As college football kicks off, RotoWire.com used data from sports-reference.com to see how the past decade of Heisman winners performed in September during their winning campaign. We took the past 10 Heisman Trophy winners and categorized them by position.
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How Do QB Heisman Winners Do in September?
Heisman Winner | Completion Percentage | Passing Yards Per Game | TD Passes Thrown |
Jayden Daniels (2023) | 73.1% | 342 | 16 |
Caleb Williams (2022) | 74.5% | 320.6 | 21 |
Bryce Young (2021) | 68.6% | 257.3 | 13 |
Joe Burrow (2019) | 80.6% | 380 | 17 |
Kyler Murray (2018) | 70.6% | 292 | 17 |
Baker Mayfield (2017) | 75.2% | 332.3 | 13 |
Lamar Jackson (2016) | 58.7% | 332.5 | 13 |
Average | 71.4% | 322.4 | 15.7 |
While the Heisman Trophy is technically given out to the best player in college football, regardless of position, it has largely gone to quarterbacks over the last few decades, with seven winners under center since 2015. While Colorado cornerback and wide receiver Travis Hunter broke that mold, in 2024, he was just the third non-QB to take home the Heisman during the period in question. The best sports betting sites will typically have QBs at the top of the board each season.
Of the eight QBs that did win the Heisman between 2015 and 2024, the winner that had the best completion percentage during the first calendar month of the CFB season was Joe Burrow of LSU, who torched opposing secondaries in LSU's first four games of their 15-0 CFP championship season in 2019.
During those contests against Georgia Southern, Texas, Northwestern State and Vanderbilt, Burrow averaged 380 yards per game and completed 80.6% of his passes, en route to a Heisman-winning campaign where he threw for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns (to six interceptions), eventually landing him atop the 2020 NFL Draft, going to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Conversely, the Heisman-winning QB with the "worst" first month of the season was Louisville's Lamar Jackson back in 2016, with the future Baltimore Ravens two-time MVP winner completing 58.7% of his passes, though he did average 332.5 passing yards per game in the Cardinals' first four games that season.
The QB that threw for the most yards per game through the end of the ninth month of the calendar year was Burrow, at 380, while LSU's Jayden Daniels (342), Jackson (332.5), Baker Mayfield in 2017 (332.3) and Caleb Williams of USC in 2022 (320.6) were next in line.
Overall, the seven Heisman-winning QBs since 2015 have averaged 322.4 passing yards per game through the end of September with a passing completion percentage of 71.4%, speaking to the importance of catching fire early in the year if you're going to grab the attention of award voters during the college football season.
It should also be noted that dual threat QBs like Jackson (131.5 rushing yards per game), Daniels (58.4 rushing yards per game) and Kyler Murray of OU (57 rushing yards per game) also built their Heisman résumé by torching defenses on the ground, speaking to the value that comes from shredding the opposing side in both facets of the game.
Finally, of the seven quarterbacks that have won the Heisman in the last decade, Williams had the most touchdown passes by the end of September, with 21, while Mayfield, Jackson and Alabama's Bryce Young had the fewest, with 13 apiece. The average number of touchdown tosses by the septet by the end of September was 15.7, with Daniels (16), Burrow and Murray (17 each) finishing in the middle of the pack.
MORE: College football player props
How Do WR Heisman Winners Do in September?
Heisman Winner | Receiving Yards Per Game | Touchdown Catches |
Travis Hunter (2024) | 112.2 | 6 |
DeVonta Smith (2020)* | 89 | 0 |
Average | 100.6 | 3 |
*COVID-19 year, only one game for data set.
Since 2015, there have been two wideouts to win the Heisman, with Hunter joining Alabama's DeVonta Smith in 2020, though the former was the only one of the pair to line up on both sides of the ball, taking his share of snaps at cornerback for the Buffaloes in 2024.
Nonetheless, Hunter had the better September of the two, averaging 112.2 receiving yards per game and hauling in six touchdown receptions, while Smith had one game in September during the COVID-19-impacted 2020 season.
In that contest (on the road against Missouri on Sept. 26), Smith had eight catches for 89 yards, kicking off a season where he had 117 receptions, 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns, finishing the year with nine 100-yard games during the Tide's 13-0 run to the CFP championship.
How Do RB Heisman Winners Do in September?
Heisman Winner | Rushing Yards Per Game | Rushing Touchdowns |
Derrick Henry (2015) | 105.5 | 8 |
Since 2015, one running back has gone on to win the Heisman Trophy, with Crimson Tide bruiser Derrick Henry racing out to 422 yards and eight touchdowns in Alabama's CFP-winning campaign in 2015, with a high of 147 yards on 13 carries with three scores against Wisconsin in a 35-17 Week 1 victory.
In total, Henry had eight touchdowns in Alabama's first four games between Sept. 5 and 26 of 2015, averaging 105.5 yards per game in that quartet of contests against the Badgers, Middle Tennessee State, Ole Miss and Louisiana-Monroe.
At season's end, Henry had 2,219 rushing yards on 395 attempts with 28 touchdowns, averaging 5.6 yards per attempt and redefining the running back position in college football, which is exactly what he did in the NFL as well, with 11,423 yards (and counting) in 136 games played with the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens, with an approximate value of 89 in those contests, cementing his status as a surefire Hall of Famer when he hangs up the cleats in the future.
As Week 1 of the CFB season kicks off, it's worth keeping in mind who oddsmakers have as the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy in 2025, with Texas QB Arch Manning listed as the consensus favorite across three major sportsbooks, with the redshirt sophomore holding +500 odds on BetMGM and Caesars Sportsbook, to go with +650 odds on Bet365, DraftKings Sportsbook and Fanatics Sportsbook, while the team at FanDuel Sportsbook had him at +700 in 2025.
