Can you believe the 2024 season is halfway over?
Week 7 marked the official midway mark of the season. With every team getting two bye weeks in 2024, there are just seven weeks remaining in the regular season before conference championship week.
We’ve learned a lot already, and things are about to get even wilder over the final seven weeks of the season. Here are our midseason awards as we are halfway through the month of October.
Heisman: Ashton Jeanty, Boise State
This one is pretty easy. Jeanty has been unstoppable through the first six games of the season. Yes, Boise State is outside the power conferences and yes, the Broncos haven’t played a super-tough schedule. But Jeanty is just ridiculous.
The junior has rushed for 1,248 yards so far through 2024. That’s 300-plus yards more than Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson, the country’s second-leading rusher. Jeanty’s 31 carries for 217 yards against Hawaii late Saturday night was his worst per-carry performance of the season. And he still averaged seven yards an attempt!
For the season, Jeanty is averaging 9.9 yards a rush, and he has scored 18 total touchdowns through six games. Three of those came against No. 2 Oregon, when he had 25 carries for 192 yards in the Broncos’ 37-34 Week 2 loss. It’s hard to justify a Heisman case for any other player at this point.
Best QB: Jalen Milroe, Alabama
You can make a case for Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, especially after the Ducks took down Ohio State on Saturday and Milroe threw two interceptions against South Carolina in Alabama’s narrow win. But we’re going with a player who has made incredible progress since he was benched in Week 3 of the 2023 season and the QB who may be the most vital to his top team’s offense.
Milroe has accounted for 23 total TDs through six games and has completed 73% of his passes. Gabriel’s completion percentage is better, but Oregon’s offense schemes more high percentage throws. He’s also not been as important as a runner, either. Milroe is Alabama’s second-leading rusher with 319 yards and he has more than twice the rushing TDs than running back Jam Miller. If Alabama gets back into the playoff, Milroe’s excellence is going to be a big reason why.
Best WR: Tre Harris, Ole Miss
Harris is having the best season of his career. And he’s played in only seven games so far this season. Harris posted 65 catches for 935 yards in 2022 during his final season at Louisiana Tech. In his first season at Ole Miss, Harris had 54 catches for 985 yards.
This year, Harris has 59 catches for 987 yards through seven games. He’s also has six receiving TDs and is on pace to eclipse his career-high in TD catches. Harris has played a game more than almost everyone else in college football, but he leads the country in receiving yards (San Jose State’s Nick Nash is second with 806 yards) and is second in receptions.
Oh, he also made this awesome catch against LSU on Saturday night.
Best defensive player: Travis Hunter, Colorado
Hunter gets this because he may be the most valuable player in football. He played 44 of 45 snaps on Saturday before leaving Colorado’s loss to Kansas State in the first half. He’s the only player who regularly plays on both offense and defense and he’s great at both. Hunter is the Buffaloes’ top cornerback and has 49 catches for 587 yards as a receiver as well.
We also pick Hunter for this award knowing that he may be limited in the near future. He didn’t play at all in the second half because of an apparent right shoulder injury. If Hunter is out for an extended period, Colorado will take a significant hit. Especially if WR Jimmy Horn is also sidelined for multiple weeks. He was also injured in the first half against the Wildcats.
Best coach: Curt Cignetti, Indiana; Bryant Vincent, Louisiana-Monroe
We were torn between two coaches in their first years at new schools so we declared this one a tie. Cignetti came to Indiana from James Madison and the Hoosiers are 6-0 through seven weeks. Since becoming a college football head coach in 2011, Cignetti’s teams have never had a losing season at any level. That streak will continue into 2025 barring a seven-game losing streak to end the season for the Hoosiers.
Vincent, the former UAB interim coach, is doing an incredible job at ULM. The Warhawks are 5-1 after beating Southern Miss on Saturday and are two wins away from the school’s first winning season since 2012. If Louisiana-Monroe can win eight games in 2024, the school will match its combined win total from the 2020-2023 seasons. Not bad for the guy who was passed over at UAB for Trent Dilfer.
Biggest surprise: BYU
The Cougars are one of just two teams undefeated overall in the Big 12. BYU went 5-7 in their first season in the conference but have already surpassed that win total so far this season. The Cougars are outscoring their opponents by an average of 34-16 as the defense is forcing nearly 2.5 turnovers per game. That turnover rate may not be sustainable, but it’s hard to see BYU falling from the Big 12 title race over the second half of the season. The Cougars don’t have any ranked teams on the schedule the rest of the season.
Biggest disappointment: Florida State
This one isn’t much of a surprise. The preseason ACC favorites are 1-5 overall and 1-4 in the ACC. It’s been a miserable start to the season for the Seminoles and a bowl game feels nearly impossible. FSU would need to go 5-1 just to play a 13th game and it has games at Miami and Notre Dame remaining this season. Coach Mike Norvell isn’t on the hot seat by any means, but the fall from 2023’s undefeated regular season is hard to comprehend.
