Who are the Heisman favorites heading into the season?

Bryce Love, RB, Stanford

After Love amassed 2,118 rushing yards last season, breaking a handful of FBS and school records along the way, his NFL Draft status became one of the hottest topics in town. When the 2017 Heisman runner-up announced he’d return to the Farm for his senior season, he instantly became this year’s Heisman front-runner. 

Love struggled with an ankle injury for a significant portion of last season but should enter 2018 with a clean bill of health, not to mention a stacked Stanford offensive line. So with two good legs, room to run and Saquon Barkley out of the picture, Love figures to be the nation’s most explosive guy out of the backfield come August.

Trace McSorley, QB, Penn State

McSorley is one of the most experienced quarterbacks returning in the Power 5. Not only does he begin his third season as full-time starter, but he’s also shown he can play well on a big stage with back-to-back New Year’s Six Bowl appearances and a Big Ten Championship in 2016. 

The comparisons to last year’s Heisman winner, Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield, are inevitable and not without merit (underrated entering college, athleticism to spare, uncanny accuracy). And while much has been made of the departure of Nittany Lions’ offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, new OC Ricky Rahne is hardly a stranger to McSorley — he’s spent the last four years as Penn State’s passing game coordinator, which should mean a painless transition for his star QB.

Will Grier, QB, West Virginia

No Mountaineers player has ever taken home the Heisman hardware, and West Virginia hasn’t won a conference title since joining the Big 12 in 2012. Now there’s a legitimate chance neither of those statements will still be true at the end of this season. 

Despite missing the final two games of the 2017 season with a broken finger, Grier finished top 10 in the FBS in passing TDs (34) and top 20 in passing yards (3,490). This year’s WVU squad looks to have all the ingredients Grier needs to get cooking: one of the most dynamic receiving tandems in the country (David Sills V and Gary Jennings), a head coach who likes to air it out and a path to the Big 12 title game that’s as clear as it’s been in years.

Jake Fromm, QB, Georgia

From true freshman backup, to the National Championship Game, to a seat at the table of Heisman favorites, so goes the short history of the Bulldogs’ 2018 starter under center. Fromm took over as starter in the second game of the 2017 season and led Georgia heartbreakingly close to its first national title since 1980 — so the speculation as to his follow-up campaign looms large. 

Fromm’s supporting cast looks significantly different this season, but a full offseason of preparation as the presumptive starter will benefit a passer who’s already proved himself to be among the most efficient in the nation.

Jonathan Taylor, RB, Wisconsin

When you break a record previously held by Adrian Peterson, the masses are likely to take note. Taylor’s 1,977 rushing yards were the most by a freshman in NCAA history and third-most in the nation last season. His follow-up campaign this year will include the return of the Badgers’ entire starting offensive line (featuring three All-Americans). 

Taylor finished sixth in Heisman voting in 2017 — if Wisconsin reaches the Big Ten Championship Game for the fourth time in five seasons, or better yet manages to snag a conference title for the first time since 2012, his odds get even better.

Jarrett Stidham, QB, Auburn

Most true Heisman candidates lock in their trophy prospects with a signature win for the season. In his first year at Auburn, Stidham came up with two: knocking off top-ranked Georgia and Alabama squads late in the year to put the Tigers in the 2017-18 postseason conversation. If Stidham hadn’t struggled to close out the season (losses in the SEC title game and Peach Bowl), he might have been a legitimate contender even last December. 

This year he won’t have All-SEC running back Kerryon Johnson in the backfield, but that leaves all the more opportunity for the versatile Stidham to be the Tigers’ brightest star.

Khalil Tate, QB, Arizona

If you like your Heisman candidates to look like full-time highlight reels, Khalil Tate’s the one to watch. When he took over the starting role for Arizona in October, he did so with a bang: 327 rushing yards, a new FBS single-game record for a quarterback. Tate continued to light up the Pac-12 stat columns with his legs for the remainder of the 2017 season, and the expectation for this year is that his already-solid pass game will improve under new head coach Kevin Sumlin. 

The biggest hurdle for Tate to overcome in the Heisman race will probably be Arizona’s schedule: a slate of late night games in a conference that’s desperately seeking a bounce-back season.

J.K. Dobbins, RB, Ohio State

If Jonathan Taylor was the freshman darling of the Big Ten West division last season, then Dobbins was his East division mirror image. A fellow Freshman All-American honoree, Dobbins set the Ohio State freshman record in rush yards for a season, while impressing in yards per carry (7.2) and showing versatility (22 receptions on the year). 

The Buckeyes will be replacing talent at a variety of positions, most notably at quarterback, but with Urban Meyer’s tried-and-true system, Dobbins looks poised to have an even bigger year in 2018.

Ed Oliver, DT, Houston

Sure, the only time a defensive player won the Heisman, most of the athletes in college football today weren’t even born. 2018 probably isn’t the year that’ll change, but since the trophy is technically supposed to be awarded to game’s “best player,” Oliver deserves a mention. 

Consensus All-American and Outland Trophy winner are just a couple of the many, many accolades he earned in 2017. There is arguably no interior defender who can better stop the run or, for that matter, rush the pass.

David Sills V, WR, WVU

There’s been an even longer drought for wide receivers when it comes to, ahem, receiving a Heisman, and it’s only happened three times in the award’s 83-year history. Watching Sills on the field, though, inspires a glimmer of hope. He led the nation in TD receptions last season and checks all the right boxes: size, athleticism, hands, red-zone playmaking. 

With a fellow Heisman contender throwing to him in a pass-heavy system, his 2018 numbers just might be downright gaudy.