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Louisville Cardinals: Is Lamar Jackson The Best Player In College Football?

By Evan Massey
Published on: 02:11 PST, Sep 20, 2016

Lamar Jackson has taken the college football nation by storm and is widely viewed as the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy at this point in the 2016 season. The Louisville Cardinals haven’t had this much excitement surrounding their football program for quite some time, and it is going to be interesting to see where they end up when everything is said and done.

Heading into Week 4 of the college football season, the Cardinals are ranked as the No. 3 team in the nation. They finish No. 3 behind the Ohio State Buckeyes and Alabama Crimson Tide, who rank No. 2 and No. 1 respectively.

Now that we are getting farther into the season, and we have seen Jackson impress fans and the media consistently, it’s time to ask ourselves, is Jackson the best player in college football?

Throughout the first three games of the season for Louisville, Jackson has completed 61.0 percent of his pass attempts for 913 yards, eight touchdowns, and just two interceptions. He has also shown how big of a dual-threat quarterback he has become, adding 464 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Those numbers are impressive to say the very least.

At this point in the season heading into Louisville’s game against Marshall on the road, Jackson has been ranked No. 1 overall in the ESPN 2016 Heisman Watch. The next four players on the list behind Jackson are Christian McCaffery from Stanford, Nick Chubb from Georgia, J.T. Barrett from Ohio State, and Greg Ward Jr. from the Houston Cougars. Deondre Francois is ranked as the No. 6 player in the Heisman ranks at this point in time.

Another article here at The Inquisitr gave five reasons why Francois would end up winning the Heisman due to his potential for the Florida State Seminoles.

Standing in at 6-foot-3 and weighing 205 pounds, Jackson may be bigger than many think. Because he is such a dual-threat quarterback, many fans would expect to see a smaller and more elusive body. Jackson has been able to shock even the best dual-threat quarterbacks including former NFL superstar Michael Vick, who took to his personal Twitter account to label Jackson as a better quarterback than he was in college at Virginia Tech.

Jackson is a huge fan of Vick and was ecstatic to hear about the glowing endorsement that the former Hokie star quarterback gave him.

“It means a lot. That’s my favorite player. Coming from him? I was amazed when they told me in the locker room. I was happy.”

Looking ahead at the next game on the schedule after Marshall, Louisville will have a date with fellow ACC powerhouse Clemson. Jackson will be going up against Deshaun Watson, who is one of the most electric quarterbacks in the nation himself. If fans enjoy watching top-notch quarterback play, they won’t want to miss that game.

There is no other player close to Jackson in the Heisman rankings right now. He is without question the top-ranked quarterback in college football and will finish at the top of the rankings barring a major change.

After the hot start that the Cardinals have had this season with Jackson leading the way, many are beginning to wonder if Louisville could end up making the college football playoffs.

Needless to say, the Cardinals will go as far as Jackson can take them. If he slows down, so will Louisville. If he continues playing at the level that he has in the first three weeks of the season, Louisville has a decent chance to make a run into the postseason.

Jackson is such a big deal across the nation that even the official NFL Twitter account took notice.

All of that being said, Jackson is without question the hottest player in college football right now. It may be too early to crown him the best player in the nation, but he can certainly earn that title in the coming weeks. A win over Clemson would go a long way towards helping him earn that position.

Expect to see Jackson continue playing at a high level for the Cardinals. He has worked extremely hard to get to this point, and he isn’t the type of player to let the success get to his head. Jackson has a very good chance to come out of the 2016 college football season with a Heisman Trophy win.

Do you think Lamar Jackson is the best player in college football? Will he win the 2016 Heisman Trophy? Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below!

[Featured Image by Mark Humphrey/AP Images]

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