This year's crop of Heisman Trophy candidates is about as deep as college football has seen in decades, with legitimate contenders a-plenty spread across the FBS' five power conferences (and some of the other conferences as well!). However, there's one guy who stands above them all in our humble opinion -- Ohio State's BEAST of a starting running back, Ezekiel Elliott. Here's 3 reasons why he'll be walking home with the award next winter.
3. The Numbers Simply Don't Lie
Against a Big Ten conference filled with beefy space-eating defensive tackles and two world-class teams in the College Football Playoff, Elliott was simply untouchable (unless, you know, he wanted to TRUCK an opposing defender). Elliott rushed for 6.9 yards per carry last season -- the third-best of any running back with 220 carries or more (Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon, Indiana's Tevin Coleman). While we don't necessarily expect Elliott to increase his 273 carries to 2014 Melvin Gordon levels (343), it's feasible that he hits the 300 mark this season.
If things hold true production-wise (as we think they will if they don't get even better), a 10% increase in carries would mean over 2,000 yards and 20 touchdowns for Zeke. That's eye-popping enough to draw voters' eyes away from the quarterbacks.
2. How Do You Stabilize An Offense?
Whether it's Cardale Jones or JT Barrett under center, Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer will lean on Elliott again and again to open up opportunities for either (or both) to pick apart one-on-one coverage on the outside. Both Jones and Barrett are Heisman candidates in their own right, but that's arguably because Elliott is the man standing behind them breathing smoke.
When you have a running back that commands seven or eight in the box and a) still breaks through the muck for large, highlight-reel gains & b) makes every skill-position player around him look THAT much better, it simply screams GIVE THAT MAN THE HEISMAN.
1. The Ohio State Brand
Let's be real here -- Ohio State football's "brand" has never been more marketable, whether it be to recruits, national television outlets or casual fans looking for jerseys in their local malls. Winning the first-ever College Football Playoff will afford the Buckeyes some luxuries in 2015, including a very real chance that the team could lose one or two tough games and still have a spot reserved for them in 2016's incarnation of the CFP.
At the center of all of this will be Elliott. He's the perfect combination of grit, charisma and pure ability for this era of college football. In addition, he's the ground-and-pound outlier in a 2015 Heisman race which will be oversaturated with quarterbacks putting up gaudy passing stats. The Buckeyes on Elliott's helmet and the swag in his unique game will win him this race, hands down.
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