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Joel Klatt reveals latest front-runners in Heisman Trophy race

Mark Schipper

By Mark Schipper

Published:

Fox College Football’s lead analyst Joel Klatt is a man of predictions and prognostications. Demonstrating proficiency in the art of the forecast is, after all, part of the job.

When he is not making Jim Harbaugh and Michigan hype videos after one week, Klatt is putting together lists of Heisman hopefuls, though these predictions seem likelier to land in the money than some of the others.

Following Week 2 of the Big Ten season—Week 8 for the rest of America—Klatt has assembled another list. Amongst his eight Heisman frontrunners, listed in no particular order, two play quarterback in the Big Ten.

Ohio State’s superstar Justin Fields made the field alongside Wisconsin Badger’s first-year starter, and Covid-19 sidelined gunslinger, Graham Mertz. 

For Fields, the junior from Georgia, he has thrown six touchdowns and seven incomplete passes through two games. His completion percentage is an astonishing 87.3-percent at over 10-yards per attempt, good for 594 yards and a staggering 213.99 quarterback rating. His team is 0-2 and looks every bit the tough out and elite squad they were projected to be heading into the season.

Mertz, who may be forced to miss at least two games due to the league’s Covid protocols, started the season on fire. The freshman quarterback hit 20 of 21 throws for 248 yards and five touchdowns in the Badgers season opening carpet bombing of Illinois. Mertz is averaging 12-yards per completion and sits sidelined with a bewildering 273 quarterback rating.

Ohio State is back in the Horse Shoe next Saturday awaiting an improved but supremely overmatched Rutgers Scarlet Knights squad. The Badgers are scheduled to play Purdue back home in Madison but there is no word yet on whether or not Wisconsin is going to be under the Covid-19 threshold to play the game. 

Mark Schipper

Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.