Let’s just fast-forward to Saturday night.
We’ve spent the last 17 hours of the pre-show with the focus on how Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa are the front-runners for the Heisman Trophy.
Every now and then, ESPN will cut to Dwayne Haskins. Not because they are talking about his historic season. They simply want to turn their discussion to Urban Meyer. Stories about him retiring and where they think he will go next after his “medical” condition clears.
The show ends as Dwayne Haskins finishes in a distant third place with maybe one first-place vote.
Most of America will eat this up. They don’t consider Haskins a REAL Heisman Trophy contender and they love to hear people slander Urban Meyer. It’s the world we live in. I’ve got a problem with this though because Dwayne Haskins should be the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner.
Any average quarterback can eat below-average defenses alive. This does not make you a good quarterback.
Heck, even Alex Hornibrook was able to break the 250 yard barrier against the 97th-ranked pass defense of Western Kentucky. This doesn’t magically make him serviceable.
There is so much information available at our finger tips but voters don’t care. This is why we fans need to pay close attention to the details. Don’t worry about what the national media is feeding you. Don’t worry about Oklahoma fans jumping down your throat because their Heisman Trophy contender has to get back to the Wonka factory.
Stats tell you everything you need to know and the stats tell you Dwayne Haskins should be the Heisman winner.
The average pass defenses Murray faced this year were ranked 86th.
To put that in perspective, the other two contenders faced only four teams all season who were ranked 86th or lower. Murray faced two Top 50 defenses the entire season, and only one of those teams were Power 5. Neither of those teams were ranked inside the Top 25 for pass defense.
As you will later see, Murray’s stats against these two teams were way lower than his normal season output. I’ll even include his rushing stats in an attempt to help him out. It won’t.
Tua on the other hand faced quite a few good pass defenses. The average pass defense he faced was ranked 58th but there is a little asterisk with him. One of his games was against the Citadel, who is FCS, so they don’t show up on the rankings. With that said, even if the Citadel was the 129th-ranked pass defense in FBS (they wouldn’t be) he would still have an average pass defense faced of 64, which is more than respectable and on par with Haskins. During the season, Tagovailoa faced three Top-25 pass defenses (two power 5) and five Top-50 pass defenses (four power 5).
So where does Haskins fit into this? Much like Tua, Haskins faced three Top-25 pass defenses and five Top-50 pass defenses. Unlike Tua though, all of his were power 5 opponents. Overall, the average pass defense he faced was 66th.
Now that we know the level of competition each quarterback faced, let’s jump into how well each player did against them.
TOP 25 DEFENSES
| PLAYER | OPPONENTS | PASS DEFENSE RANKS | PASS YARDS | PASS TDS | PASS INTS |
| MURRAY | 0 | N/A | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TAGOVAILOA | 3 | 6, 12, 15 | 556 | 6 | 3 |
| TUA vs POWER 5 | 2 | 6,15 | 328 | 2 | 3 |
| HASKINS | 3 | 2, 21, 22 | 899 | 13 | 1 |
TOP 50 DEFENSES
| PLAYER | OPPONENTS | PASS DEFENSE RANKS | PASS YARDS | PASS TDS | PASS INTS |
| MURRAY | 2 | 30, 40 | 378 (122 rush) | 7 (1 rush) | 1 |
| TAGOVAILOA | 5 | 6, 12, 15, 41, 44 | 1,078 | 10 | 4 |
| TUA vs POWER 5 | 4 | 6, 15, 41, 44 | 850 | 6 | 4 |
| HASKINS | 5 | 2, 21, 22, 40, 43 | 1,648 | 18 | 2 |
As you can see, it shouldn’t even be a competition for the Heisman Trophy.
Both Murray and Tagovailoa feasted on the subpar competition they faced and struggled against the good teams. Murray only faced two respectable pass defenses the entire season and averaged 250 yards of total offense against them with only 189 per game coming through the air.
As big of a fan of Tua as I am, he struggled big time against his tough competition. He faced two Power 5 Top 25 pass defenses and only averaged 164 yards passing per game while throwing more interceptions than touchdowns. Against Power 5 Top 50 pass defenses, he only averaged 213 passing yards with a 6/4 TD/INT ratio.
Haskins, on the other hand, looked into a stiff pass defense and completely annihilated these defenses game after game. Against three Power 5 Top 25 pass defenses, Haskins averaged 300 passing yards per game with an impressive 13-1 TD/INT ratio. Lowering the competition level a little, he averaged 330 passing yards a game with an 18/2 TD/INT ratio when you look at the Top 50 pass defense competition he faced.
Saturday night, it should not be close.
This season, time and time again, Dwayne Haskins showed he was the best player in college football. Unfortunately for him, he is being punished for the unsubstantiated actions of his former head coach by the voters and national media. He has been blackballed, along with the entire team, and it is a damn shame.