Surprise Heisman Contenders Become Top Picks in New Expanded College Football Playoff Era

Throughout the decade of the four-team College Football Playoff era, the Heisman Trophy race became increasingly predictable. The beginning of a new age for the sport could revitalize the season-long pursuit of football’s top honor, if Week 1 is any indicator.

The most breathtaking individual performances from the first full Saturday of the 12-team Playoff era came from positions or programs not often associated with the stiff-arm trophy. Wide receivers have combined for just four Heismans all-time, and DeVonta Smith’s in 2020 ended a 32-year drought. 

But a pair of receivers helped set a high bar for 2024, commanding the spotlight to open and close Week 1 Saturday. Tennessee’s Dont’e Thornton Jr. needed only three plays in a 69-3 blowout of Chattanooga to introduce himself to the nation after spending his first three collegiate seasons in relative obscurity. 

Thornton spent his first two seasons at Oregon, where he caught 26 total passes with three touchdowns and 541 yards. His first campaign after transferring to Tennessee, Thornton sustained a season-ending leg injury on his only touchdown reception. 

Returning against the alma mater of Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, Thornton resembled the legendary TO with his combination of size, physicality and breakaway speed. The 6-foot-5 Thornton looked like the missing piece for a Vols offense that regressed from fifth in the nation in passing yards in 2022 to No. 55 a season ago. 

“You can just see how much more comfortable Dont’e got with this offense… figuring things out,” Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava said in the postgame press conference. “He was dialed in this whole fall camp, spring camp. He’s been putting in great work and went out there and showed it on the field today.” 

Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan came into 2024 a well-established pillar for his team’s prolific passing attack. He caught for 702 yards and eight touchdowns as a freshman in 2022, then upped his production to 1,242 yards and 10 scores in 2023.

While continuing his pace beyond Week 1 throughout 2024 is unrealistic—no one in Arizona history caught for 304 yards before McMillan in the Wildcats’ 61-39 win over New Mexico—T-Mac should blow past his lofty sophomore statistics.

The Arizona defense needs work to compete in its new conference, the Big 12. But should the Wildcats be in the conversation as the season unfolds, McMillan should be in the Heisman race.

Quarterback Noah Fifita started that campaign months ago. 

“If people were listening to my interviews all offseason, they probably thought I was being overdramatic. I think he came in and proved my point perfectly: He’s the best player in the country,” Fifita said in the postgame press conference. 

Along with being an award dominated by quarterbacks, the Heisman has been closely tied to the Playoff. Seven-of-10 winners since 2014 reached the four-team tournament, and 21-of-37 finalists made the field. Excluding the outlier of 2016, when only 1-of-5 finalists were in the Playoff, it’s 20-of-32. 

How much expansion of the Playoff broadens the scope of the Heisman race will be an interesting storyline throughout this first season, including the addition of a Group of Five team. 

It’s probably no coincidence that just one Group of Five team made the four-team Playoff and no Group of Five players were Heisman finalists, with egregious omissions like Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds in 2015 and San Diego State running back Rashaad Penny in 2017. 

Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty is the best Group of Five back since Penny’s 2,248-yard season. With the Broncos having a path to the Playoff, Jeanty’s excellence should prove impossible to ignore. 

He delivered arguably the best performance of Week 1 with 267 yards on just 20 carries and six touchdowns in the Broncos’ 56-45 win at Georgia Southern. 

Boise State football’s official Instagram account got the Heisman hype started early with a tag on Jeanty’s exploits reading, “HEI2MAN” — the back’s jersey number is two. The two also unintentionally describes what may be the most important week to Jeanty’s Heisman candidacy.