Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers among 5 finalists for Heisman Trophy

The No. 11 Seminoles (9-3) will surely face a dynamic challenge trying to get the best of Peppers, who was named as a Heisman Trophy finalist Monday, in the Orange Bowl against No. 6 MI on December 30 in Hard Rock Stadium.

Statistically, Mayfield also has positioned himself well to become the sixth Oklahoma player to capture the Heisman.

For the first 24 years, Clemson never had a finalist reach the Big Apple. “He is our first, and he is very deserving”, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said in a statement.

It is just the fifth time ever that two Heisman finalists have come from the same team, not including Bush’s vacated Heisman in 2005.

Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson is heading back to NY.

Even though Alabama’s Derrick Henry, a running back, took home the award last season, recent history shows that more likely than not, this year’s Heisman will be a quarterback. He led the Huskies to a Pac-12 championship in his sophomore season, playing some of his best football down the stretch before a relatively mediocre performance versus Colorado in the Pac-12 title game. Watson already made Clemson relevant in 2015 and therefore, the weight of expectation nearly hinders him in the minds of the voters.

Watson was 23-34 for 288 yards and three touchdowns passing and added a team best 85 yards rushing on 17 carries and scored twice against Virginia Tech. The game is played annually in New Orleans. He was brilliant for the first two months of the season and Louisville was looking like a College Football Playoff contender. Clemson was supposed to be in the playoff conversation this year, Louisville was not. The offense averaged 44.6 points and 526.2 yards and his quarterbacks completed 69.2 percent of their passes, threw for 356.6 yards per game and a total of 131 touchdowns.

Bradford, barely recruited out of Putnam City North High School, triggered an OU offense by passing for 4,464 yards and 50 touchdowns against only eight interceptions. Watson ended the night with 306 yards and five touchdown passes.

Sims (1979): One year removed from winning the Heisman, Sims finished a distant second to Southern California’s Charles White, whose 2,050 rushing yards outdistanced Sims’ total of 1,506.

“I’m most proud of the defensive guy getting in there”, Woodson said of Peppers while announcing the finalists on ESPN (via the Detroit Free Press).

The award will be presented Saturday in Manhattan. He won the Manning Award and the O’Brien Award past year.

PRO PROSPECTS: Watson will be one of the first quarterbacks taken in next spring’s National Football League draft, but he might have to rebuild his stock some to show he is a top-of-the-first-round player.