Voting for the Heisman Trophy is an honor, and not one that I take lightly.

I tell people that it’s the single coolest thing I get to do with this job. To me, that means staying up late and watching Pac-12 games well after the midnight hour after a long Saturday. That means keeping weekly tabs on players in the hunt and not treating this like my college exams, which were often last-minute information crams.

I also don’t like to submit my vote until the Sunday after conference championship Saturday. Even if I think I have a good idea of where I’d like to go, what would it say about me if I locked that in before candidates played in their biggest games of the season? Alternatively, what if I did and had second thoughts while watching a fringe candidate play a historically great game to send his team to the Playoff?

So yeah, I don’t vote until that Sunday night. It’s a balance. I want to react to the conference championships, but I don’t want to make knee-jerk reactions when this is supposed to be an award that encapsulates the entire season.

Another thing — I value what it means to get to New York. That’s why I spend just as much time debating internally about those 2 and 3 spots as I do the No. 1 spot on my ballot.

When I fill this out, I’m not trying to predict how I think the vote will play out. I’m trying to go based on how I’ve felt watching these guys play, and how to evaluate their numbers being worthy of earning the honor as the top individual player in college football.

Enough talking. Here’s how I filled out my ballot:

3. Bo Nix, Oregon QB

For those of us who watched Nix closely in the SEC, it’s crazy to think about how good of a player he became. A guy with 5 different offensive coordinators became one of the best players in the sport in his last college season. Admittedly, I took longer than others to warm up to that notion.

In my defense, the 2 instances in which I saw Nix in person were 2019 at LSU and the 2022 opener against Georgia … 2 games away from home against eventual national champs. One of those games was in arguably the most hostile atmosphere in the sport, and the other was essentially a road game in his first start with a new team. A fair barometer? Not exactly.

Think about this — Nix closed his last college season with a 40-3 TD-INT ratio. Here’s the list of Power 5 quarterbacks who have thrown for 40 touchdowns with 5 interceptions or less in a season:

  • 2014 Marcus Mariota
  • 2019 Justin Fields
  • 2020 Mac Jones
  • 2022 Caleb Williams
  • 2023 Jayden Daniels
  • 2023 Bo Nix

That’s insane company. Nix did that while still being a threat with his legs, too. Even though he transitioned into a more pass-heavy role, it wasn’t as if defenses suddenly had to stop respecting the quarterback run game.

But of all those things that impressed me with Nix this year, I actually liked the knock on him more than anything.

Nix’s skeptics argued that all he did was just throw check-downs and that he benefitted from guys making plays after the catch. That’s what I wished we saw more of from Nix early in his career. To me, his maturation was shown by his ability to take those easy yards instead of rolling out to his right and making an off-balanced throw to a covered receiver or throwing the ball away.

Oregon wouldn’t have been knocking on the door of a Playoff berth if not for the brilliance of Nix. That’s why he earned a trip to New York.

2. Michael Penix, Jr., Washington QB

If the Pac-12 Championship had gone according to what the oddsmakers and seemingly every college football media member thought, I probably would’ve had Nix in this No. 2 spot. Instead, Penix outplayed him with everything on the line. Again.

Yeah, it was a pass-heavy offense and that impacted Penix’s stats. But this wasn’t some offense where he threw it 50 times per game. Penix averaged 36 pass attempts per game, and he improved on his efficiency. He averaged 9.1 yards per attempt and he finished No. 2 in FBS behind Jayden Daniels with 67 passes of 20 yards.

Oh, and he did that for a 13-0 Washington team that was perfect against a deeper-than-ever Pac-12. I’m not a big “quarterback wins” guy, but that has to count for something, especially when he never missed a start for an offense that averaged 38 points per game.

It’s remarkable what Washington became after Penix transferred from Indiana. He went from being the enticing guy who just couldn’t stay healthy in Bloomington to having Heisman consideration from wire-to-wire in Year 2 at Washington. Whether he can lead the Huskies to a Playoff remains to be seen. For now, though, I thought he played well enough to deserve a spot on everyone’s ballot.

1. Jayden Daniels, LSU QB

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — Daniels got every blade of grass that he wanted. Period.

We witnessed a historic season from Daniels that somehow earned comparisons to 2019 Joe Burrow. Notice you’ll notice that I said “earned.” Yep.

Here are just a handful of some of my favorite Daniels stats:

  • He racked up 50 total touchdowns pre-Heisman Trophy ceremony, and he did so without the aid of a conference championship game.
  • He’s 1 of 6 Power 5 players ever to have 40 touchdown passes and 5 interceptions or less in a season
  • He led FBS in 20-yard passes (70), 30-yard passes (36) and 40-yard passes (20)
  • He led the SEC in 10-yard runs (41), 20-yard runs (20) and 40-yard runs (6)
  • He finished No. 2 in the SEC in rushing … as a quarterback
  • He averaged 10.7 yards/play, which is a full 2 yards better than last year’s FBS leader CJ Stroud
  • He was responsible for 573 more yards than any other player in America
  • He currently has the best QB rating (208) in college football history

I mean, it’s truly insane what Daniels did this year.

If your argument for Daniels to not win the Heisman has anything to do with the 3 losses, you’re telling on yourself that you didn’t watch him play. In the losses, LSU’s defense allowed between 42-55 points. Oh, and LSU’s offense still averaged 34 points in those games.

Did he have help? Of course. Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. were 2 of the nation’s top receivers. Did Burrow have an unbelievable receiving duo? Did almost every other Heisman-winning quarterback have some elite weapons around them? Absolutely.

Daniels was a slam dunk to win the award. Could Nix have made it a true debate for myself and other voters if he’d put together a 6-touchdown game in a revenge win against Washington? For sure. But that didn’t happen.

There was no doubt who earned the right to join the Heisman fraternity this year.

Who just missed the cut for me: Jalen Milroe and Jordan Travis

I thought a lot about Milroe for that No. 3 spot for a few reasons. I witnessed what he did against Georgia, and I was extremely impressed. Why? It wasn’t that Milroe made some of the jaw-dropping plays that we’ve come to expect from him. In a game with everything on the line, he avoided the costly mistake that he made all too often in the first part of the season. There’s no world in which I thought Milroe could have a “B+” game and beat a Georgia team that good. Granted, the Alabama defense had a lot to do with that, as well.

But Milroe’s improvement has been obvious to those who have watched him. If your argument for why he didn’t really improve was the Auburn game, go back to Bryce Young’s 2021 game at Jordan-Hare before he won the Heisman Trophy. It happens.

Milroe didn’t get a spot on my ballot for the simple fact that I thought he had a few too many moments this season wherein he felt like a liability instead of the strength that he became down the stretch. But trust me when I say I wrestled with that before ultimately deciding that leaving Nix off the ballot entirely would’ve been too knee-jerk after conference championship weekend.

And yeah, I would’ve voted Travis ahead of the insanely good Marvin Harrison Jr., who I didn’t think had the best season among the receivers this year (Nabers did). Shoot, the selection committee told us about how valuable Travis was. His absence was 100% why FSU didn’t get a Playoff spot at 13-0.

Disappointing ending aside, Travis was one of my favorite players to watch, both this season and last. I was there in Orlando when he shook off that shaky start and took over down the stretch against LSU. I love the buy-in and command he had of that offense when he was healthy. While his numbers were never going to be good enough to win the award, I would’ve applauded anyone who argued that he deserved to go to New York.

As it stands, though, I’ll sleep well knowing how I voted. I’m not sure the Playoff selection committee can say that.