I voted for TCU quarterback Max Duggan to win the Heisman Trophy.
I’ve been a Heisman voter since 2007 which was the year that Florida’s Tim Tebow won the award, but in my opinion, this year was the most interesting of all campaigns.
With a hat-tip to Claude Rains, who played Captain Louie Renault in movie classic “Casablanca” whose signature line “round up the usual suspects” generally figures prominently at the beginning of every college football season as to who the Heisman candidates is likely to be.
Those “usual suspects,” are generally quarterbacks from locales such as Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Columbus, Ohio, Clemson, South Carolina, and Norman, Oklahoma, with and occasional tailback, or receiver added into the mix to give the field a touch of flavor.
And even though Ohio State’s field general C.J. Stroud was invited to New York for the ceremony, he was never considered a strong candidate and finished a distant third.
As we arrived late into the 2022 season it became clear, that the race for the trophy was wide open, and the question being asked throughout the land was; who’s going to win the Heisman?
Instead of the “usual suspects” these name began to emerge; tailback Blake Corum from Michigan, QB’s Hendon Hooker from Tennessee, Bo Nix from Oregon, Caleb Williams from USC, and as TCU continued to pile up victories, QB Max Duggan, the gritty leader of TCU’s undefeated Horned Frogs was like “Seabiscuit” closing fast from the outside.
Injuries, and stunning upsets, cost Hooker and Bo Nix New York invites, while Michigan’s Corum was lost for the season before the Ohio State game, reducing the field for all intents and purposes to a two-man race between Williams of USC, and Duggan of TCU.
In today’s unwieldy portal transferring system, and NIL money continues to flow like the Mississippi, Max Duggan’s story was like the first softening spring breeze after emerging from a brutal Northeast winter.
When this year’s Coach of the Year award winner Sonny Dykes took over the TCU program, he dropped Duggan to backup status, despite the fact that he was a senior and a three-year starter.
The QB never sulked or complained, and when the Frogs anointed field general was injured in the first game, Duggan, who won the Davey O’Brien, as the best quarterback in the country, charged to the rescue, leading the surprising Frogs to a 12-1 season, and finishing second in the final Heisman vote.
As great of a year as Williams had, I feel the performance that Duggan put on in the fourth quarter of the Big 12 Title game, running and willing his team from 8 points down, in the final minutes, before losing in overtime, but keeping the Frogs in the third spot for the playoff, will stand the test of time in TCU football history.
It was the reason for my vote.