Before you get into my Heisman picks this is my first article ever so go a bit easy ;). Now with the 2011-12 season closing and the 12-13 season beginning (after the ever so painful offseason) picks begin to form. Who will win the National Championship? Who will win the Doak Walker Award? Who will win the Heisman? Now the Heisman is the most prestigious award in college football. It is awarded to the best college football (based on what the voters think). The previous winner was Robert Griffin the 3rd, who played quarterback at Baylor University.
I’m going to break my predictions into 2 different categories, dark horses and favorites, let us start with the favorites. The preseason favorite seems to be Matt Barkley, QB at the University of Southern California. Barkley led USC to a 10-2 finish and a huge upset over Oregon. You may have not known this since USC was on probation this year and could not compete in any sort of bowl game or the PAC-12 championship. This year they can compete and are expected to compete in both. Barkley should dominate a terrible PAC-12 South. Plus ESPN typically gives a good USC team a lot of love. Barkley should be the clear favorite. After Barkley the water looks a bit murkier. Montee Ball out of Wisconsin seems to be another big favorite. Ball scored an insane amount of touchdowns as he led Wisconsin to a Big 10 title and a birth to the prestigious Rose Bowl. With the starting QB, Russell Wilson, gone, Ball should have even more emphasis put on him.
Dark horses are a huge part of any sport. Without big surprises then sports would be boring and predictable. Now I’m a huge Arkansas fan so I have to get all the bias in my system first. I think Tyler Wilson and Knile Davis are great recommendations for Heisman. Tyler Wilson impressed many people with his toughness and big play ability. Despite taking big hits all year due to his inexperienced offensive line, he still got First Team All-SEC honors. He also led the Razorbacks to an 11-2 record and a victory at the Cotton Bowl. Knile Davis had a great chance at the Heisman last year. Unfortunately he took a season ending injury. It will be very interesting to see what he does this year. Injured players never seem to come back as good as they use to be. Knile will have to prove this theory wrong if he wants to have a chance at winning. The next dark horse I have on my mind is Kenny Hillard at LSU. Hillard impressed me a lot during the LSU-Arkansas game and the LSU-Georgia game. LSU fans also seem to be very high on him. I think his name will gradually start getting more popular as next season starts. My final Dark Horse is Landry Jones. Jones was a favorite last year but he kept messing up. Every game I saw him play he would screw up multiple times. He HAS to learn to not turn over the ball if he wants a chance at winning. He can’t afford screwing up like he did last year. Especially with all that talent Oklahoma is bringing in yearly to help him.
There are a lot more people who could win the Heisman. RG3 was never considered in the running for the Heisman last year until he put up video game stats. Anyone could emerge, there are many more potential dark horses. We will just have wait and see. For all we know no one on this list could win the Heisman. I bet a lot of people didn’t have RG3 winning it in their preseason predictions last year. All we can know is whoever wins will amaze and truly deserve the award just as all the previous winners have done.