Top Heisman Trophy contenders for 2022 college football season

Although it took until the 14th week of the season for the Heisman race to truly come into focus, there ended up being little doubt about who the winner should be.

Alabama quarterback Bryce Young won the 2021 Heisman Trophy, the first Crimson Tide QB to do so. Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones were both finalists in recent years, but the way Young closed the season — a dominant performance against Arkansas, a gritty comeback win over Auburn and an astonishing victory over Georgia — made him the odds-on choice for the hardware.

That Young won the award wouldn’t have surprised many pundits when the season began, though it was certainly a twisting path to get here. More surprising, however, was how quickly most of his fellow preseason favorites quickly disappeared from contention — from Clemson’s D.J. Uiagalelei to Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler, Georgia’s J.T. Daniels to North Carolina’s Sam Howell. Essentially every big-name Heisman contender in August save Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud was a nonfactor in the race by midseason.

So, will we be any better at predicting the best players in college football in 2022? With Young, Stroud and a host of other top performers returning, odds are we’ll get a few more of them right this time around. Still, the Heisman has consistently produced surprises, so the options for 2022 — from a Young repeat to a comeback performance from Rattler or Uiagalelei — are extensive.

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Top contenders

Alabama QB Bryce Young

It’s one of those sports factoids everyone knows by heart: The only two-time Heisman winner is Ohio State’s Archie Griffin, who took home the hardware in 1974 and 1975. In the past decade, three players have had a shot to repeat — Johnny Manziel, Jameis Winston and Lamar Jackson — but none came that close (Jackson finished third in…