?

The conclusion

As nice as it would be to win the Heisman, or even get invited to New York for the ceremony as one of the top contenders — such as OSU quarterback Dwayne Haskins last season — these Buckeyes have their minds on different hardware.

“It’s clear to everyone that Chase is the most dominant football player in college football,” Fields said of Young during the bye week. “I think people on the defense help his success, and I think if you ask him that question he would say that, too. I think the other D-linemen open up for him to get sacks, too, so I think it’s more of team thing than an individual thing. I think there’s nobody on this team that’s focused on individual Heisman and all these awards. We’re focused on winning championships.”

And hey, if they do that and match the feat of those 1973 Buckeyes with 3 top-10 finishers in the Heisman voting, that would make the 2019 season even more memorable in Columbus.

In short? If the Buckeyes win the CFP title, OSU’s 3 award contenders and Buckeyes fans everywhere will tell the SEC that y’all can keep the Heisman Trophy down south.

Jim Tomlin

Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a writer and editor for saturdaytradition.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.