The college football regular season has ended. For the first time ever, there will be a 12-team playoff for NCAA Division 1 FBS college football. Meanwhile, the race for the Heisman trophy, the award for the best player in college football, has also started to get exciting as star players excel with players like Boise State’s running back Ashton Jeanty and Colorado’s Travis Hunter, who plays wide receiver and cornerback.
The number one team in the country (as of December 4th), the Oregon Ducks, will have a first round bye. The three other teams that are projected to have a first round bye in the playoffs are Texas, SMU, and Boise State.
For the past ten seasons, there had been a four-team playoff the top teams would face off in. Before the 2014-15 college football season, the system for deciding the national champion was the Bowl Championship Series, where the two highest-ranked teams would face off against each other. Before 1998, the national champion was decided by polling with both the USA Today and Associated Press awarding winners.
Last year’s National Champion, Michigan, will not make the playoffs, going 7-5 this season. A big reason for Michigan’s struggles is how they lost their head coach from last season, Jim Harbaugh, who became the head coach for the Los Angeles Chargers of the NFL.
Despite their struggles, Michigan recently upset The Ohio State Buckeyes on November 30th, despite Ohio State being favored by 19.5 points.
The SMU Mustangs, a team not expected to be as good as they ended, have turned a lot of heads by being ranked eighth in the country, as of December 4th, and are a contender to make the playoffs in their first year of playing in the ACC. An important part of SMU’s success is their star quarterback Kevin Jennings, who has been great after not even being the starting quarterback at the beginning of the season.
Another one of the teams projected to have a first-round bye, Boise State, was another team not expected to be as good as they are going into the season. Many people only knew them for the famous blue field they play on, but now many know about them for their star running back Ashton Jeanty. Jeanty has been a candidate for winning the Heisman trophy, which is awarded to the top player in the country, despite the fact that no running back has won the award since Derrick Henry in 2015.
Travis Hunter has also been having an outstanding season, playing exceptionally well on offense and defense by getting touchdowns and interceptions. His team, the Colorado Buffaloes, have been playing better than most expected, being ranked twenty-third overall in the country as of December 4th after going 4-8 last season.
Jeanty recently spoke about why he thinks he should be the Heisman winner for this season over Hunter.
"For me, what I've been doing hasn't been done in 36, 37 years, so that's something special. If I keep that up and break a record that's been around for 36 years, I feel like you can't really compete with that,” Jeanty said.
Although winning the Heisman is also important to Hunter, he often shows how team success is still the top priority.
“My main goal right now is to stay focused on my team and the individual awards will come,” Hunter said in a recent interview.
NHS freshman Bobby DeNicola felt as if Hunter should win the award.
“Travis Hunter because he is a dominant player who plays on both sides of the ball and is on the top of the leaderboard for both positions,” DeNicola said.
Oregon has had a dominant season so far, being the last remaining undefeated team in the Division 1 level of the FBS, while having a record of 12-0 as of December 4th. Oregon has multiple star players on offense, including quarterback Dillon Gabriel. One of the biggest reasons for Oregon's success has been head coach Dan Lanning, who has coached Oregon since the 2022-23 college football season.
Lanning spoke about his team after he beat the Michigan Wolverines earlier on in the season.
“We got a good team that continues to get better and better every single week, and I still see a lot of things that we can improve, and I know we’re excited to go attack it.”
When asked what has been the key to Oregon’s success, NHS freshman Blaise Mindenhall had one player in mind.
“I mean, it’s got to be Dillon Gabriel. I mean, last year you have Bo Nix, but this year you need a new quarterback, and a guy like Gabriel transfers in, and that’s kind of going to win you a lot of football games,” Mindenhall said.
This college football season has been exciting and unique from other years. The results of this Heisman race and college football playoffs promise to be thrilling for all football fans.
Comments