As the temperature drops for winter, the Heisman Trophy conversation is just heating up.  

On Saturday, December 8, one of the top collegiate football players will be awarded the coveted Heisman Trophy. This year’s finalist candidates include: Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray, and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins.

For those that don’t know, the Heisman Trophy is an award that has been given annually to the most outstanding collegiate football player since 1935. Created by John Heisman, and originally called the DAC Award (New York’s Downtown Athletic Club), the first award was presented to “running back Jay Berwanger, a senior at the University of Chicago,” according to CNN News. The winner of the Heisman Trophy is selected by 870 ballot voters, and is presented with the award at a ceremony in New York.  Upon receiving the prestigious trophy, the recipient is inducted into a fictional fraternity called “The Heisman House,” sponsored by Nissan.

The unofficial front runner all season has been Alabama’s Quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa. Tagovailoa has been college football’s most impressive player since receiving a starting role at halftime of last year’s National Championship game. Tagovailoa replaced former starter Jalen Hurts and was able to comeback from trailing 21-3 in his first ever meaningful playing time. Tagovailoa this year has been electric, throwing 3353 yds with a 67.7% completion rate according to CBS Sports; all the while only appearing in the 4th quarter twice all season.

When asked who he thought was going to win? Senior, John Abreu said ¨I gotta go with that dude Tua… He nice¨. Another student with positive things to say about Tua, was senior Sam Kerrigan: ¨ A sophmore is blowing teams out by 30 and dropping 50 points every week and his team’s record [12-0] clearly shows it.¨

Tagovailoa’s biggest competition is probably Kyler Murray. Last season being the understudy to Heisman Winner Baker Mayfield taught him the system at Oklahoma. Having a season of the offense under his belt has allowed him to torch Big 12 defenses all season. However his skill set that sets him apart is his blazing acceleration and quickness. This has allowed him to avoid defenders while gaining time to pass or run downfield. This season Murray has lead his conferences most explosive offense and hopes to do so later in the playoffs. Murray has managed to do all this while being drafted to play pro-baseball at the same time!

However among students interviewed at Hall Tua was not the favorite; Instead  it was Kyler Murray. Junior, Joe Hussey said “His speed and explosiveness is something that I’ve never seen before that really separates him from his competition and that’s why I believe Murray will win. ”  

The last finalist invited to New York on Saturday is Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins.  He has had an outstanding season as the Ohio State Quarterback, building a powerful resume by passing for 4580 yds while keeping a 70% completion percentage.  However, he is not getting as much buzz as the other finalists; this is probably due to Ohio State not qualifying for the College Football Playoff.

Also, a few students said that they would vote for Haskins, including seniors Anne Tulikangas and Frankie Lynch . Finally, junior Will Fox stated: ¨I would personally vote for Dwayne Haskins… He looks like he has an NFL body.¨

In conclusion, only 3 other players received recognition from our student body, which included Will Grier, Trevor Lawrence and Kyrie Irving.