Alabama players might not agree on this year’s Heisman voting, but that doesn’t mean they don’t respect the winner.
Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray bested Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa for college football’s most prestigious individual honor as he was presented with the Heisman Trophy earlier this month. Initially, that set off a slew of outrage among Crimson Tide players.
Linebacker Mack Wilson was one of the first to chime in, tweeting “Bullshit..” shortly after the award was announced. Defensive end Isaiah Buggs then followed up by tweeting “Tua Suppose To Bring that Heisman Trophy back home,” followed by “Dec 29 it’s up.” Pretty soon, the hashtag #Dec29 started trending on Twitter as several other Alabama players and coaches referenced No. 1 Alabama’s Orange Bowl matchup against No. 4 Oklahoma as a means of revenge.
Although, while Crimson Tide players might want to prove voters wrong during its College Football semifinal against the Sooners, they mean no disrespect to Murray.
When asked last week if Murray was the best quarterback Alabama has faced so far, safety Deionte Thompson didn’t hesitate, stating, “Absolutely” before repeating himself two times for good measure.
“We've played against some great quarterbacks,” Thompson said. “but he's by far the best.”
Murray leads the nation with a 205.72 passer rating. Through 13 games, he’s completed 70.9 percent of his passes for 4,053 yards and 40 touchdowns with seven interceptions. He’s also added 892 yards and 11 more scores on the ground.
“He’s put up some crazy numbers,” running back Josh Jacobs said. “So, I don’t want to take that away from him. So, congratulations for that.”
That being said, Alabama felt like it had a worthy candidate in Tagovailoa. Playing roughly 200 less snaps than Murray, Tagovailoa completed 67.7 percent of his passes for 3,353 yards and 37 touchdowns with four interceptions while adding 190 yards and five more scores on the ground. The Alabama quarterback also went against tougher defenses in the SEC than Murray did in the high-scoring Big-12.
“I mean, we don’t vote on it. People who vote on it, they voted for (Murray) to win. So I can’t really have an opinion about it,” offensive lineman Jonah Williams said. “Obviously you want your teammates to be successful, you want your teammates to win awards. But I think that (Tagovailoa would) tell you and we’d all tell you the award we care about the most is in January with the national championship. That’s kind of what our mindset is.”
Williams’ mindset is felt throughout Alabama’s locker room. Sure, it would have been nice to see their teammate win one of the biggest honors in college athletics, but players are over that. The trophy Alabama is after is still two wins away.
“I wouldn’t say it helps motivate us because if you’re not motivated to play in the playoffs then I don’t even think you should be around,” Thompson said. “The Heisman Trophy ceremony, that was the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Going into this game, I don’t think it will matter much. (Murray) had a hell of a season. He did very good, that’s why he was awarded with the Heisman. But I don’t think it will have much going into the game.”
In order to claim their desired prize, Alabama knows it must stop Murray and an Oklahoma attack that leads the nation in scoring (49.5 points per game) and total offense (577.9 yards per game).
“They’re very dynamic,” Thompson said. “That’s the perfect word to describe them — dynamic. They have athletes all across the board. Guys that are fast, guys that are good in open space, elusive, can make you miss. Just problems they can impose in multiple areas of the game. From what I’ve seen on film, they dominated all of their competition this year. It wasn’t really much of things that people could do with them just because the athletes they got. They have starting receivers and receivers behind them that can really go, that are very good guys, and that’s something we have to be ready for.”
Alabama will play Oklahoma on Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. CT inside of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. The winner will advance to the national championship game in Santa Clara, Calif., on Jan 7 against the winner of the Cotton Bowl matchup between No. 2 Clemson and No. 3 Notre Dame.
