For my money, the race to New York is down to 2.

Let’s back up for a second. I should probably add a touch more context to that before I trigger a whole lot of college football fans.

For my money, the SEC has 2 players who can get an invite to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York. Those guys are Jayden Daniels and Brock Bowers.

Everyone else? I’m not holding my breath.

Sorry, Jalen Milroe. The A&M game was darn impressive, but the turnover issues and the good, not great overall numbers (13 total touchdowns and 1,317 scrimmage yards won’t get it done) might not even lead to an All-SEC season, much less a Heisman invite.

What about a receiver like Luther Burden or Malik Nabers? Why can’t the 2 national leaders in receiving yards make it to New York? Well, while both are on pace to have remarkable 1,500-yard seasons, 2020 Heisman winner DeVonta Smith is the lone receiver in the past 6 seasons who got a New York invite (they technically had a virtual ceremony because of COVID) … after he hit 1,500 receiving yards and 19 touchdowns (17 receiving, 1 rushing, 1 punt return) in just 11 pre-Heisman games. Besides, Nabers’ odds are still just 200-to-1 after that blistering start.

That list of “SEC guys who won’t get a New York invite” even includes Carson Beck, who I predicted in the preseason would be the conference’s lone representative in New York. Beck’s odds got a nice bump in the latest odds, but I’m not optimistic about someone with 12 total touchdowns through 6 games winning the award, especially when his teammate has a better shot.

So yes, that brings us back to Bowers and Daniels.

Let’s start with Daniels because even in a 2-loss September, he’s worthy of national praise for his first half of 2023.

For the sake of this argument, let’s assume LSU doesn’t repeat as West champs and make it to Atlanta. Check out Daniels’ current 12-game pace:

Mind you, 5 of those games were against Power 5 competition and 4 were away from home. He’s been brilliant. We saw that in the comeback win at Mizzou, where Daniels suffered a rib injury and then led a pair of touchdown drives in the 4th quarter.

But what about the fact that LSU is seemingly out of the Playoff hunt, you ask? It’s not as big of a deal-breaker as you’d think. In the Playoff era, here are the non-Playoff-bound quarterbacks who got an invite to New York:

  • 2015 Keenan Reynolds (Navy)
  • 2016 Baker Mayfield (Oklahoma)
  • 2016 Lamar Jackson (Louisville)
  • 2017 Lamar Jackson (Louisville)
  • 2018 Dwayne Haskins (Ohio State)
  • 2020 Kyle Trask (Florida)
  • 2021 Kenny Pickett (Pitt)
  • 2021 CJ Stroud (Ohio State)
  • 2022 Caleb Williams (USC)

That’s 9 non-Playoff-bound quarterbacks, which is 1 per year. Even if Daniels is on a 9-3 LSU team, his numbers could still make him worthy. He isn’t the reason that LSU likely won’t make the Playoff. He could have a very 2016 Mayfield-like path, which saw him rack up 3,812 total yards and 44 total touchdowns with a 197.8 QB rating (pre-Heisman). Daniels’ 12-game pace is slightly more impressive, especially with the majority of that production coming against SEC defenses.

Plus, what if he goes into Alabama and beats the Tide for a second consecutive year? Even if that doesn’t include winning the West, Daniels’ résumé will have a rare feat at the top of it — delivering not 1, but 2 daggers to the Tide’s Playoff hopes. It’s so widely understood how bad LSU’s defense is that Daniels could probably lose a 38-35 game in Tuscaloosa and pick up even more Heisman support.

Daniels’ path to New York — as someone who ranks No. 2 in FBS in QB rating and is No. 2 among Power 5 quarterbacks in rushing — is definitely still on the table.

The same is true for Bowers.

Wait a minute. Isn’t he going to be knocked in the voting for being a tight end? Like, the position that hasn’t had a Heisman winner since Leon Hart in 1949 and that hasn’t had a player finish in the top 9 of the voting since 1977 … that’s not going to hold Bowers back?

Nope. Here’s why.

Bowers should be competing with the history of his position, not so much other receivers in college football who don’t have the same blocking demands that he has as a tight end. He’s not going to lead the nation in receiving or anything like that, so let’s dismiss that as some sort of standard for what he’ll need to do to make it to New York (it’s worth noting that Bowers’ 545 receiving yards are 202 receiving yards more than the next-closest Power 5 tight end).

But what if Bowers, who has a 13-game pace of 1,180 receiving yards, reaches 1,000 receiving yards pre-Heisman ceremony? Game on.

The only Power 5 tight end who accomplished that feat in the 21st century was Texas Tech’s Jace Amaro, who played in an Air Raid offense that averaged 55 pass attempts per game in 2013. Amaro wasn’t, however, even named a Mackey Award finalist that year. Perhaps part of that was because of the unofficial asterisk on the scheme as it relates to national accolades. Amaro’s lack of blocking opportunities might’ve played a part, too.

Bowers doesn’t have that problem. Not only did he already win the Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end as a sophomore, but his run-blocking continues to be a strength. Among the 27 FBS tight ends who have played at least 300 snaps this season, Bowers is the only one who has a PFF run-blocking grade of at least 75.0. He averages 21.5 run-blocking snaps per game and he still played more inline snaps (163) than slot/outside snaps (154), which means voters can’t even talk themselves out of Bowers with the lazy “he’s just an oversized receiver” narrative.

The guy is a true tight end, through and through.

It would make it all the more impressive if he became just the second Georgia player ever to hit 1,000 yards in a season. The only other player to do so was Terrence Edwards, who is also the lone player in program history with more receiving touchdowns (30) than Bowers (24). If he breaks Edwards’ UGA single-season receiving record (1,004 yards) and his UGA career receiving touchdowns record, that’ll only add to Bowers’ Heisman résumé.

Depending on where you look, Bowers (25-to-1) actually has a slight edge on Daniels (28-to-1) in the latest Heisman odds. It would probably take some pretty significant chaos from current favorites like Caleb Williams, Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix for Daniels and Bowers to have a realistic shot at taking home the hardware.

Still, though. Don’t discount what it means to be invited to New York. It’s an honor that only 16 SEC players have earned since the conference’s run of dominance began back in 2006 (how Will Anderson wasn’t 1 of those 16 will always infuriate me). Say what you want about the voting process or how it’s become a quarterback award, but it’s held in as high of a regard as any individual honor in American sports.

So far, Daniels and Bowers have done everything in their power to be put in that conversation.