NEW YORK (AP) — This year’s Heisman Trophy ceremony will be an ode to a new era of college sports, transformed by the transfer portal and the NIL.
Three of the four Heisman finalists are quarterbacks who blossomed into stars at their second schools and had so much fun in college that they decided to stay an extra year — or two.
“It’s different for everyone. It depends on how they want their life to go,” LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels said Friday. “We decided to move on and start over and stay an extra year because we felt like we had something else to prove.”
Whether it’s Daniels, Oregon’s Bo Nix or Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., the Heisman Trophy winner will likely be a transitional quarterback for the fifth time in the last seven years.
The 89th Heisman will be handed out Saturday night in midtown Manhattan. These 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, speaking to reporters, posing for photos with the trophy and, for the three midfielders, appearing at a fast food restaurant in Times Square. They all have endorsement deals with the national chain.
Even before transfer rules opened up in 2021, the number of quarterbacks changing 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 stop. Then in 2019, former Ohio State quarterback Joe Burrow won the Heisman and the national championship at LSU.
Southern California’s Caleb Williams, last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, was part of a new wave of portal transfers, following coach Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to the Trojans with immediate eligibility as a sophomore.
Daniels, Nix and Pinix Jr. took indirect routes to the top of college football.
Nicks was a five-star recruit and a freshman at Auburn. Tigers Legacy His father was also a quarterback at Auburn, Nix spent three years on The Plains. He had some highs and lows and decided after 2021 to try something else.
It couldn’t have been much better.
The Ducks competed for a spot in the playoffs last year and with a chance to make another championship, the Knicks are back for a fifth college season — taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility the NCAA granted to those who were in school during the 2020-21 pandemic.
The 23-year-old has thrown 40 touchdown passes this season and threatens the FBS record for single-season completion percentage at 77.2%.
“I think at the end of the day, you want to go somewhere where you’re going to develop as a player, where you’re going to be able to reach your full potential and experience life and enjoy life in that period of college football, because you only get it for three, four, five years,” Nicks said. “Whatever the years.”
Penix, 23, is in his sixth year. He spent four injury-plagued years at Indiana before moving to Washington in 2022 to play for Huskies coach Calen de Boer, who was offensive coordinator with the Hoosiers.
“It’s definitely the biggest factor that prompted me to transfer to Washington. It’s just about that confidence on the field and knowing that every time I catch the ball, I have the opportunity to do something great with it,” Penix said. “You know that feeling is something that You can match it.”
Penix leads the nation with 324 yards rushing per game and has beaten Oregon and Nix twice this season, leading the second-seeded Huskies to the Pac-12 title and a College Football Playoff appearance.
Daniels, who turns 18 Dec. 23, took the opposite path for the Knicks, moving from the Pac-12 to the Southeastern Conference. He played three seasons at Arizona State before transferring to LSU last year.
His first season in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, wasn’t much different from his time in Tempe, Arizona, but it was good but inconsistent.
He also took advantage of the opportunity to play another varsity season and it all came together. He leads the nation in total offense with 412 yards per game and is averaging an impressive 10.7 yards per game.
Daniels has a chance to become the rare Heisman winner in the BCS/CFP era to play for a team that wasn’t a national title contender late in the season. The Tigers went 9-3 in 13th place.
A Southern California native, Daniels said he stepped out of his comfort zone into the unknown when he decided to go to LSU.
“Coming from the West Coast all the way to the Bayou, I didn’t know what I was getting into at LSU, but I’m glad I chose it,” Daniels said.