ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Early in the second quarter of No. 2 Michigan’s 59-3 demolition of Maryland on Saturday, the Wolverines’ Jabrill Peppers ran the ball 13 yards from Maryland’s 16-yard line, leaving Michigan, already up by 14-0 and clearly primed to be the victor, needing someone just to punch it in.
Peppers would not be blessed with that task, though. Instead, De’Veon Smith, a senior running back, took the ball on first down and ran it in with ease. The crowd at the Big House cheered, of course, but from Peppers’ perspective, one more touchdown opportunity had been denied.
The play call was a sign that there remain limits to what coach Jim Harbaugh will do in his fledgling campaign for Peppers — an electric athlete who can line up at safety or linebacker, return punts, and throw and catch on offense — to win the Heisman Trophy as Michigan (9-0) hunts for the national championship.
“It’s just happening organically, right?” Harbaugh said after the game when asked whether he felt tempted to feature Peppers more to build his statistics and pad his Heisman resume.
Harbaugh stared through his new glasses, which he has said were inspired by Malcolm X, Michael Douglas’ character in the movie “Falling Down” and the great Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, and under his blue Michigan baseball cap, an homage to the great Michigan coach Bo Schembechler.
“It’s just happened au naturel with Jabrill Peppers,” Harbaugh continued, committing either pun or malapropism, “because he does so much — he’s making tackles from the linebacker position, he’s blitzing, he’s covering, he’s returning kicks, returning punts, he’s playing quarterback, he’s playing receiver, he’s playing tailback. He’s so involved, it doesn’t have to be a forced thing. It’s au naturel.”
Sometimes it has felt a little forced, though. After a 78-0 rout at Rutgers last month in which Peppers rushed three times for 74 yards and two touchdowns, Harbaugh explicitly lobbied for his star, who as a redshirt sophomore will be eligible to enter the NFL draft after this season.
“There’s nothing he can’t do,” Harbaugh said, adding, “In my humble opinion, I think we’re looking at a Heisman Trophy winner and candidate.”
Harbaugh went on to compare Peppers to Jim Thorpe, considered by many to be the greatest all-around athlete of the 20th century. That kind of advocacy for Heisman candidates is unusual if not unheard-of, said Cory McCartney, a Fox Sports journalist who has written a new book about the Heisman Trophy.
“The one that I can remember most vividly because he did it with me a little bit was June Jones pushing for Colt Brennan in 2006, when he set the single-season record for touchdowns responsible for,” McCartney said, referring to Hawaii’s coach. Brennan, Jones’ quarterback, was a two-time Heisman finalist who had passed and rushed for a combined 63 touchdowns that season.
Just as it is easy to be sympathetic to Jones’ trying to direct attention to a player based in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Peppers has an uphill climb that perhaps justifies Harbaugh’s extra efforts on his behalf.
Despite maybe being college football’s best player, Peppers, through no fault of his own, is virtually certain not to win the award designated for college football’s best player.
The reason is that Peppers, for all his skill at rushing, receiving and returning, is primarily a defensive player. Republicans and Democrats roughly trade off winning early November’s quadrennial election, but in late November’s annual balloting for the Heisman Trophy, there is no contest. There has been just one winner of the award who was primarily a defensive player since at least 1961.
This pattern would seem a violation of the award’s stated mission, which is to recognize “the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity,” someone who, according to the Heisman Trust, epitomizes “great ability combined with diligence, perseverance and hard work.”
To put a fine point on it, there is no language about the winning player needing to accumulate yards and touchdowns.
The one defense-first player to win the Heisman in the last half-century, in 1997, was cornerback Charles Woodson — who also played multiple roles for Michigan.
It helped that those Wolverines were undefeated national champions. It also helped that Woodson, whose primary job was shutdown cornerback, made seven interceptions but also had 11 receptions and three rushes on offense for a combined three touchdowns, as well as 33 kick returns for nearly 300 yards and another touchdown. The offensive plays — including a trick play in which Woodson was credited with a 28-yard pass — were somewhat backloaded toward the end of the season, as the Heisman chatter picked up.
This year promises less suspense. One Las Vegas sports book has pegged Louisville’s Lamar Jackson as a 1-to-30 favorite. Jackson, a sophomore, checks all the boxes: He is a quarterback; he plays for a title contender (the Cardinals are ranked fifth in the Associated Press poll and are likely to be fifth or sixth, according to the College Football Playoff committee); like the recent winners Tim Tebow, Robert Griffin III and Johnny Manziel, he is at least as much a threat to run as to pass; and he even had a signature early-season game, a 62-20 gashing of Florida State in mid-September in which he threw for one touchdown and ran for four more.
Should Jackson forget how to throw before Louisville’s next game, his top rivals are Peppers, Washington quarterback Jake Browning, Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett, Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson and Penn State running back Saquon Barkley.
“I think he’s going to get to New York as long as Michigan is in the playoff hunt,” McCartney said of Peppers, referring to the annual ceremony that invites several finalists.
Is there a candidate being left out? Like Browning and Watson, Michigan’s Wilton Speight is the quarterback for an undefeated championship contender, even if his statistics don’t compare to theirs.
At least one prognosticator believes Speight merits more attention.
“And you might also want to look at the quarterback, too,” Harbaugh said Saturday, adding with a cackle, “Maybe it’s time to throw his hat into the ring.”