Georgia Football won’t win a Heisman in 2018 and it doesn’t matter
A lot of writers are not giving good odds for any Georgia Football player to win the Heisman Trophy this season. Believe it or not, that’s not a sign of disrespect.
It’s one of the most prestigious awards in American sports. The winners of the Heisman Trophy go down in history and are remembered by all of college football. Only two Georgia Football players have ever won the award. Frank Sinkwich back in 1942 and of course the great Herschel Walker.
After last year, D’Andre Swift and Jake Fromm popped up on a lot of Heisman favorite lists. With the season now nearly two weeks away, both of them seem to be dropping behind a lot of other players. Some Dawg fans see this as an insult and a sign that these writers are disrespecting their players.
There is something to that. Most writers seem to have anointed Tua Tagovailoa a clear favorite despite the fact he’s has only played half a game of football. I have nothing against the guy, but the season hasn’t even started and I’m already sick of hearing about him. But ignoring Tua, the rest of the players ahead Swift and Fromm have one big difference from the Georgia players. They are ‘the guy’ on one man teams.
Wonder Jarrett Stidham is another name you see a lot? It’s not because he’s so much better than Fromm. It’s because I can’t name you another player on Auburn’s offense. Drew Lock? That guy is going to have to throw for 50 points a game seeing as he has no running game and the worst defense in the SEC. Jonathan Taylor is going to get like 400 carries at Wisconsin. That team is the definition of a one man band.
That’s not the case at Georgia. The reason Swift and Fromm have dropped is not because they have become worse players the past six months. It’s because Georgia has loaded up on really good players and both are unlikely to be a bell-cow. I doubt that Swift even gets 200 touches this season. Sony Michel only got 165 in 2017 and I can’t see Swift getting many more than that. Jake Fromm will have even more weapons than this year, but he’ll also have 5 running backs who want the ball and Justin Fields coming in and taking significant reps. Neither player is going to get the workload needed to grab the committee’s attention.
UGA is loaded on offense in 2018. It has three former 5-stars at wide receiver and might be deeper at running back than last year. Both quarterbacks could start for 95% of teams in the nation on September 1st. There is no one player that will make this offense go. It’s going to be their relentless depth and talent that wins UGA ball games, not freakish one-off performances.
Building a team like that isn’t a great way to win a Heisman Trophy. Having too much help tends to be something the voters don’t really like. They are looking for players who go out there and win games on their own time and again like Lamar Jackson, not teams that are built to systematically destroy the opposition.
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The good news is that while it doesn’t tend to lead to many Heisman’s, this is exactly how championship teams are built. It’s highly unlikely that a Georgia player wins the Heisman this season, but they’ve got a damn good shot at the natty in January. I think it’s safe to say that Kirby Smart and all of Dawgnation is much more concerned with that trophy than any individual award, no matter the prestige.