Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott is suddenly at the center of the Heisman conversation. (Bradley Leeb/AP Photo)The Heisman Trophy race has gone totally rococo. Leonard Fournette, the LSU running back, still leads the country with 163.78 rushing yards per game, but he seems thwarted with two thumping November losses in which he has gained 31 (against Alabama) and a vaguely relevant 91 yards (against Arkansas). For a player to overcome the fade of his team, he usually has to trade almost unfailingly in the spectacular. Trevone Boykins, the TCU quarterback, completed five of eight passes on Saturday before leaving with an ankle injury, from which he should return next Saturday at Oklahoma. Already, he took a Heisman hit with four interceptions the previous week at Oklahoma State. Those two, especially Fournette, have guided us all season through this imaginary, flawed, pleasurable and absurd process. Without them, we’re all fumbling around for a flashlight. That might just bring us back to the beginning, to August. Shy of sustained, celestial excellence, which Fournette offered for a good while, one might go with mere sustained excellence. Nowhere has excellence gone any more sustained than a name that came up often and highly late in the wretched heat of summer…
Continue Reading: LSU stumbles set back Leonard Fournette, turn Heisman talk toward Ohio State RB Ezekiel Elliott
