This Year's Heisman Race Was a Rout

Alabama quarterback Bryce Young wins easily
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 11, 2021 9:32 PM CST
This Year's Heisman Race Was a Rout
Alabama quarterback Bryce Young.   (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Bryce Young didn't just meet the standard set by the star quarterbacks who preceded him at Alabama, he exceeded it. Young became the first Crimson Tide quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, making Alabama the fifth school with consecutive winners of college football's most prestigious player of the year award, per the AP. Young received 684 first-place votes and 2,311 points to easily outdistance Michigan defensive end Aidan Hutchinson (78; 954). Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett (28; 631) finished third and Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud (12; 399) was fourth. Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr. (31; 325) was fifth, putting two defensive players in the top five for the first time since 1962.

A year after former teammate DeVonta Smith won the Heisman, Young received 83% of total points available, the seventh highest among 87 winners. He was named on 90% of all ballots, also the seventh highest in Heisman history. Young has passed for 4,322 yards and 43 touchdowns this season, leading No 1 Alabama to a Southeastern Conference title and a spot in the College Football Playoff. The defending champion Crimson Tide will play No. 4 Cincinnati on Dec. 31 in the Cotton Bowl.

Young, a sophomore, stepped into the starting role held by Mac Jones last year and Tua Tagovailoa the two seasons prior. Both are starting in the NFL after being selected in the first round of the draft. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the great quarterbacks that have played here before me and that’s something that I don’t take lightly at all,” Young told AP earlier this week. Tagovailoa was the Heisman runner-up to Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray in 2018 and then finished 10th in the voting in 2019, a season cut short by injury.

(More Heisman Trophy stories.)

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