LSU fifth-year senior quarterback Joe Burrow, Ohio State sophomore quarterback Justin Fields, Oklahoma senior quarterback Jalen Hurts, and junior Buckeye defensive end Chase Young have been announced as the four Heisman finalists this year.
Fields and Young are the first pair of teammates to be finalists for the trophy since Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield and receiver Dede Westbrook in 2016.
Fields is the second Buckeye quarterback in as many years to make the trip to New York as a Heisman finalist, joining Dwayne Haskins, who went last year.
Here is Ohio State’s release on the news.
Ohio State’s Justin Fields, Chase Young Heisman Trophy Finalists
Ohio State duo joins Ohio State graduate and LSU record-setting QB Joe Burrow & Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts in NYC
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State had three very-much worthy and talked about players in the running to be named Heisman Trophy finalists this year. Two of them now are, as New York’s Downtown Athletic Club announced this evening that the four finalists for this year’s trophy include Ohio State sophomore quarterback Justin Fields and junior defensive end Chase Young. The other finalists are Ohio State graduate Joe Burrow, the record-setting quarterback as a graduate transfer at LSU, and Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Ohio State is only the fifth school to have multiple Heisman Trophy finalists in the same year since the award first started inviting finalists to New York in 1982. The schools with multiple finalists in one year are:
§ Ohio State in 2019 (QB Justin Fields and DE Chase Young);
§ Penn State in 1994 (RB Ki-Jana Carter and QB Kerry Collins);
§ Miami in 2002 (RB Willis McGahee and QB Ken Dorsey);
§ Oklahoma in 2004 (RB Adrian Peterson and QB Jason White); and
§ Oklahoma in 2016 (QB Baker Mayfield and WR Dede Westbrook).
Young is just the ninth defensive player – out of 159 total finalists since 1982 – to be named a Heisman Trophy finalist. The others: Michigan’s Jabril Peppers (2016), Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o (2012), LSU’s Tyrann Mathieu (2011), Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh (2009), Michigan’s Charles Woodson (1997), Miami’s Warren Sapp (1994), Washington’s Steve Emtman (1991) and Oklahoma’s Brian Bosworth (1986).
Young, from Upper Marlboro, Md., has already been named the Chicago Tribune Silver Football award winner as the Big Ten’s best player, and the Big Ten’s defensive player and defensive end of the year.
Fields, who transferred to Ohio State this season, is the Big Ten’s offensive player and quarterback of the year. From Kennesaw, Ga., he has accounted for 50 total touchdowns this season and is within four of Dwayne Haskins’ Big Ten record of 54 total touchdowns set last year. Fields also has a ridiculous 40:1 touchdown pass to interception ratio.
RB J.K. Dobbins misses out on a trip to New York as a Heisman finalist, but he certainly gave it a run. The Doak Walker Award finalist is merely putting together one of the greatest rushing seasons in school history with 1,829 yards rushing which leaves him just 98 yards from Eddie George’s school record of 1,927 yards in a season. He has scored 20 touchdowns.