With the final games of the first month of the 2016 season being quickly put to bed, we can officially hand the September Heisman Trophy to Lamar Jackson. In an utter and absolute landslide.
The Louisville quarterback’s ridiculous, video game-like month has officially come to an end, with Jackson accounting for seven touchdowns in a 59-28 win over Marshall in Huntington. The true sophomore threw for five touchdowns and ran for another two in a performance that did nothing but show how remarkably easy the game is for Jackson right now even as he “struggled” early on.
With this showing, Jackson has now accounted for 25 touchdowns on the season -- 13 passing, 12 rushing.
Remarkably, Jackson now has more touchdowns individually than all but one team -- aside from his own -- playing at the FBS level. That one team? Michigan, with 28. USF, with 25 as a team that played this week, is tied with Jackson as an individual.
I guess you could technically add an asterisk to the “one team” theme as Texas Tech (25), Ohio State (23) and Miami (21) were all on byes this weekend. And I’m also going under the assumption that Washington (19 entering Week 4) won’t get beyond 25, even as they are currently tied 14-14 with Arizona at halftime.
Still, the numbers Jackson is putting up are historic and epic, and that was even before he added Nos. 6 and 7.Lamar Jackson (@UofLFootball): responsible for 5 TD tonight, giving him 23 through 4 games, more than any other FBS player since 2005
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 25, 2016
Lamar Jackson is the only FBS player to have multiple seven-touchdown games in one season in the last 10 seasons.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 25, 2016
I have no clue how Jackson will close out the season, but I do know that, at the moment, there’s the Cardinals’ signal-caller and then there’s everybody else when it comes to the 2016 Heisman race. Just as it was exactly a week ago.
Our current Heisman Top Three:
1.) Lamar Jackson
2.) Jackson, Lamar
3.) That Louisville QB
— CollegeFootballTalk (@CFTalk) September 17, 2016