Paul Finebaum has Heisman voter regret and it starts with Bryce Young

USC quarterback Caleb Williams was named this year’s Heisman Trophy winner following an electric first season with the Tojans. Williams was listed on 88.57% of Heisman voting ballots, receiving 77.37% of all possible points. Despite this, college football insider Paul Finebaum expressed some issues regarding Heisman voting on the most recent episode of McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning.

“Greg I think I’ll criticize myself here as well, I think a lot of people just get caught up in the moment and we tend to vote with trends,” Finebaum said. “It is a very convoluted system and we’re not going to take a good hard look at it because it’s not changing, but it’s a pretty crummy way to vote on the best player.”

Williams did receive the 12-most possible points in the history of the Heisman Trophy award, and certainly won over the hearts of the media leading up to the award ceremony. He threw for 4,075 yards and a nation-leading 37 touchdown passes this year, capping off the regular season with his ‘Heisman moment’ when he scored four all-purpose touchdowns in a win over Notre Dame and struck the Heisman pose during his performance.

Despite this, Finebaum still believes the voting for college football’s most prestigious individual award is flawed, even expressing some remorse in his own ballot this year.

“And I think the media has way too much influence, I feel like I’m biting the hand that feeds me, but I think a lot of Heisman voters flip on the TV the day before, they see who the favorites are, and we tend to gravitate towards them versus really thinking it through and voting objectively. Because I did not put Bryce Young in my top three, I’m admitting that and I’m going to regret it for a long time,” Finebaum confessed.

Young did not even receive an invite to New York as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy this year following winning the award last season following a historic season. Young’s season this year doesn’t compare to his Heisman-winning year last season, where he threw for an Alabama school-record 4,872 yards and 47 touchdown passes. This season, he threw for just 3,007 yards and 27 touchdown passes despite missing some time with a shoulder injury.

The four Heisman finalists this season were all quarterbacks, and each threw for more yards than Young this season and all led their teams to better records to end the season. Only Georgia‘s Stetson Bennett threw for fewer touchdown passes than Young compared to the other finalists.

A case for Young and other players like Hendon Hooker, Blake Corum, Drake Maye, and others could be made to be Heisman Trophy finalists this season. The voting and selection process will likely never be perfect, but it will be interesting to see if Finebaum’s wishes come true one day and it changes at all in the future.