With rivalry week just around the corner, the 2021 college football regular season is nearing its end. That means the time to hand out postseason awards, including the highly coveted Heisman Trophy, is nearly upon us.
Two frontrunners for the award have emerged over the past few weeks and unsurprisingly, both are quarterbacks. Ohio State redshirt freshman CJ Stroud and Alabama sophomore Bryce Young have distanced themselves from the rest of the field after a pair of prolific performances this past weekend.
Although the two signal callers for two of the top teams in the country are well-deserving of the positions they hold, Danny Kanell thinks one name is being left off of the list of frontrunners. The SiriusXM radio host explained why he thought Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett should be getting more “Heisman love” for his performance this season.
“Kenny Pickett should be getting more Heisman love. Like WAY more. Both Bama and Ohio State have proven to be plug n play systems for their QB’s. Pickett has done just as much as Young and Stroud statistically with less talent around him in way more high stress possessions,” Kanell wrote on Twitter Monday.
Kenny Pickett should be getting more Heisman love. Like WAY more. Both Bama and Ohio State have proven to be plug n play systems for their QB’s. Pickett has done just as much as Young and Stroud statistically with less talent around him in way more high stress possessions
— Danny Kanell (@dannykanell) November 22, 2021
Pickett has impressed during his redshirt senior season with the Panthers. Through 11 games, the Pittsburgh quarterback has completed 67.1 percent of his passes for 3,857 yards, 36 touchdowns and six interceptions. He’s added an additional 209 yards and four scores on the ground.
As well as putting up fantastic individual numbers, Pickett has the Panthers rolling through the ACC this season. Pittsburgh is 9-2 and has already clinched a spot in the conference championship game in early December.
Pickett currently has the fifth-best odds to win the Heisman in most major sportsbooks, which may be a difficult deficit to overcome with just a few games left to play. He might not be able to walk away with the award, but his play this season has put him on track to be one of the first quarterbacks selected in next year’s NFL Draft.
That would surely be a fine consolation prize for missing out on the Heisman.
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