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Leonard Fournette has that extra dose of 'special' to win the Heisman
It’s hard for a running back to win the Heisman these days. Adrian Peterson couldn’t do it. Melvin Gordon couldn’t do it.
But Leonard Fournette can definitely do it.
No. 13 LSU’s sensational sophomore has been on Heisman radars from before he even played his first college game last year, but Saturday’s performance against 18th-ranked Auburn may go down as his official coming out party. It’s not just that Fournette rushed 228 yards and three touchdowns on just 19 carries against strangely hapless Auburn. Lots of guys can say they put up big numbers. Very few, however, are capable of doing this:
OH MY GOODNESS. If you watch one college football play today, make it this RIDICULOUS TD run by Leonard Fournette. http://t.co/FZlqyX2G2H
— SEConCBS (@SEConCBS) September 19, 2015
Or this:
Leonard Fournette can NOT. BE. STOPPED. http://t.co/xYZIUj6YCR
— SEConCBS (@SEConCBS) September 19, 2015
Or this. The guy is a one-man GIF.
Fournette is a transcendent talent, one who’s already evoking the names of greats like Peterson and Herschel Walker. Auburn presumably spent the entire week gearing up for No. 7, and he still ripped off a 71-yard run on his first carry. Les Miles has spent a lot of years having his quarterbacks primarily hand off, so it says something that Fournette ran for more yards in a game than any previous Miles running back. And he got there in the third quarter.
At this point let’s pause and recognize what a dumpster fire Auburn has become. The preseason SEC favorite (as voted at SEC Media Days) can’t run or pass, which puts quite the onus on its defense. And that defense was missing its best player, Carl Lawson, on Saturday, with several other starters banged up. Silly me, I thought Auburn might right itself Saturday against one-dimensional LSU. But when you run for 411 yards, as LSU did, by all means be one-dimensional.
You know how this works. When one SEC West team destroys another, the winner automatically gets anointed a national title contender. And LSU’s buzz only figures to grow over its next five games — likely wins against Syracuse, Eastern Michigan, South Carolina, Florida and Western Kentucky. The Tigers could be 8-0 heading into their annual early November showdown against Alabama.
And the higher LSU climbs up the polls, the better chance the Fournette keeps building that Heisman case. This year’s field is loaded with star-studded running backs: Ezekiel Elliott, Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry and Dalvin Cook chief among them, but Fournette just exudes an extra dose of “special.” He’ll need more big games like Saturday’s to distinguish himself, but I like his chances.
Stewart Mandel is a senior college sports columnist for FOXSports.com. He covered college football and basketball for 15 years at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter @slmandel and Facebook. Send emails and Mailbag questions to Stewart.Mandel@fox.com.
