There will be a lot of debate about the 2020 Heisman Trophy.
As there are most years, there will be a lot of debate about who the real winner of the Heisman Trophy winner should be in 2020. Your answer is going to come down to who you root for or who you hate. If you hate Alabama, you’re not going to select Mac Jones or Devonta Smith and if you hate Clemson or head coach Dabo Swinney, you are not going to select Trevor Lawrence.
The fact is, all four of the 2020 Heisman Finalists have had tremendous seasons and all of them play for teams that played at least 11 games in 2020, which in itself is an accomplishment.
But who should win?
Obviously, this is a Clemson sports fan site and we are obviously going to say Trevor Lawrence is your winner. Over the last 11 months that I have been part of this amazing site, I have written a dozen or so pieces that have upset Clemson faithful, because I don’t wear orange colored glasses and try to be as fair and impartial with my opinion as I can be.
I state that to say this – Trevor Lawrence should run away with the Heisman vote this year.
In a year that took away all Power Five cross-conference games, the only way to fairly select this true Heisman quarterback is to answer this one question –
Which of the four finalists would start at any other school in the country? There is only one answer.
Yes, there are plenty of guys around the country that would start at most or all other schools – Oregon’s Penei Sewell and Penn State’s Micah Parson’s come to mind. However, I would argue that this is not true for Mac Jones, Kyle Trask, or Devonta Smith.
Mac Jones and Kyle Trask would not start at Clemson over Trevor Lawrence and if Lawrence was at either Alabama or Florida, those two quarterbacks would only see the field in mop-up duty. Lawrence jumps both of those two candidates for that reason.
The debate comes down to Devonta Smith and Trevor Lawrence.
Smith is a guy that would start at a lot of schools, if not most of them. However, he wasn’t even WR1 at Alabama this year – Jaylen Waddle was. Both of them had amazing years in 2019 and had a lot of expectations on them this year for Alabama.
Smith followed up his 1,250-yard junior season with more than 1,500 yards in 2020, hard to argue with his production. However, would that have happened at Clemson? My speculation is no.
His first couple of years in a Tiger uniform would have seen him try to compete with Mike Williams, Tee Higgins, and Justyn Ross. Ross is a much better receiver than Smith and that is not something that is even debatable.
It took Jerry Jeudy leaving for Smith to even make a mark at Alabama where guys like Tee and Ross made their names among the upperclassman and on the field. Coming into 2020, a guy like Smith would have obviously been in rotation at Clemson, but because the Tigers coaching staff has a mold that they try and fit players into.
While Smith would start at Clemson, he wouldn’t be WR1 and he more than likely would not have been as successful as he has been at Alabama.
Obviously, the injury to Justyn Ross would have opened the door for him, but Trevor Lawrence doesn’t need injuries to prove he is the best at what he does. This will be a controversial take but it is what it is.
All of that said, the only answer to the question of which of the four finalists would start at any other school in the country is Trevor Lawrence and for that reason, he will be the 2020 Heisman winner on January 5th.