Of the four Heisman candidates, TCU Quarterback Max Duggan was the least likely to have ended up in New York. After all, he didn’t even win the starting job in Fall camp. But after an injury to Chandler Morris gave Duggan a second chance, he left head coach Sonny Dykes a clear decision. Duggan clearly gave the Horned Frogs their best option to win football games. Let’s take a look at what made Duggan a Heisman finalist.
Max Duggan
Standout Statistics
In order to qualify as a Heisman candidate, any player has to possess outstanding statistical numbers. For Duggan, he was able to generate offense both with his arm and his legs. His passing numbers are some of the best in the country. He threw for 3,321 yards while posting a touchdown to interception ratio of 30:4. Duggan didn’t achieve those yards by dinking and dunking the ball either and letting his teammates do the heavy lifting. He averaged 9.0 yards per attempt, which was tied for the 7th-highest in the nation. Duggan also added 404 yards rushing with another six touchdowns. His 3,725 total yards of offense was good for the 10th highest in the nation.
Resilient Winner
We already mentioned that Duggan entered the season in a three-man competition for the starting job and lost initially. But Duggan’s grittiest was present before this season. Leading into last season, Duggan went through a nine-hour heart surgery to address a heart condition called Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome. It was just two days later he had to go back in for emergency surgery to address a blood clot that had developed. Weeks later, he was playing football gain. While that story went relatively noticed, the college football universe was front and center for his determination on December 3rd, 2022.
Early in the 4th quarter of the Big 12 championship game, Duggan threw his ugliest interception of the season on a fade route into the endzone. Kansas State promptly drove down the field to stretch their lead 28-17. The Hollywood script started to take over as Duggan put the team on his back and carried them to back-to-back scoring drives to tie up the game. A physically drained Duggan was seen brushing away teammates after converting the necessary two-point conversion. And while the result of the game didn’t go the way for the Horned Frogs for the first time all year, Duggan’s performance was noticed by all.
Coaches talk about players showing heart/leaving it all on the field. This was an instance where it was clear to even the casual viewer that Duggan truly dug to depths he didn’t even he could to will his team to a potential victory. When considering his leadership and his statistical achievement, it should not be any surprise that quarterback Max Duggan is a Heisman finalist.
