After seeing Max Duggan absolutely ball out vs. Michigan, and step up to the biggest stage in the national championship game, many fans may be wondering how he didn’t win the Heisman.
First of all, the Heisman is considered a regular season award. This means votes can be submitted before the conference championship games are played.
While Max Duggan and the TCU Horned Frogs were undefeated through the regular season, Caleb Williams and USC had only taken losses to top teams Utah and Notre Dame. Furthermore, it’s important to remember the Heisman is a player award (though often just a QB award these days), and thus being undefeated through the regular season wasn’t quite enough.
Where Caleb Williams ultimately won the votes to overcome Max Duggan, Stetson Bennett and CJ Stroud was his production and playmaking. Caleb Williams out up over 4000 passing yards and 37 touchdowns with only 4 interceptions against a competitive PAC 12 field. He also did it with some absolutely stellar playmaking at times compared to Mahomes.
Duggan, on the other hand, put up just over 3,000 passing yards and 30 touchdowns. While Duggan also showed strong playmaking abilities with his ever present threat to escape the picket and deep passing, it wasn’t enough to convince voters he should trump Caleb Williams. The final Heisman vote was 2,031 points to 1,420, with Williams receiving nearly 3 times as many first place votes. Duggan did, at least, finish second place. Regardless, Max Duggan will have a chance to claim a trophy of his own in the CFB National Championship this Monday.
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