This year’s Heisman finalists are an ode to college football’s portal/NIL era with three transfer QBs

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: DEC 08 Heisman Trophy Ceremony

NEW YORK — This year’s Heisman Trophy ceremony will be an ode to the new era of college sports, transformed by the transfer portal and NIL.

Three of the four Heisman finalists are quarterbacks who blossomed into stars at their second schools and were having so much fun in college that they decided to stick around an extra year — or two.

“It’s different for everybody. It depends on how they want their life to go,” LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels said Friday. “We decided to transfer, and to start fresh, and to stay an extra year because we felt like we had something more to prove.”

Whether it is Daniels, Oregon’s Bo Nix or Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., the Heisman Trophy winner is likely to be a transfer quarterback for the fifth time in the last seven years.

The 89th Heisman will be handed out Saturday night in midtown Manhattan. Those three quarterbacks and Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. are the finalists. Daniels is the favorite to take home the big bronze statue.

The four spent Friday in New York City, sightseeing, talking to reporters, posing for photos with the trophy and, for the three quarterbacks, making an appearance at a fast-food chicken joint on Times Square. They all have endorsement deals with the national chain.

Even before transfer rules opened up in 2021, the number of quarterbacks switching schools was on the rise, with some finding stardom with a new team.

Oklahoma helped make Baker Mayfield (2017) and Kyler Murray (2018) Heisman winners in their second college stops. Then in 2019, former Ohio State quarterback Joe Burrow won a Heisman and national championship at LSU.

Southern California’s Caleb Williams, last year’s Heisman winner, was part of a new wave of portal transfers, following coach Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/years-heisman-finalists-ode-college-040610208.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2023-12-09 04:06:10

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