The expanded College Football Playoff was introduced to give more teams a shot at the national championship.
Specifically, teams like last season’s one-loss Georgia Bulldogs, who had a realistic chance to lift the trophy for a historic three-peat, only to miss out after a heartbreaking loss to the Nick Saban led Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC championship game.
But could the new playoff format also open the door to more Heisman hopefuls as well? On3’s Jesse Simonton seems to think so.
While appearing on the Paul Finebaum Show, Simonton observes that historically, "you have to be a guy who’s playing on a national championship contender” to win the coveted Heisman Trophy. Acknowledging that the last two winners, LSU QB Jayden Daniels in 2023 and current Chicago Bears starting QB and former USC Trojan Caleb Williams in 2022, were outliers to this trend, Simonton feels the expanded playoff could further break the mold.
Current betting odds favor quarterbacks at the helm of teams with serious championship aspirations. Potential No.1 NFL draft pick Carson Beck of the Georgia Bulldogs, Texas Longhorns standout Quinn Ewers, and former Oklahoma Sooner turned Oregon Duck Dillon Gabriel, are the top three favorites heading into the season. But with deep playoff runs a possibility in the new format, Simonton has his eyes on two betting long-shots from the SEC: Alabama Crimson Tide signal caller Jalen Milroe and much-hyped Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava.
Right now, both Milroe and Iamaleava are dark horses to either make the college football championship game and lift the Heisman Trophy, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have tremendous upside as well.
Jalen Milroe was playing his best football over the back half of the 2023 season, and it was his two touchdown, MVP performance that knocked off Georgia 27 - 24 in the 2023 SEC Championship game and were an overtime loss away against Michigan from possibly winning it all. According to his new head coach, Kalen DeBoer, Milroe will be playing behind a much improved offensive line in 2024, a unit that allowed Alabama QBs to be sacked a program record 48 times in 2023.
Nico Iamaleava only started one game in the 2023 season, but what a game it was, crushing the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Cheez-it Citrus Bowl 35 - 0 in a four-touchdown breakout performance that earned him MVP honors. There are high hopes in Knoxville that Iamaleava will lead the Josh Heupel coached Volunteers offense back to their 2022 heights, when they were the highest scoring offense in all of college football.
If both of these quarterbacks play to the potential they flashed last season, they should absolutely lead their teams to the College Football Playoff. But with Heisman Trophy voters closely watching all potential winners during these potential playoff runs, perhaps they can also lead themselves to Lincoln Center in New York City, for a shot at the most coveted award in all of college sports.
