Throughout the decade of the four-team College Football Playoff era, the Heisman Trophy race has become increasingly predictable. The start of a new era for the sport could revive the season-long pursuit of football’s top honor, if Week 1 is any indicator.
The most spectacular individual performances on the first full Saturday of the 12-team playoff era came from positions or programs not often associated with the stiff-arm trophy. Wide receivers have won just four Heismans, and DeVonta Smith ended a 32-year drought in 2020,
But a pair of receivers helped set a high standard for 2024, capturing the spotlight to start and finish Week 1 on Saturday. Tennessee’s Donte Thornton Jr. needed just three plays in a 69-3 blowout of Chattanooga to introduce himself to the nation after spending his first three collegiate seasons in relative anonymity.
Thornton spent his first two seasons at Oregon, where he caught a total of 26 passes with three touchdowns and 541 yards. In his first campaign after transferring to Tennessee, Thornton suffered a season-ending leg injury on his only touchdown reception.
Returning against the alma mater of Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, Thornton looked like the legendary T.O. with his combination of size, physicality and breakaway speed. The 6-foot-5 Thornton looked like the missing piece for a Vols offense that fell from fifth in the nation in passing yards a season ago to No. 55 in 2022.
“You can see how much more comfortable Donte has become with this offense … understanding things,” Tennessee quarterback Niko Iamalewa said in a postgame press conference. “He’s been fully involved this whole fall camp, spring camp. He’s been doing a great job and he showed that by going out on the field today.”
Arizona’s Teteroa McMillan has emerged as an established pillar of his team’s prolific passing attack in 2024. He caught 702 yards and eight touchdowns as a freshman in 2022, then upped his production to 1,242 yards and 10 scores in 2023.
While it’s unrealistic for his pace to continue beyond Week 1 in 2024 — no one in Arizona history had caught for 304 yards before McMillan in the Wildcats’ 61-39 win over New Mexico — T-Mac should surpass his lofty sophomore numbers.
Arizona’s defense needs work to compete in its new conference, the Big 12. But if the Wildcats stay in the discussion during the season, McMillan should be in the Heisman race.
Quarterback Noah Fifita started this campaign months ago.
“If people had been listening to my interviews throughout the offseason, they probably would have thought I was being overly dramatic. I think he came in and proved my point completely: he’s the best player in the country,” Fifita said in a postgame press conference.
Along with the award being dominated by quarterbacks, the Heisman has also had a strong connection to the playoffs. Since 2014, seven of the 10 winners have reached the four-team tournament, and 21 of the 37 finalists have made the field. With the exception of 2016, when only 1 of the 5 finalists were in the playoffs, it’s 20 of 32.
How much the playoff expansion widens the scope of the Heisman race will be an interesting storyline in this first season to include a Group of Five team.
It’s probably no coincidence that only one Group of Five team made the four-team playoff and no Group of Five player was a Heisman finalist, including critical omissions like Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds in 2015 and San Diego State running back Rashaad Penny in 2017.
Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty is the best group of five backs since Penny’s 2,248-yard season. With the Broncos having a path to the playoffs, Jeanty’s excellence should prove impossible to ignore.
He had perhaps his best performance in Week 1, racking up 267 yards and six touchdowns on just 20 carries in the Broncos’ 56-45 win at Georgia Southern.
Boise State football’s official Instagram account started the Heisman buzz by highlighting Jeanty’s exploits with a tag that read, “HEI2MAN” — the number on the back of the jersey is two. Two also inadvertently signals what could be the most important week for Jeanty’s Heisman candidacy.
