Mark Ingram names his Heisman favorites ahead of Week 1

College football kicks off in earnest this week after the appetizer that was Week 0. That also means the race for the Heisman Trophy will have a first big data point.

Certainly the award won’t be won on opening weekend, but the early favorites can throw down a marker that they’re going to be real contenders. And Fox Sports’ Mark Ingram highlighted a handful of his favorites to win the award as the season begins.

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Ingram wasn’t shy that the award boils down to quarterbacks, and highlighted five who strike him as having an easy path — none of which should be particularly surprising.

• Georgia’s Carson Beck
• Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel
• Ohio State’s Will Howard
• Texas’ Quinn Ewers
• Alabama’s Jalen Milroe

“As you’ve said, it’s a quarterback award,” Ingram said on The Triple Option podcast. “You have to be very special, have a very special season to be even considered for it if you’re not a quarterback. Even the quarterbacks, you have to have a special season as a quarterback.”

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Ingram also made sure to bring up some potential non-quarterback dark horses who could position themselves to win the coveted award.

“Maybe Travis Hunter has a huge year playing defense, intercepting the ball. Maybe he has some big plays on offense, you have to be able to do them both. Damien Martinez at Miami, running back. He’s had like 2000 scrimmage over the last two seasons, all Pac-12. He’s down there at Miami, if Miami has a big season and he’s running hard, running big and having big plays, big numbers, maybe he’s a non-quarterback, potential candidate. But these teams that are, everyone’s expecting for them to do well, look for those quarterbacks and somebody from those positions to be able to rise to the occasion and be in contention for the Heisman.” 

One of Ingram’s co-hosts wasn’t sold on Howard as a Heisman contender

Ohio State has one of the most talent rosters in college football history this season with high national championship aspirations. But will the Buckeyes produce a Heisman Trophy winner this season for the first time since Troy Smith took home the award in 2006?

Howard is currently a Top 5 Heisman favorite among oddsmakers entering the season. But former Buckeyes’ head coach Urban Meyer is not as confident that Ohio State’s new transfer addition under center will be able to take home the award when the season is all said and done.

“You need more than pretty good though Mark and that’s the only concern is they have the two first- rounders at tailback, they have an incredible group of receivers. I’m just not sure,” Meyer said. “I think he’s a great player and I think he’s gonna run one of the top offenses of the country. But when you get to November, you have to have the stats.”