Louisville University quarterback Lamar Jackson has started this college football season on a truly remarkable run. Through three games, Louisville has climbed from No. 19 in the AP Poll all the way up to No. 3, due in no small part to Jackson’s brilliance.
He has rushed for 464 yards through three games and is on pace to finish with 1,856 rushing yards. For context, the preseason Heisman favorite, Louisiana State University’s Leonard Fournette, has 285 rushing yards through two games, averaging 142.5 yards per game. Jackson has 10 rushing touchdowns, compared to Fournette’s two. Jackson is a quarterback. Fournette is a running back.
I received an ESPN update on the first College Gameday of the year that stated Lamar Jackson had recorded eight touchdowns in the first half against the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I didn’t think there was a typo in that update. I knew there was a typo in that update. When I checked, I justified it by saying that it was against the Charlotte 49ers — not a very big football program. Surely Jackson would cool down next week.
The following week, Louisville defeated Syracuse University by a final score of 62-28. Jackson recorded 610 total yards — 411 through the air, and 199 on the ground — and five touchdowns — one passing, four rushing — while massacring the Orange. Despite throwing for 411 yards, he had a rather poor completion percentage (20/39 on the day). Plus, he threw his first interception of the year, showing that he is in fact human. While his passing efficiency was not great, any game where you single-handedly account for over 600 yards is pretty impressive.
This past weekend in front of its hometown crowd, Louisville eviscerated then No. 2 Florida State University, 63-20. Jackson completed 13 of 20 pass attempts for just 216 yards — his lowest number of passing yards (and attempts) this season — and threw another interception, but made up for it by rushing for 146 yards and another four touchdowns.
What’s more, Jackson didn’t really have an opportunity to demonstrate his value in the second half, since his Cardinals were already ahead by so much. He did put an exclamation point on his day, though, by running virtually untouched for a 47-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to give Louisville a 46-point cushion.
This statement win by the Cardinals proved two things: they belong in the College Football Playoff conversation, and Lamar Jackson deserves to lead the Heisman chatter.
Updated Heisman race
1) Lamar Jackson
2) Who cares— ESPNU (@ESPNU) September 17, 2016
Can Jackson keep up a six-touchdowns-per-game pace throughout the year? While it doesn’t seem possible, neither does scoring eight touchdowns in one half. Neither does throwing for 913 yards on just 50 completions. And neither does drubbing the nation’s second-best team by 43 points. Lamar Jackson is a special player, and should win the Heisman Trophy handily this year.
Whether or not he’s ready for the NFL is a different question entirely. If he wishes to play his style on the professional level, he’ll have to gain serious muscle mass. He’s listed at 6-foot-3, but weighs in at a relatively meager 205 pounds. He has a cannon arm when heaving the ball down the field, but he’ll have to work on his accuracy on passes within 10 yards if he wants to make it to primetime.
We’ve seen quarterbacks dominate the college game before and never take the next step on the professional level. (See Johnny Manziel, Brady Quinn, Tim Tebow, Robert Griffin III.) While Jackson’s success in the NFL is far from guaranteed, he has received incredibly high praise recently.
Most notably, former star quarterback Michael Vick tweeted that Jackson is “five times better” than Vick was at Virginia Tech. While Vick’s career will forever be stained by his dogfighting scandal of 2007, he led the Atlanta Falcons and the Philadelphia Eagles each to two playoff trips, and was selected to the Pro Bowl four times.
Lamar Jackson 5x better than what I was at V-Tech….Enough said!! #future
— Mike Vick (@MikeVick) September 17, 2016
Vick finished third in Heisman votes his freshman year with the Hokies. And he’s completely right about Jackson being five times better. Last year, Jackson was hard for defenses to contain, proving that he was an excellent scrambler with a slingshot arm. Through three games this year, he simply cannot be stopped.
Each week will get harder, though, as defenses will prepare for him more and more. Plus, Louisville’s schedule is far from easy, as they will face fierce opponents like No. 5 Clemson University on Oct. 1 and No. 6 University of Houston on Nov. 17. As for this weekend, Louisville is set to visit the Thundering Herd of Marshall University, where Jackson will have a legitimate chance to continue his six-TD per game pace, and continue his journey to the Heisman Trophy.
