Hey, hey, where you been? But got to talk is about to begin. Hey, hey, hey, come on in.

Welcome back to Buckeye Talk, another market down Monday. I'm Nathan Barrett from Cleveland.com along with Doug Lamarice and Stephen Means. None of us are a Heisman trophy candidates again this year. It's kind of a source subject. We're not going to get into it. It's a lot of politics involved. But there are Heisman trophy candidates out there. And we are picking who we believe will win the 2021 Heisman trophy. And I, Doug, you said you went back and listened to last years as I was kind of preparing for this podcast. I remember like going really in depth.

I was going to be the first year and putting this out to the textures and getting a lot of votes back. Firstly because Justin Fields was considered one of the two primary candidates. And it's interesting this year that I'm going into this with almost a very different mindset because anybody who contends for this from Ohio State seems to be a little bit of an underdog at this point. And that's something of a change.

Last year we all, we did it on August 3rd last year, which was earlier than we do in this one. And we all had Justin Fields won Trevor Lawrence to in our Heisman picks. We got part of that right because Trevor Lawrence finished second.

And Justin Fields finished seventh. But yes, I mean, it was such too obvious. I said something on the podcast last year about like if you could design like the perfect preseason Heisman candidate.

And Justin Fields were both that. And I don't know that anybody this year rises to that level. I don't think Spencer Ratler is at that level of what Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields were a year ago.

And then I'll shout myself out because I had Kyle Trass third and he finished fourth. He was one of the Heisman finalists. So that was really smart.

Obviously, just because I mean, it's the best two. It was literally the best two players in college football who are also at the time played for the perceived best two teams in college football before Alabama decided to show us that yes, we have a super team or hands.

None of us were on Mac Jones a year ago. Nobody was on Devont Smith, because nobody was on him. A little Jill and Waldo got hurt Nathan. You and I were both on Najee Harris. You and I both had Najee as like our fourth guy. He finished fifth.

We were in range on some guys. We were in range on some guys. But it last. I mean, nobody saw Devont Smith coming to the level to, you know, as winning it a year ago this time.

Who did we both have third? Do you have that markdown? You had trash. I had trash. Thirds Steven had Jamie Newman third and he opted out. So that was a no go. And you had Sam Linger from Texas, Nathan.

Who, yeah, who opted out of the Heisman, the candidacy pretty early, but did play the full season.

I'm high up to 10 a day. Up to that of him.

That may be a better way of saying that. We're going to get into all of the candidates a little bit later, because there are a group that is kind of at least in the preseason become sort of the main consensus candidates.

But we want to start off keeping this a little bit more local and talk about who is the best big 10 Heisman candidate and sort of the one question I had down before we even started talking that we might start the podcast down was how bad does the big 10 need a legitimate Heisman candidate who isn't from Ohio state.

I feel like it's something that would bring some juice back to this conference a little bit. It's something that would signal that there is someone else out there who can better challenge Ohio state. It's something that's definitely missing from the conversation. I think we're about to have.

And isn't it was constant running back also right care about was constant running backs no offense to them, but that before that's probably the best question like how bad does the big 10 need another quarterback to be a Heisman trophy candidate.

I mean, they just need better quarterback play in the conference is overall. So yeah, I mean, I this is where if you want the big 10 to be good that this is where grammar comes in. This is where Jay Jay McCarthy comes in. This is where Penn State recruit jeweler comes in like this is they just need to raise they need to raise the level of quarterback play.

Because there are other there are other schools who aren't the first year schools and other conferences who have guys like that they need a Sam how they need a key to slow miss right they need a guy like that and maybe grandmothers is that maybe he is.

But yes, I think to your point Nathan I certainly that's what it would be doesn't mean that team would beat Ohio state. No, not necessarily probably not, but it would add some juice to the conversation.

And if if you had a Sam howl maybe waiting for Ohio state in the big 10 championship game that's a lot of juice and that's not where we are.

Who was the last big 10 quarterback that wasn't on a Ohio state player who was legitimate Heisman trophy candidate.

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