Max Duggan already has plenty of Heisman moments to savor, albeit vicariously.
He’s about to add to those in-person and maybe strike the iconic pose.
A self-proclaimed “college football nerd,” the TCU quarterback watched Big 12 players like Baylor’s Robert Griffin III and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield winning the trophy live on TV from New York.
Duggan’s attempt to join the Heisman House arrives Saturday. He’s one of four finalists along with three other quarterbacks: USC’s Caleb Williams, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Georgia’s Stetson Bennett.
“It’s a dream come true,” Duggan said this week. “It’s something as a little kid you wished [when] you watched the Heisman ceremony that you could be up there one day.”
That Duggan emerged from relative obscurity — how many Heisman finalists don’t begin the season as a starter? — is a significant achievement.
Despite leading TCU to the College Football Playoffs as the No. 3 seed and having a spectacular closing moment in the Big 12 title game in a loss to Kansas State, Duggan remains an underdog, which isn’t surprising.
Williams emerged as the favorite late in the season when Stroud struggled against Michigan. Though USC lost the Pac-12 title game, Williams didn’t hurt himself, posting big numbers while playing hurt.
He also has other advantages. USC has produced seven previous Heisman winners, if you want to include the one that was taken away from Reggie Bush for NCAA violations.
And coach Lincoln Riley produces Heisman winners like Idaho does potatoes. This would be his third Heisman winner in six years, joining Mayfield and Kyler Murray at Oklahoma.
The early signs favor Williams. He’s still the betting favorite. He won the AP player of the year Thursday with 32 first-place votes to six for Duggan. An informal poll of Heisman voters by CBS Sports’ showed Williams as the favorite although by a lesser margin.
But Duggan did top Williams for the Davey O’Brien Quarterback Award, so there’s a chance. He became the first TCU quarterback to win the trophy named for an all-time Horned Frog great. Now he can duplicate O’Brien, who also won the Heisman in 1938.
Plus, Duggan combines narrative with team and individual performance. There’s the list of injuries that looks like it was lifted from the entire index for Gray’s Anatomy. And coming back to take over a job that he had lost earlier in the year.
Also, don’t underestimate his ability to turn the comeback into an art form and the appeal with voters. TCU has six wins this season after being down by double digits in the second half.
“He just wills his team to win,” said ESPN analyst Greg McElroy, a former national championship quarterback at Alabama and state champion at Southlake Carroll. “If there’s a quarterback that you absolutely you have to have in the second half of football game with a deficit — and they’ve had plenty of them — he’s the guy you want.”
And the Horned Frogs nearly had No. 7 against Kansas State.
“You had to just appreciate it as a as a lover of football,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “Just what he did that’s really pretty remarkable.”
Even if he doesn’t win, Duggan has been discovered this season and especially the last couple of weeks.
He’s been all over the media since the weekend. En route to New York, he stopped off in Baltimore to pick up the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Then he made his first trip ever to the Big Apple with his immediate family and girlfriend, hoping for a bit of snow.
His teammates and TCU — as a football program and school — have gotten part of the spotlight as well, which seems especially important to him.
“It kind of gets lost in a lot of these awards, that football is a team sport,” Duggan said. “There’s not just one guy pulling the trigger. But this shows everything else. The guys in this locker room that I get to play with, the coaching staff [and] the support the university has given us.”
