If betting odds are to be believed, Indiana's Fernando Mendoza wrapped up the 2025 Heisman Trophy last Saturday with a 222-yard performance in the Hoosiers' historic 13-10 win over Ohio State in the Big Ten championship.
Based on the weekly Heisman horse race I maintain in my Sunday recap columns, Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia should have received infinitely more credit for his work than it appears he probably will, but Pavia was still named a finalist, and Mendoza, Pavia, Ohio State's Julian Sayin and Notre Dame's Jeremiyah Love will all be celebrated during Saturday night's ESPN ceremony before Mendoza is presumably handed the trophy.
The Heisman is the culmination of college football's awards week -- others honors, such as the Biletnikoff Award (best receiver), Bednarik Award (best defensive player), Groza Award (best kicker) and more will be given out during "The Home Depot College Football Awards" on ESPN on Friday evening. But why stop with the standard fare? There are lots of good players and teams out there. Before this weekend's smorgasbord of worthy old reliables, let's add a few more awards to the pile. Here are college football's alternative awards for 2025.
Jump to: Dog in Him | Journeyman | YAC King
Havoc King | Best Hard Coaching Job | No Bowl All-Americans
Dog in Him of the Year
There are the best quarterbacks, and there are the quarterbacks we often come to love the most, and those in the latter category often share certain attributes. They run around and improvise. They try to make things happen. They can both take and dish out a hit. To borrow from internet parlance, they've got that dog in them.
We therefore begin our alternative awards ceremony with the most important of all alt-awards: the Dog in Him Award. I built a formula around a number of key characteristics and stats -- physicality (contact rate, i.e. the frequency with which they take contact), improvisation (out-of-pocket pass attempts, scramble rate), do-it-yourself mentality (non-sack rushing yards, designed run rate) and, despite the extra contact, raw quality (Total QBR) and mistake-free play (interception rate, sacks per pressure).
Based on the Dog in Him formula I've created, here's what the top three would have looked like in recent seasons:
2019: Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma), Malcolm Perry (Navy), Malik Cunningham (Louisville)
2020: Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina), Malik Willis (Liberty), Ian Book (Notre Dame)
2021: KJ Jefferson (Arkansas), Malik Cunningham (Louisville), Caleb Williams (Oklahoma)
2022: KJ Jefferson (Arkansas), Adrian Martinez (Kansas State), Drake Maye (North Carolina)
2023: Kaidon Salter (Liberty), Garrett Greene (West Virginia), Kyron Drones (Virginia Tech)
2024: Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt), Blake Horvath (Navy), John Mateer (Washington State)
Honestly, this might be my favorite formula I've ever created. If that list doesn't spell out a very specific archetype, I don't know what does. And this year's top three fulfill that archetype perfectly.
1. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt. Like KJ Jefferson, Pavia officially repeats as Dog in Him winner. Unlike Jefferson, Pavia might genuinely be the best quarterback in college football -- of previous winners, only Jalen Hurts generated a higher Total QBR than Pavia's 87.7.
The senior nearly finished in the top three while crafting one of New Mexico State's best ever seasons in 2022 (he was fifth), and after averaging 3.6 wins per season with no winning records over the previous 10 years, Vanderbilt has gone 17-8 in two years with Pavia running the show. He took a step up in competition, moving from Conference USA to the SEC, and somehow became both better and more himself. He has topped 900 non-sack rushing yards in both seasons, he has thrown 47 touchdown passes to only 12 interceptions, and for someone as willing as he is to use his legs, you'll almost never see a sacks-to-pressures ratio lower than the 14.0% that he has allowed in 2024-25.
Oh yeah, and he damn near led Vandy to the CFP this season. Vandy! Pavia is so worthy of the Dog in Him Award that I almost feel compelled to name it the Pavia Award moving forward. Almost.
2. Blake Horvath, Navy Midshipmen. Granted, option quarterbacks are built to fare pretty well based on the Dog in Him criteria above. Horvath has obviously played a large role in the designed run game for Navy, and goodness knows he has both taken and dished out punishment. But you approach the Dog in Him summit only if you are good, and Horvath has been outstanding over the past two seasons, not only rushing for 2,373 non-sack yards and 31 touchdowns but also throwing for 2,743 yards and 22 more scores. He has brought a level of quality to the passing game that you'll rarely see in Annapolis, West Point or Colorado Springs, and he has brought wins, too: He's 18-4 as a starter during his two Dog in Him runner-up campaigns.
3. Haynes King, Georgia Tech. Any quarterback who inspires an oral history built solely around his absurd toughness better show up high on the list; otherwise I need to tweak the formula. King took his pass efficiency to a different level in 2025, averaging a career-high 8.0 yards per dropback and keeping his completion rate above 70% (71.7%) for the second straight season. He also rushed a career-high 169 times for 963 yards, not including sacks, with a downright irresponsible contact rate of 44.6%. Despite a defense that didn't always come through, King came within a couple of weeks of dragging Tech to the ACC championship game and, potentially, the CFP. The Yellow Jackets came up short, but we'll continue to tell Haynes King tales for years.
Journeymen of the Year
The 2020s have brought us a new college football prototype: the journeyman. It's not just for the professional ranks anymore. With the transfer portal playing such a heavy role in roster construction -- and with college athletes enjoying more freedom of movement than ever before -- I wanted to celebrate a few players who took on long journeys to eventually find what they were looking for. Here are the top 10 performers for 2025 who were playing* for at least their third different school.
* Note the word choice there. Tennessee's Joey Aguilar (third school, but didn't play for UCLA before transferring to UT), Alabama's Kadyn Proctor (transferred to Iowa for a semester, then returned to Tuscaloosa without missing a season) and Ohio's Sieh Bangura (transferred from Ohio to Minnesota for one season, then returned to Athens) were good but weren't quite eligible.
1. Romello Height, OLB, Texas Tech
The journey: Auburn (2021), USC (2022-23), Georgia Tech (2024)
Key stats: 48 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, 3 run stops, a pass breakup, 2 forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
A solid playmaker for both USC and Georgia Tech, Height moved to Lubbock and found himself as a downright unfair complement for fellow edge David Bailey on the opposite side. Tech struck gold on many transfers, but even if Height wasn't the most high-profile, he quite possibly had the best journeyman season.
And for bonus points, he has played not only for three schools, but for four. Hope all those credit hours transferred appropriately.
2. Emmanuel Pregnon, G, Oregon
The journey: Wyoming (2022), USC (2023-24)
Key stats: 1.2% blown run block rate (four in 343 run blocks), 0.9% pressure rate allowed (three pressures in 335 pass blocks), one penalty.
3. Brenen Thompson, WR, Mississippi State
The journey: Texas (2022), Oklahoma (2023-24)
Key stats: 53 receptions for 948 yards and 6 touchdowns, plus 14 rushing yards and a TD.
4. Elijah Sarratt, WR, Indiana
The journey: Saint Francis (2022), James Madison (2023)
Key stats: 51 receptions for 687 yards and 12 touchdowns.
5. Nathan Voorhis, DE, Ball State
The journey: UConn (2022-23), Bryant (2024)
Key stats: 55 tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, 11 run stops and 2 forced fumbles.
6. Brent Austin, CB, Cal
The journey: James Madison (2022-23), USF (2024)
Key stats: 39 tackles, 24.2 QBR allowed, 13 pass breakups, 0.5 tackles for loss, 1 run stop, 2 forced fumbles and 1 fumble recovery.
7. Chandler Morris, QB, Virginia
The journey: Oklahoma (2020), TCU (2021-23), North Texas (2024)
Key stats: 2,802 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, plus 344 non-sack rushing yards and 5 touchdowns.
8. Bear Alexander, DT, Oregon
The journey: Georgia (2022), USC (2023-24)
Key stats: 44 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 9 run stops, 0.5 sacks, 2 pass breakups and 2 fumble recoveries.
9. Kevin Coleman Jr., WR, Missouri
The journey: Jackson State (2022), Louisville (2023), Mississippi State (2024)
Key stats: 63 receptions for 715 yards and 1 touchdown, plus 71 rushing yards and a 12.6-yard punt return average with 1 return TD.
10. Simeon Harris, CB, Fresno State
The journey: Colorado (2022), Utah State (2023)
Key stats: 46 tackles, 35.4 QBR allowed, 5 interceptions, 4 pass breakups, 5 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 4 run stops, 1 forced fumble.
Honorable mention: WR Malik Benson, Oregon; center James Brockermeyer, Miami; QB Tommy Castellanos, Florida State; safety A.J. Haulcy, LSU; CB Colton Hood, Tennessee; QB Brendon Lewis, Colorado; WR De'Zhaun Stribling, Ole Miss; TE Michael Trigg, Baylor
YAC King
One of my favorite stories of early 2025 was the amount of physical (and successful) running we were seeing from quite a few running backs. For all the glory that quarterbacks see, let's divvy out some love for the YAC Kings, the running backs who helped their teams out significantly by keeping their legs churning and turning 2-yard gains into 5-yard gains.
1. Ahmad Hardy, Missouri. Eight running backs gained at least 600 yards after contact and averaged at least 3.8 yards per carry after contact. Hardy ranked first in the former category (1,107 YAC!), but thanks to a heavy split of carries with backup Jamal Roberts, he wasn't just a high-volume rusher; in fact, of the eight backs referenced, only UNLV's Jai'Den Thomas could top his 4.59 YAC per carry.
Hardy, a Louisiana-Monroe transfer, enjoyed eight 100-yard games on the season -- including a 250-yard performance against Kansas and a 300-yard burst against Mississippi State -- and although Cam Cook took a solid lead in the overall rushing yardage race by playing in the Conference USA championship game last week, Hardy still leads the nation with 130.0 yards per game. And he gained a lot of those yards the hard way. All hail our 2025 YAC King.
2. Cam Cook, Jacksonville State. Cook was the YAC King of the Group of 5. He produced 1,075 of his 1,659 yards after contact and averaged 3.64 YAC per carry. His ridiculous consistency brought Jax State to the brink of a second straight CUSA title. He rushed for at least 75 yards in every game (and at least 100 in every win), and he peaked with a 218-yard performance in a tight road win over Sam Houston.
3. Hollywood Smothers, NC State. Sometimes our YAC kings pick up some knocks along the way. Smothers was incredible early in the season, producing 427 combined yards (318 YAC) in a trio of September games. He missed one game and struggled in a couple of others down the stretch, but his season-long YAC totals (703 yards after contact, 4.39 per carry) still warrant love.
YAC Prince: Bo Jackson, Ohio State. With a name like that, you better be an impressive running back. The freshman impressed early and became the Buckeyes' feature back by November. His season-long numbers -- 722 YAC, 4.3 YAC per carry -- stood out among the freshman class, and if Ohio State wins the national title, he'll likely have played a serious role.
Honorable mention: Kaytron Allen, Penn State; Sieh Bangura, Ohio; Caleb Hawkins, North Texas; Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame; Jai'Den Thomas, UNLV
Havoc King
What's the defensive equivalent of a do-it-all quarterback or a leg-churning, contact-breaking running back? A havoc creator, of course. I've long defined tackles for loss, passes defended (interceptions or breakups) and forced fumbles as havoc plays, and this season was an absolute boom time for havoc creators. Here are your Havoc Kings for 2025.
1. Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech. Havoc plays: 26.5 (10.5 TFLs, 12 run stops, 1 sack, 4 interceptions, 5 breakups and 7 forced fumbles). When Ndamukong Suh didn't win the Heisman in 2009, it became crystal clear that the only way a defensive player could win is if he, say, also generated 1,200 receiving yards like Travis Hunter did last season. Granted, Rodriguez has scored on two short-yardage touchdown runs this season, but that was never going to be enough, even if he has as much a claim to "most outstanding college football player" as anyone.
He's still going to inevitably win some national awards this week, however, and here's one more to add to the tally. No one in the country -- not even teammate David Bailey -- generated more havoc plays than Rodriguez. He drops into coverage beautifully, he chases down running backs as well as anyone, and ... seven forced fumbles! No one has topped that mark since Illinois' Whitney Mercilus had nine in 2011. He's the prototype tackling-machine linebacker (he'll top 100 tackles in his next game), but he's also the sport's biggest disruptor. That's a hell of a combination.
2. Nadame Tucker, Western Michigan. Havoc plays: 25.5 (20.5 TFLs, 1 breakup, 4 forced fumbles). A career reserve at Houston, Tucker moved to Kalamazoo this season and made the most of his new opportunity. He made at least one havoc play in every game, topping out at four against Michigan State (three TFLs and a forced fumble) and 3.5 (all sacks) against Ball State. WMU's defense surged from 120th to 46th in defensive SP+, and Tucker might have been the biggest reason for that.
3. David Bailey, Texas Tech. Havoc plays: 25 (20 TFLs, 2 breakups, 3 forced fumbles). Rodriguez is amazing, and he might not even be Texas Tech's best defensive player. Bailey came to Lubbock from Stanford -- a la softball standout NiJaree Canady -- and started slowly (three havoc plays in four games), but he erupted as the games got bigger. He recorded 13.5 havoc plays over a three-game period in October, and he made three more in last week's Big 12 championship. A dynamite, difference-making addition.
Two of the top three Havoc Kings of the year, plus the best journeyman. Is there any wonder why Texas Tech's defense drove a playoff berth?
Honorable mention: Stephen Daley, Indiana; Cashius Howell, Texas A&M; Jordan Kwiatkowski, Central Michigan.
Hard Job Coach of the Year
The Home Depot Award for Coach of the Year will be one of many given out during Friday's award show. It will inevitably go to Curt Cignetti or someone very prominent in the CFP race, and that's fair -- Cignetti in particular deserves all of the plaudits you could possibly throw at him. But some of the best coaching performances often come from schools far from the CFP radar.
There are a lot of hard damn jobs at the FBS level, and each year we see coaches do pretty incredible jobs at these schools. Think of what Cignetti and Vanderbilt's Clark Lea have done recently, or what Barry Odom did at UNLV in 2023-24, or Jerry Kill with Pavia at New Mexico State in 2023.
Eight teams enjoyed a winning record this season despite a 10-year FBS win percentage under .400: Arizona (9-3), East Carolina (8-4), Florida International (7-5), Kennesaw State (10-3), New Mexico (9-3), UConn (9-3), UNLV (10-3) and Vanderbilt (10-2). Lea was able to push Vandy even further up the mountain after last year's breakthrough; UNLV's Dan Mullen parlayed Odom's success into further success; Arizona's Brent Brennan engineered a lovely rebound after a one-year setback following 2023's breakthrough; ECU's Blake Harrell kept the good times rolling after his great 2024 run as interim coach; and UConn's Jim Mora matched last year's great nine-win season with another one.
Three coaches, however, particularly impressed this season. Here are this year's top three Hard Job coaches.
1. Jason Eck, New Mexico. A former Wisconsin offensive lineman and South Dakota State offensive coordinator, Eck immediately engineered a turnaround at Idaho in 2022, taking over a program with five straight losing seasons and going 7-5, 9-4 and 10-4 in three years. That earned him an even harder job. Since going 9-4 in 2016, New Mexico had averaged just 2.7 wins per season with an average SP+ ranking of 117.3. Bronco Mendenhall impressed by dragging the Lobos to 4-8 in 2024, but he immediately left for Utah State, and Eck was tasked with crafting a winner while building an almost entirely new roster. He did so, and more.
New Mexico tied for the lead in the Mountain West, failing to reach the conference title game only because of computer averages. The Lobos are 65th in SP+, their best ranking since 2007, and if they beat Minnesota in the Rate Bowl on Dec. 26, they'll have produced their first 10-win season since 1982. Better yet, UNM signed Eck to a contract extension, assuring he won't be a one-year wonder.
2. Jerry Mack, Kennesaw State. Granted, KSU's terrible "10-year average" was really a one-year average -- the Owls went 2-10 in 2024, their first FBS campaign. But that doesn't diminish what a ridiculously impressive job Mack did this fall. The former NC Central head coach immediately engineered a CUSA title run around former Wofford quarterback Amari Odom, big-play receivers Gabriel Benyard and Christian Moss, ace pass rusher Elijah Hill and the brilliant cornerback combination of JeRico Washington Jr. and Alabama State transfer Caleb Offord. He was a rumored candidate for other jobs during the coaching carousel, but it appears he, too, will stick around for at least one more year.
3. Willie Simmons, Florida International. I wasn't envisioning giving out honors to only first-year guys, but quite a few of them did great things in 2025. Simmons proved himself at both Prairie View A&M and Florida A&M, and after a year as a Duke assistant, he finally earned an FBS head coaching gig and made the most of it. FIU had gone just 9-32 in the past four seasons, with an average SP+ ranking of 124.0, and the Golden Panthers were just 3-5 and 125th heading into November. But they surged late, winning four straight games and jumping to 94th. The defense improved a little, and the offense improved a lot, and as a result FIU will bowl for the first time in six years. A First Responder Bowl win would give the Golden Panthers just their fourth ever eight-win season.
Hard Job Coach of the Century: Curt Cignetti, Indiana. It's impossible to rave enough about the job he has done. Indiana -- INDIANA, the losingest program in the history of college football until earlier this season -- is unbeaten and heads into the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the CFP and, for at least another 51 weeks, the reigning Big Ten champion. Absolutely unreal.
Catch of the Year
Either Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith, USC's Makai Lemon or UConn's Skyler Bell will win the Biletnikoff Award on Friday night. The smart money is on Smith -- even though both Lemon and Bell (plus SJSU's Danny Scudero and North Texas' Wyatt Young) topped 1,150 receiving yards on the season -- and that's fine. But we remember moments as much as yardage totals when receivers are involved. Every weekend produces a new, incredible, one-handed, highlight-reel snag, but for various reasons, three particular catches stand out to me as the best of the season.
1. Omar Cooper Jr. vs. Penn State. Without it, Indiana isn't the top seed in the CFP, and Mendoza potentially isn't even the Heisman favorite -- so many declared this his "Heisman moment." But Cooper's ballet-like toe tap was as good as anything we've ever seen. It even made Gus Johnson's voice betray him.
2. CJ Daniels vs. Notre Dame. The result of this game literally decided the last spot in the College Football Playoff, even though both Miami and Notre Dame should have made it in over an Alabama team that lost three games and hasn't looked like a playoff team since October. You could therefore say that Daniels' willingness to sacrifice his body here -- he had no idea what kind of hit was awaiting him when he leaped backward, fully outstretched -- produced the single most consequential catch of the season.
It was also just totally badass.
3. KJ Duff vs. Penn State. Something about Penn State evidently brought out the magic in opposing receivers -- even Villanova had a catch that could have made the list -- but in terms of degree of difficulty, I think this is as good a one-handed catch as the human body is capable of making.
Duff should have been a Biletnikoff finalist for this catch alone (though he had 59 others as well).
Best almost catch: Jeremiah McClellan vs. Washington. This was overturned as incomplete on replay review, but the Rule of Cool -- it's too cool to disallow -- should have applied here.
Your New Favorite Small-School Offense
From Mouse Davis at Portland State in the late 1970s, to Hal Mumme and Mike Leach at Iowa Wesleyan and Valdosta State in the early 1990s, to Bob Stitt at Colorado Mines and, briefly, Montana in the 2010s, the smaller schools have long served as inspirations and outposts for experimentation with offensive tactics.
There might be only so many ways to reinvent the wheel, but coaches are always attempting new variations of old things, and I've found it extremely worthwhile to keep an eye on some of the top-ranked offenses in my smaller-school SP+ ratings, just to see who's doing particularly interesting things. So, let's offer an award of sorts to those finding particular success in this pursuit.
1. Wisconsin-River Falls. UWRF is not a historically powerful program within Division III's loaded WIAC (Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) -- it's the conference's smallest school, in fact -- but the Falcons have unearthed some absolute magic this season. They've reached the D-III quarterfinals for the first time in 30 years thanks to an attack that is averaging 47.0 points and 563.2 yards per game. In just 12 games, quarterback Kaleb Blaha has thrown for 3,753 yards and rushed for 1,053 yards with 46 combined touchdowns out of what 32-year-old coordinator Joe Matheson calls his "Top Gun" offense.
The Falcons boast a rare level of versatility in their attack. Matheson told The Athletic's Chris Vannini that he pulled influence from Noel Mazzone's and Art Briles' offenses, and UWRF is capable of spreading teams from sideline to sideline, devastating defenses with bunch formations, and leaning fully into either the pass or a relentless QB run game. And against what might be the second-best offense in D-III, the Falcons rolled 42-14 in the second round of the playoffs last week.
2. Bethel (Minn.). Then again, UWRF doesn't even have the highest scoring average in D-III. Heavyweight North Central leads the way at 51.2 points per game, and the Bethel Royals are currently second at 49.6. Mike McElroy's squad has made the quarterfinals for the second year in a row, and it's unbeaten thanks to nearly preternatural balance -- Bethel averages 269.7 passing yards and 233.8 rushing yards per game.
Cooper Drews has completed 68% of his passes with a 41-to-5 TD-to-INT ratio, and backs Taye Manns and David Geebli have combined for 1,753 rushing yards and 21 scores. Coordinator Colin Duling, a former graduate assistant at Northern Illinois, began calling plays in 2024, and the Royals immediately jumped from 29.3 points per game to 44.8; that same season, the school Duling left (Berry) fell from 54.2 PPG to 34.7. And Bethel has continued flying into this year's playoffs: Neither snow nor Coe College could keep the Royals under 500 yards in the first round.
3. Friends University. I'm not going to pretend that option running is the future, but who doesn't like a sexy option offense? The Friends Falcons' season just ended with an upset loss to Benedictine in the NAIA playoffs, but they averaged 459.9 rushing yards per game this season, with four different players rushing for at least 733 yards.
It is admittedly tricky to find loads of NAIA film, even on YouTube, but you can find a full game here, and you can glean a lot from the highlight film that quarterback (and leading rusher) K'Vonte Baker posted.
My first impression of head coach Terry Harrison and coordinator Eric Kelly's attack: Flexbone with attitude (though maybe Baker is providing the attitude). Who wouldn't want to run a flexbone with attitude?
2025 No-Bowl All-American Team
We finish with an ode to a different kind of star: the bowl-worthy players on bowl-less teams. (And by "bowl-less," I mean "teams that finished 5-7 or worse and aren't playing in the postseason," not players from teams that passed on bowl bids.) They deserved glory this year even if their teams did not.
OFFENSE
QB: Taylen Green, Arkansas
RB: Evan Dickens, Liberty
WR: Danny Scudero, San Jose State
WR: KJ Duff, Rutgers
WR: Duce Robinson, Florida State
TE: Michael Trigg, Baylor
LT: Jordan Seaton, Colorado
LG: Eugene Brooks, UCLA
C: Coleton Price, Baylor
RG: Jack Burnett, Air Force
RT: Enrique Cruz Jr., Kansas
Dickens has already entered the transfer portal. Your team should absolutely pursue him.
DEFENSE
OLB/DE: Nathan Voorhis, Ball State
DT: Damonte Smith, MTSU
DT: Quincy Rhodes Jr., Arkansas
OLB/DE: Melkart Abou Jaoude, North Carolina
ILB: Gideon ESPN Lampron, Bowling Green
ILB: Quinn Urwiler, Northern Illinois
NB: Jalon Kilgore, South Carolina
CB: Nehemiah Chandler, South Alabama
CB: Jamare Glasker, Maryland
S: Parker Robertson, Oklahoma State
S: Cam Smith, Marshall
I know what you're thinking -- I had to include Gideon ESPN Lampron out of pure principle and company loyalty. My counterpoint: The dude had 30 run stuffs! Most in the nation! I ended up having many reasons to include him!
SPECIAL TEAMS
K: Luca Lombardo, Boston College
P: Palmer Williams, Baylor
KR: Da'Realyst Clark, Kent State
PR: Javion Kinnard, Colorado State
Da'Realyst Clark has the best name in college football and had the best impact-per-touch ratio in the sport. He scored two receiving touchdowns, and one was an 89-yarder in a tight win over Akron. He also returned two kickoffs for touchdowns -- one to win the game near the buzzer against Merrimack in Week 1, and one to start an eventual win over UMass.
