Brady Quinn backs Kenneth Walker III for Heisman

Former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn has a new frontrunner for Heisman. After his impressive day rushing the ball to beat rival Michigan, Quinn now backs Kenneth Walker III for the Heisman. And he took to Twitter to show his support for the Michigan State running back and get a light jab in the process.

“I’ll tell you what, there’s NOTHING like coming back for a big win in East Lansing. Congrats to MSU_Football! What a game! Kenneth_Walker9 needs to be the front runner for the HeismanTroph,” wrote Quinn.

Walker had a performance for the ages running the ball against the Michigan Wolverines. On his own, he outrushed the entire Michigan team. The junior running back rushed for 197 yards on 23 attempts with five rushing touchdowns. In comparison as a team, Michigan rushed for 146 yards on 34 carries with no touchdowns. His five rushing touchdowns on the day are more than the Wolverines allowed in the season (3) coming into the game.

What brought him to Michigan State

For Walker, it wasn’t the glitz and glamour that brought him to Michigan State. For him, it was head coach Mel Tucker and what he is currently doing with the program. 

“I did a virtual tour with coach Kap (Chris Kapilovic) and they showed me the offense and how things work here,” said Walker.  “After that talk, I ended up talking to coach Tuck (Mel Tucker), and I love the pic he gave about the culture he’s building here, and things like that. I was very interested in that. I felt like this was the best place for me.” 

Chris Kapilovic takes care of a lot of responsibilities for the Michigan State football program. He is their assistant head coach, offensive line coach, and run game coordinator. This offseason, Kapilovic assisted in what appears to be the best move made heading into the season, helping to convince Walker to come to their program. He set it up and Tucker knocked it out of the park for the Spartans. 

Coach Tucker backs Walker too

Unsurprisingly, head coach Mel Tucker was pleased with the performance and even dropped the “H word” in his postgame press conference.

“He’s a special player, he’s a team player, and we all know he’s a Heisman type guy,” Tucker said after the win. “And credit to our O-line, our receivers blocking downfield, but we’ve got to give the guy credit where credit is due. He’s a Heisman guy.”

Walker now has 1,192 yards and 14 touchdowns this season. He is averaging 6.8 yards per carry. 

Heading into Saturday, Walker trailed only Syracuse’s Sean Tucker in rushing yardage nationally. And it’s likely Walker will lead Power Five running backs in touchdowns by the conclusion of the Saturday slate.

The junior had the sixth-best Heisman odds (+1600) entering Saturday, per Vegas Insider. Michigan State has never had a Heisman Trophy winner.

On3’s Ashton Pollard contributed to this article