A week ago, Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins left for New York to take part in the Heisman Trophy proceedings.
He finished a distant third to winner Kyler Murray and runner-up Tua Tagovailoa, and was at times a distant memory in ESPN’s coverage.
On Wednesday, the Buckeyes met with reporters for the first time in weeks, and while receivers Terry McLaurin, Johnnie Dixon, and Parris Campbell were all huddled near their quarterback, a reporter asked if the right guy won the Heisman.
“No,” was the emphatic answer in unison from the receivers.
From ESPN.com having articles on their site featuring questions about who would win, Kyler or Tua, to ESPN Gameday having an interview with just those two and claiming that having Haskins on the set would have made things too “unwieldy,” to an unnamed reporter during an availability actually asking Haskins if he thought Tagovailoa or Murray should win, it wasn’t exactly an endearing weekend for Haskins’ teammates.
Dixon didn’t even bother watching the ceremony.
“No, I didn’t. Just the way everything was going, I didn’t appreciate it, I didn’t like it,” he said. “I knew it was gonna happen the way it did. We let him know he was our Heisman (winner). We appreciate the guy because he works tail off. He’s not one of those guys that is so good and doesn’t come to work. He comes to work. Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those bad days. But the guy works his tail off.”
Let me take a swing. It’s not intended as a slight. I’ll bet if you time the words, Dwayne got more coverage. Plus, 3 at same time is an unwieldy interview. Two is max. They are playing each other. They’re likely 1-2. Simple as that. Never cease to marvel at what bothers people https://t.co/76LN9KHStW
— Rece Davis (@ESPN_ReceDavis) December 8, 2018
It wasn’t just the guys catching the ball who were upset with the way things went. The offensive line felt the same way.
“There is a similar feeling, I definitely think that Dwayne should have won the Heisman,” right tackle Isaiah Prince said.
“I thought that was kind of disrespectful that he was the invisible man when he should have been the winner, but it is what it is and God has a bigger plan. To have success you have got to have failure and maybe God is trying to show Dwayne something. Maybe it was not for him, maybe He has a bigger plan for Dwayne.”