Heisman Trophy Candidates For Notre Dame In 2021
While some view Notre Dame as falling outside of the Top 10 this season, others see the Irish as once again being a dark horse College Football Playoff contender in the 2021 season.
Should Notre Dame once again prove to be a playoff contender you know the Irish will have at least one player become a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender. We saw running back Josh Adams and the "33 Trucking" campaign in 2017 before the late season fizzle, and last season quarterback Ian Book finished ninth in Heisman voting last season and earned five first-place votes despite pedestrian numbers.
If Notre Dame wins they will have players get Heisman Trophy love, and there are three that will have the best chance.
KYREN WILLIAMS, RUNNING BACK
Williams is the most likely candidate based on him fitting three of the top criteria to win the Heisman. 1) Team is very good 2) He's a running back (or quarterback) 3) He comes into the season with some buzz after rushing for 1,125 yards and 13 touchdowns last season.
The Case For Williams: Williams is a preseason first-team All-American with Sporting News and other outlets have him as a second or third-team All-American. His success last season came during his first real action, and when you hear stories about his work ethic the odds of him taking a step back are slim.
Williams is also likely to have an expanded role this season, and the hope is that a more diverse offense creates more running room, which should allow the junior back to improve upon his 5.3 yards per carry. The expanded role should allow Williams to make a lot more plays in the pass game, and he'll likely have some impressive pass game highlights that will impressive voters.
Even if Williams doesn't improve much on his 1,125 yards from a season ago I do expect his touchdown numbers to stay in a similar area, but a jump in pass game production will make him one of the more productive backs in the country. If he's the primary weapon on a CFP contender you'll see Williams get some Heisman hype.
The Concerns: Notre Dame replaces four starting linemen from its 2020 squad, which has some wondering if Williams will be able to repeat his success last season. If Notre Dame tries to run the same offense it did in 2020 he will not be able to repeat that level of success.
JACK COAN, QUARTERBACK
If Notre Dame is a CFP contender then the starting quarterback will get some love. As Book showed last season the starting quarterback at Notre Dame doesn't even need to put up overly impressive numbers to be a Heisman contender.
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The Case For Coan: Coan isn't getting the preseason love he should based on the fact he led Wisconsin to 10 wins, a Big Ten title game appearance and a Rose Bowl berth the last time he was on the field. Coan completed an impressive 69.6% of his throws as a starter for the Badgers in 2019. The last Wisconsin quarterback to have a better completion rate or quarterback rating than Coan was a guy named Russell Wilson ... yes, that Russell Wilson.
Coan will have much better pass game weapons in 2021 than he had with Wisconsin in 2019, with all due respect to Quintez Cephus, Jake Ferguson, Kendric Pryor and AJ Taylor. Notre Dame has a deep and athletic group of receivers, tight end Michael Mayer will be one of the nation's best at his position and the running back duo of Williams and Chris Tyree is going to be outstanding.
If the Notre Dame coaches make the scheme/philosophy changes on offense that I hope they will make those weapons are going to be fun to watch, and the primary beneficiary of that will be Coan. Notre Dame also plays a schedule full of defenses that gave up a lot of points last season, so the numbers should be there.
The Concerns: Coan is coming off a foot injury that cost him the entire 2020 season, and he still has to win the starting job. Drew Pyne, Tyler Buchner and Brendon Clark aren't going to roll over and let Coan win that job without a fight.
Coan is also going to do most of his damage with his arm, and he's mostly a pocket passer, which means a lot of the big-time off-schedule players many Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks make won't be part of his resume. Even Mac Jones, another pure pocket passer, couldn't win the Heisman despite throwing for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns while completing 77.4% of his throws.
KYLE HAMILTON, SAFETY
The last time a defensive player won the Heisman Trophy was 1997 (Charles Woodson), so the odds aren't good, but Hamilton is just too good not to discuss.
The Case For Hamilton: Hamilton will be one of the best defensive players in the country and if the Irish front six/seven is as good as I think and hope it can be he should get opportunities to make a lot of plays. I expect him to get more opportunities to make plays on the ball this season than he did in 2020, and that should help make his case.
I also expect Hamilton to make a lot of the highlight reel plays on defense this season that we saw Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah make a season ago. Combine that with the fact Hamilton is already on people's All-American radars and he'll get plenty of buzz coming into the season.
A big part of the reason Woodson won the Heisman in 1997 was his work on offense and special teams. Woodson returned 33 punts that season, including one for a touchdown (in a huge win over Ohio State). Woodson also caught 11 passes for 231 yards and scored three offensive touchdowns.
The Concerns: Hamilton plays defense, and defenders just don't win this award unless they play offense and defense. I really do not want Hamilton to play offense this season and risk injury because Notre Dame simply cannot afford to lose him on defense. If he doesn't play offense and return kicks he'll have a hard time being a real contender.
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