How does Oklahoma State football's Ollie Gordon II stack up in the Heisman Trophy race?
STILLWATER — The Ollie G. Show arrives in Florida this week.
Oklahoma State sophomore running back Ollie Gordon II has exploded onto the college football scene with a six-game run in which he’s averaging 215 yards from scrimmage with 11 of his 13 total touchdowns.
And the national conversation has turned to hardware.
All-America recognition. The Doak Walker Award. And of course, the big one.
The truth is, it would take something pretty special over the next few weeks for Gordon to claim college football’s most coveted individual award.
But as he and the 15th-ranked Cowboys head into a 2:30 p.m. Saturday game against Central Florida at FBC Mortgage Stadium, Gordon has another opportunity to elevate himself on the national stage.
Even if the trophy is a longshot, a finalist spot and a trip to New York City for the Heisman ceremony is not.
Let’s take a look at Gordon’s case for the Heisman Trophy in several crucial areas of consideration:
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Production
Gordon’s numbers are the strongest piece of his résumé so far. Despite carrying the ball 19 times for 109 yards in the first three games, Gordon has surged to the national rushing lead with 1,225 yards. His 12 touchdowns tie for the second-most.
On top of that, he leads the nation in rushes of 20-plus yards, 30-plus yards and 40-plus yards. As for the 30-plus carries, Gordon has 13, while no other player in the country has more than seven.
When you add in his receiving yards, Gordon has another 219 and a touchdown, bringing his yards-from-scrimmage total to 1,444, which is more than 100 yards better than anyone else.
Going forward, Gordon’s chances of boosting his numbers are strong. To this point, he has faced five of the top six rush defenses in the Big 12. OSU’s final three opponents — UCF, Houston and BYU — are in the bottom half of the league in defending the run. UCF is dead last, giving up 212.0 yards per game.
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Team success
The rough start, with September losses to South Alabama and Iowa State, obviously knocked OSU out of the College Football Playoff race. But with the five-game win streak, the Pokes have put themselves in the driver’s seat for getting to the Big 12 title game.
National media talk has begun to zero in on OSU as one of the hottest teams around, so folks will be paying attention over the next three weeks as the regular season winds down. And OSU will be a constant topic of discussion in the Big 12 title race as long as it keeps winning.
Some of the competitors Gordon is challenging for Heisman recognition are in the playoff hunt, so that will work against him, but the Cowboys are good enough to keep him in the conversation.
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Heisman moments
There are two criteria for this, and Gordon meets both.
First, if you consider a “Heisman moment” to be an individual highlight or play, Gordon has those.
A few that jump out are the hurdle of a Central Arkansas defender in the season opener and the stiff-arm followed by a high-step down the sideline against Kansas State. And don’t forget the 9-yard touchdown run against Cincinnati in which he appeared to be pinned in at the line of scrimmage, but barreled his way through, then looked to be contained again, but spun out of a tackle and dove in for the score.
Plus plenty more long runs with their own highlight-reel value.
If you interpret a Heisman moment as a big performance, he has those, too.
Three straight weeks of at least 280 yards from scrimmage. Back-to-back games of at least 250 rushing yards — joining Heisman winner Barry Sanders as the only Cowboy to accomplish that. In fact, he and Sanders are the only two OSU players with two games of at least 270 rushing yards in a career.
There’s the 141-yard, three-touchdown fourth quarter at West Virginia, which might ultimately be viewed as the launching pad for his national award campaign.
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Value
Every Heisman voter has a different scale for judging what matters to them. Some will look solely at overall talent. Some will look at big games. Some will look at the player’s importance to his team.
Gordon scores well in all three, but the last might be his strongest category of the bunch.
Imagine this Cowboy squad without Gordon touching the ball 25-plus times a game? Are they unbeaten in the last five games? Are they one of the hottest teams around without his crazy production?
Gordon’s value to his team is off the charts. Of course, he’s competing against a lot of quarterbacks who have a certain intrinsic value that a running back struggles to replicate.
And that brings us to our next category.
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Position
Two big negatives weigh against Gordon, one of which we’ve already talked about — OSU’s absence from the CFP conversation.
The second is the fact that the Heisman has become almost exclusively a quarterback award.
Running backs had a great run to end the 1990s, taking four of the last six Heismans, with only one quarterback in that span.
But since 2000, QBs have won all but three. And running backs took just two, Alabama backs Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry in 2009 and 2015, respectively.
Only one running back — Stanford’s Bryce Love in 2017 — has finished in the top three of the voting in the last six seasons.
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Likability
Let’s be honest, there’s always a popularity contest element in the Heisman voting.
Gordon might not be at a blue-blood program to get that support boost, but he’s more than comfortable in the public eye.
He has the personality to draw people in. He smiles and makes jokes and shows humility when the cameras are in his face.
He plays to the crowd, like with his quick Heisman pose after his touchdown against OU last week, but he also deflects attention toward his offensive linemen when he gets the chance, like he did multiple times in his recent ESPN interview.
So Gordon has a lot of qualities that will keep him in the Heisman chatter. Can he win it? Maybe not. But with what he’s accomplished, and with what he has the potential to do in the next few weeks, a trip to NYC next month could be on the itinerary.
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football's Ollie Gordon II stacks up in Heisman race
