Congrats to Joe Burrow for getting the necessary votes to be this year’s Heisman Trophy winner even though he was certainly NOT MY Heisman. And no, I would not have even given college football’s most prestigious honor to Chase Young, Justin Fields or Jalen Hurts.
Now that the Heisman has been decided we’re free to discuss who we voted for, and I went with Akron quarterback Robbie Kelley. Yes, 2019 wasn’t exactly the best season for the Zips, who finished 0-12 including 1-11 against the spread, but the fan voters saw past the record and noticed a quality Heisman candidate.
He first caught my eye when he was picking up steam with the fan vote as part of the #RKelleyForHeisman campaign. Each year there is a Heisman fan vote, which counts as one of the 927 votes this season. Kelley finished fourth as a write-in candidate, just ahead of Tua Tagovailoa and finalists Chase Young and Justin Fields.
The campaign was a success and everyone had some fun, but then I sent the Deceptive Speed research department to crunch the numbers to see where the fifth year senior stacks up with this year’s class of Heisman finalists.
- Interceptions: Robbie Kelley (3), Joe Burrow (6)
- Week 3 completion %: Robbie Kelley (60), Justin Fields (58.3)
- Incompletions: Robbie Kelley (18), Jalen Hurts (100)
- Passing yards: Robbie Kelley (75), Chase Young (0)
So what’s the lesson here? Sometimes a Heisman candidate is more than a team’s record.
Robbie Kelley got robbed of his moment.
Keep the conversation going by reaching out to Erik Buchinger on Twitter or email erik@deceptivespeed.com.