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Heisman Trophy Race: Did J.T. Barrett Close the Gap?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Heisman Trophy race could go down to the wire.

Now that the calendar page has been flipped and it is now October, the Heisman Trophy race is on in earnest. It appeared that Lamar Jackson of Louisville could have set himself apart as the clear favorite to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday but that was not to be the case.

Although the young quarterback put up big numbers against Clemson, his Cardinals fell to the Tigers. Did that allow J.T. Barrett and Deshaun Watson to move up a notch in the minds of the Heisman voters?

Despite being outplayed by Jackson, Watson’s team won and now Clemson is ranked No. 3 in the country and is the favorite to win the ACC title. Barrett had another outstanding game and his four touchdown passes made him the Ohio State all-time leader in that category.

Greg Ward of Houston isn’t far behind Barrett and Watson and had an outstanding game as well. Ward was 32-38 passing for 389 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also ran for 65 yards and 2 touchdowns as the Houston Cougars remained undefeated and retained their No. 6 ranking.

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The group of Heisman Trophy contenders have probably been trimmed down to these four quarterbacks. Christian McCaffrey’s sub par performance in Stanford’s loss to Washington Saturday has taken him out of the mix for the moment and it will be difficult for him to get back in the conversation.

Will Lamar Jackson continue to put up ridiculous numbers and SportsCenter highlights like he has so far this season? If so, but Louisville doesn’t make the playoffs, will that be enough to win the Heisman. It was in 2012 for Johnny Manziel.

It may be that one or more of the other three quarterbacks lead their team to the postseason undefeated as Troy Smith did for Ohio state in 2006. Smith didn’t put up the numbers that some players did that season, but he was the best quarterback in the nation, a great leader and a playmaker as well. Would that be enough for Barrett, Watson or Ward to win the award instead of Jackson?

The next few weeks should be interesting as there are four very talented quarterbacks in the hunt for the Heisman Trophy. This could be a race that comes down to the wire.

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