2021 Heisman Trophy Winner Announced
All eyes from the college football world were turned toward New York City on Saturday night as the Heisman Trophy was presented for the 2021 season. The parity this season left the ballots fluid for a large portion of the year. but the four finalists were named during the prior week. The trophy was awarded to Alabama sophomore quarterback Bryce Young.
Young is the first Alabama quarterback to win the award and becomes the school's second consecutive Heisman winner after WR Devonta Smith took home the hardware last year. Alabama is now one of six schools to have back-to-back Heisman winners.
Despite a slowish start to the season, Young really separated himself from the pack and became the favorite to win the award through his play during the last month of the season. He has shown exactly what made him special as a recruit and should be heading to the pros rather quickly.
This season, Bryce Young has 4,322 passing yards, 43 touchdowns, and four interceptions with a 88.9 QBR. He has thrown for over 300 yards nine times this year and has shown a tremendous ability to hurt teams with both his arm and legs. He beat out fellow finalists QB Kenny Pickett (Pittsburgh), DE Aidan Hutchinson (Michigan), and QB CJ Stroud (Ohio State) by a pretty substantial margin.
Young's performance has been good enough rank among the top 10 in every quarterback statistic and earned him nominations for the Maxwell and Walter Camp Player of the Year awards.
Voters made up of certain appointed media members and previous Heisman winners submitted their ballots a week before the ceremony, and the four finalists were invited to New York after ballots were collected. The final voting results looked like this:
Bryce Young QB Alabama
Aidan Hutchinson DE Michigan
Kenny Picket QB Pittsburgh
CJ Stroud QB Ohio State
Will Anderson DE/LB Alabama
Kenneth Walker III RB Michigan State
Matt Corral QB Ole Miss
Desmond Ridder QB Cincinnati
Jordan Davis DT Georgia
Breece Hall RB Iowa State