Fact or Fiction: Bryce Young will win the Heisman next season
In today’s Fact or Fiction national columnist Mike Farrell looks at three big recent topics in college football and decides whether each statement is indeed FACT or if it’s FICTION.
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1. Defensive coaches are now the priority for head coaching searches.
Farrell's Take: FICTION. This is just an anomaly, folks. Coaches such as Brent Venables, Dan Lanning, Brent Pry, Joey McGuire and Marcus Freeman will always be hot commodities and it seems we’ve had more defensive hires this coaching carousel than before but one year does not make a trend. Offense is still the way to win in college football and next year and beyond we will see more and more offensive coaches get their chances.
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2. Bryce Young will win the Heisman next season.
Farrell's Take: FACT. Why not? Bryce Young is the quarterback for the biggest brand in college football and the best coach we’ve ever seen. And this was his learning curve season. With another year before Young can turn pro, it’s almost unfair to everyone else for the race next season.
Of course we’ve seen the rise and fall of Heisman candidates before but this isn’t a Spencer Rattler situation. Young will win it again, with perhaps CJ Stroud representing his biggest competition or his own teammate in Will Anderson.
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3. Manny Diaz will succeed at Penn State.
Farrell's Take: FACT. It’s an interesting hire by James Franklin as Manny Diaz has a very good defensive mind but Diaz will be under extra scrutiny after his unsuccessful run at Miami. The Penn State defense has been very solid under Brent Pry the last few years and Diaz has big shoes to fill.
The focus of the Penn State fan base will still be on the offense but if the defense takes a step back they will be up in arms. Luckily for them I don’t think that will happen.