By: Brock Wells

Kentucky rolled past Miami (OH) in Week One 37-13. One of the reasons for this decisive victory was the play of quarterback Will Levis. By game’s end, Levis put together a 21/32, 303-yard, three-touchdown effort. The quarterback who transferred to Kentucky from Penn State back in 2020 has the Wildcats considered a favorite to compete for the second spot in the SEC East Division again this season, after going 10-3 last season.

The question has been asked by some whether Levis is capable of winning the Heisman Trophy. This is an interesting question for a couple of reasons. Talentwise, he’s clearly capable of standing alongside other players who are thought of as Heisman candidates. But that alone doesn’t mean he’ll be in a position to win the award. Kentucky has to prove itself to be a team that can compete on the national stage.

Since 2000, just one Heisman Trophy winner was part of a team that finished outside the top 15 in the final AP poll. That player was Lamar Jackson of Louisville in 2016, a team that ended the season ranked 21^st in the final AP poll. Jackson was also so astonishingly good that season that the voting committee had virtually no choice but to give him the award. Last season, Kentucky finished at #18 in the final AP poll.

Levis will find himself in a number of games his team has to win, or at least play quite well in if he’s going to have any shot at winning the Heisman. This starts Saturday when the Wildcats head into Gainesville to take on the Florida Gators who are fresh off an impressive win against a favored Utah team. Levis needs to look convincing in this game. He also could benefit from missing a week of giving up interceptions to sweeten that Heisman offering as well.

The biggest thing for Levis is to take care of business in a convincing fashion every week, avoid making too many mistakes, and win the big games. Kentucky has got to beat Florida. They’ve got to beat Ole Miss and Tennessee. Then, there’s the massive game against defending national champion Georgia on November 19^th. The Bulldogs will likely be heavily favored in that game, but if Levis plays well and somehow the Wildcats can pull off an upset, it isn’t impossible to think he becomes one of the favorites to win the Heisman.

The Georgia game is over two months away, though. For now, Levis needs to make sure he looks extraordinary in each game and that Kentucky is in a position to win every single week, which they came closer to accomplishing last season than many people thought possible. But that was last year. This season is an all-new challenge.

Georgia has reloaded and is ready to take the SEC East Division once again. Kentucky’s got to take care of prior business first, checking in 10-1 or so for the Georgia game, then Levis just might control his own destiny, depending, of course, on where Ohio State and Alabama’s quarterbacks find themselves. This is going to be a difficult task. It would mean asking something of the Kentucky football program it hasn’t given since its last national championship in 1950. But strange things regularly happen in college football.

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By: Brock Wells

There were a number of good games over the weekend in college football, starting the season off in spectacular fashion. Oregon ”“ Georgia was definitely not one of those games. In a final score of 49-3, Georgia absolutely pummeled the Ducks, who were entirely outmatched, seemingly unprepared, sloppy, and straight up hapless in their efforts. Even more than that, they made the Pac-12 look foolish in a high-profile matchup against the mighty SEC, a showdown which the SEC also got the best of in the Utah ”“ Florida game.

So, what actually happened. Well, a lot of things. First off, quarterback Bo Nix threw zero touchdowns and two interceptions. The most rushing yards for the team in the game belonged to Sean Dollars, who accomplished this by going for just 33 yards on four carries. Not a single Oregon player had double digit rushing attempts. Similarly, no wide receiver for the team had more than four receptions. The offense on the whole looked woefully confused.

The Pac-12 isn’t entirely out of the national championship picture, thanks to a commanding performance by USC against Rice, but Oregon had their hopes irreparably damaged in such a blowout loss. Few, if any, analysts and experts had predicted the Ducks to beat the Bulldogs, but none of them could honestly say they expected such a massive mismatch from the game. The Georgia defense doesn’t look to have lost a step at all from last season’s outfit, which was one of the best defenses in the history of college football.

It makes no sense to me that Oregon would refuse to make substitutions in a game so awfully lopsided. Surely, they wouldn’t have faired any worse by allowing backup quarterback Ty Thompson to come into the game. Nix clearly didn’t have it in him, and while it’s unclear whether this was a Week One aberration that will go away in the coming weeks, Thompson would’ve offered Oregon with the fresh blood in a game that was out of reach pretty early. The coaching staff owed it to the team to do their best to get a spark going in an otherwise hopeless situation. This lack of pride from the Ducks may have been even more shocking than the lopsided final score.

The SEC is clearly the best conference in college football. All fans know that, even ones who stump for other top tier conferences. But there’s no reason why a Pac-12 powerhouse program should get wiped off the map against a powerhouse SEC program. Time will tell in the coming weeks just how impressive Georgia’s win was. Oregon didn’t look like a team worthy of a ranking as the 11^th best team in the country.

Equally as dismal as Oregon’s offense was the defensive effort. The defense mustered zero sacks, zero interceptions, and practically zero pass rush up front at all. Georgia was forced to punt just once throughout the duration of the game. The secondary struggled in particular against Stetson Bennett’s passing game.

Game Stats:

• Georgia: 439 passing yards, 132 rushing yards, 9.2 yards per play
• Oregon: 173 passing yards, 140 rushing yards, 4.6 yards per play

Georgia was in practically zero need of a running game during the game because of the success of Stetson Bennett and the Bulldogs passing game. Oregon isn’t going to face too many offenses as opposing as Georgia’s throughout the rest of the season, but their secondary has got to do a better job of covering the deep ball, or it could turn out to be a long season for this team as they find that their loss to Georgia will be accompanied by others.

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By: Adam Hulse (@AdamHulseSports)

The start of the college football season is now less than a month away. That means it is time to start looking at who the top contenders are for the Heisman Trophy this year. This long-running tradition of awarding the trophy to the top college football player in the country began in 1935 and will of course continue for the 2021 season. A quarterback has been the winner in 12 of the last 15 seasons and there is a very good chance that one of them will take home the award again this upcoming season. Here are the current top three candidates to win the Heisman Trophy this year.

1. QB Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma

According to the Draft Kings Sports Book, Spencer Rattler is the current favorite to win the award with a +600 betting line. Rattler is looking to become the third Oklahoma quarterback to win it in the last five years, joining Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield. Head Coach Lincoln Reilly has turned this program into a factory for quarterbacks and his offensive system really allows them to shine at the college level. Rattler has all of the tools to be the next Sooner star and his expectations are sky-high for the 2021 season.

After a slow start to the 2020 season, Rattler came alive and helped Oklahoma win their final eight games of the season. On the year, he completed 67.5 percent of his passes for 3031 yards and 28 touchdowns while also contributing an additional 6 rushing touchdowns. If he continues to progress as expected and fully utilizes the extremely quarterback-friendly system of Reilly to his advantage, Rattler is going to be a very special player this season. If all goes according to plan, he will not only be the front runner for the Heisman Trophy but also for the number one overall pick in the NFL Draft next year.

2. QB DJ Uiagalelei, Clemson

According to the Draft Kings Sports Book, DJ Uiagalelei is the second favorite to the Heisman Trophy at +750 betting odds. He has only started two games at Clemson so far, mostly serving as the backup to Trevor Lawrence, but that was enough for him to demonstrate his potential as one of the top quarterback prospects in the country. In those two games alone, he completed 59 of his 85 passes for 781 yards and 4 touchdowns against zero interceptions while also contributing an additional two touchdowns in the rushing game. Expectations are through the roof as he enters his first season as the starting quarterback.

Head Coach Dabo Swinney has built Clemson into one of the top college football programs in the entire country. They will enter this season as the second favorite behind only Alabama to win the National Championship. The team expectations for success, as well as the giant shoes to fill of Trevor Lawrence, are a very tall order but Uiagalelei has the talent to live up to them and a ton of weapons around him to help him achieve greatness. He is a massively sized quarterback at 6’4 and 250 pounds so he is built to dominate his opposition. If he can play for a full season the way he did for two games last year, he will surely be right in the mix to win the award.

3. QB D’Eriq King, Miami

According to the Draft Kings Sports Book, D’Eriq King has the seventh best odds to win the award with a +2000 betting line. This qualifies him as a bit of a sleeper pick and one that is an excellent value selection. King classifies as a traditional “college style” quarterback because of his relatively small size but astronomical athletic ability. Interestingly, this type of player was once seen as unfit for the NFL game but recently that theory has been proven wrong by the success of quarterbacks like Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray. A true dual threat, but measuring at just 5’11 and 195 pounds, puts King in that same category in terms of style.

After spending four years in Houston, King transferred to Miami for the 2020 season and put up some excellent numbers. He completed 64.1 percent of his passes for 2686 yards and 23 touchdowns while adding another 538 yards and 4 touchdowns on the ground. When combining his career passing and rushing numbers, he has totaled nearly 10,000 yards and over 100 touchdowns, and even more than that if his receiving totals are factored in as well. He is an absolutely electrifying player who could take another step forward this season now that he has had over a full year to settle in to his new system. If he does indeed do so, his name could be firmly planted in the Heisman Trophy winner discussion at the end of the season.

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