Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday.
Another year, another great quarterback.
The LSU senior got 841 of the 885 first-place votes, including the one on top of this sports columnist’s ballot. I voted Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts second, right where he finished. But when it came time to round out my ballot with my third-place vote there was only one player that felt right to me.
Oregon sophomore Penei Sewell.
I cast my third-place vote for the Ducks’ left tackle. It’s my ballot. Laugh if you’d like. Sewell didn’t finish in the top 10 on Saturday. But if the mission is to vote for the most outstanding college football player in the country, Sewell was right there with Burrow and Hurts this season.
They were all terrific.
Sewell is not a quarterback, I know. He doesn’t play running back, either. He wears No. 58, for crying out loud, and touched the ball only once this season during a game. He carried on a one-yard rush in the Pac-12 Championship game. But there wasn’t a more important impactful player in the conference this season than Oregon’s left tackle.
Sewell was the top-graded offensive lineman in the country, in fact. He’s a run-blocking beast and a terrific athlete. Also, he stood out as the best player on the field for either team in all 13 of Oregon’s games this season. And he’ll make it 14 straight in the Rose Bowl.
The Heisman hasn’t been kind to offensive lineman historically. Ohio State tackle John Hicks was second in 1973. Buckeye tackle Orlando Pace finished fourth in 1996. And more recently, Miami’s Bryant McKinnie placed No. 8 in 2001. So maybe it’s time a great one got some real traction again.
John Heisman was an offensive lineman, incidentally. The Heisman Trophy is named for a guy who played guard, center and tackle. And Heisman would have loved Sewell, who will be a top-five NFL Draft pick someday.
All-American Team, check.
Outland Trophy, check.
So how about making Sewell a Heisman finalist in 2020?
The formula for contending for a Heisman Trophy isn’t a mystery. Be a star quarterback or running back. Help your team go undefeated, or close to it. Make the College Football Playoff. Then, dry clean your suit and hope for the best.
Sewell is dominant. He’s the centerpiece of the Ducks’ offensive attack. Coach Mario Cristobal has coached some of the best offensive lineman in recent college football history. By the time Sewell is done, he’s going to be the greatest of them all. And so I wonder if Nike might already have plans to put Sewell on the side of a building in Times Square like it once did for quarterback Joey Harrington.
Is there a building that can handle the 6-foot-6, 325-pound tackle?
Because no college football team has so far.
Patrick Pierson is in charge of football communications at UO. To get his star offensive lineman on Heisman ballots, Pierson will have to have a great 2020 season, too. Same for Jimmy Stanton, Oregon’s Senior Athletic Director for communications. Those two guys need to make big plans. But the Ducks are uniquely positioned with Nike’s branding and marketing firepower to put Sewell on America’s mind long before the season starts.
This “Sewell for 2020 Heisman” thing could be epic.
That crossed my mind earlier this season as I watched the Oregon-Colorado post-game scene. After the Ducks won 45-3, the Fox broadcast team didn’t cut to the customary quarterback interview after the game. Instead of an interview with Justin Herbert, a smiling Sewell popped up on the television broadcast alongside his coach. I wrote a column about what a terrific scene it was, coach and pupil, soaking up the spotlight.
If you were watching Sewell this season, you saw a leader on and off the field. You saw a bone-crushing run blocker who made Oregon’s ordinary running backs into formidable threats. You saw a pass blocker have an elite season. And you saw him do it all with alarming consistency.
Sewell was just outstanding. Yes, I know, he picked up the trophy for being the most outstanding interior lineman in the nation. But Sewell deserved to be on more Heisman Trophy ballots on Saturday.
I hope America gets to know him better next season.