Fact or Fiction: Bryce Young is in the Heisman conversation
In today’s Fact or Fiction, Rivals National Columnist Mike Farrell looks at three big recent topics in college football and decide whether the statement is indeed FACT or if it’s FICTION.
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1. Alabama QB Bryce Young entered the Heisman talk with his spring performance.
FACT. Bryce Young has impressed this spring and emerged as the clear No. 1 in Alabama to me. The quarterback of a national championship contender such as Alabama will instantly be in the Heisman discussion after the seasons Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones have had there.
BamaInsider.com writer Tony Tsoukalas agrees with me that there is no way to keep Young off the Heisman favorites list as the starting quarterback of such a dominant program.
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2. Ohio State has the best young talent in the country.
FACT. As usual, Twitter is a popularity contest and the fans with the most votes win so my Twitter poll about this should have been much more No than Yes. However, it’s pretty even out there which shows the respect the country has for the talent of Ryan Day’s team. And with freshmen like Kyle McCord, Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, Jack Sawyer and others impressing this spring the Buckeyes are just loaded for more playoff runs.
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3. Arkansas will build on last year’s surprising success.
FACT. I’ve looked at this many ways and Arkansas will improve upon its 3-7 season which was considered a surprise to many and include a robbery loss to Auburn and some other close losses (LSU, Texas A&M). So let's look at the schedule to see what a realistic win total in 2021 will be.
Rice and Arkansas-Pine Bluff will be two easy wins and Georgia Southern is tough but the Razorbacks should win that one as well. Even if we count Texas as a loss, which is no sure thing with a new staff, you have to assume Arkansas will win one of the games against Auburn, Missouri, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Even with losses to Alabama, Texas A&M and Georgia, I think a 5-7 season or perhaps 6-6 is possible.
I went to The Trough message board on our Arkansas site Hawgbeat.com and asked the same question and the answer was as expected. The fans are very much behind coach Sam Pittman after an inspiring first year as head man.