If you were sitting on your couch in early November 2018, you probably thought the Heisman Trophy was already in the mail to Tuscaloosa. Honestly, most of us did. Tua Tagovailoa was putting up "video game" numbers for Alabama, leading an unstoppable Crimson Tide machine that looked like it might never trail in a game.
But things changed. Fast.
By the time the dust settled in New York City on December 8, it wasn't the Alabama lefty hoisting the stiff-arm trophy. Kyler Murray, the electrifying dual-threat quarterback from the University of Oklahoma, won the 2018 Heisman Trophy.
He didn't just win it. He snatched it.
The race ended up being one of the most fascinating statistical duels we’ve ever seen in college football. You had three guys—Murray, Tagovailoa, and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins—who all had legitimate "best season ever" arguments.
The Night Kyler Murray Made History
Kyler Murray didn't just follow in the footsteps of greatness; he replaced it. He took over for Baker Mayfield, who had won the Heisman just one year prior.
Think about that for a second.
Replacing a legend is hard enough. Winning the same trophy he did, immediately after he left? That’s almost unheard of. In fact, Murray became the first player ever to win the Heisman the very next year after replacing a Heisman winner.
The voting was closer than you might remember, but Murray finished with 2,167 points, edging out Tagovailoa’s 1,871. Dwayne Haskins finished a distant but respectable third with 783 points.
Why did Murray win? Basically, he was the most efficient weapon the sport had ever seen. He finished the season with a passer rating of 205.72. At the time, that was the highest in Heisman history, barely eclipsing the record Mayfield had set just the year before.
He was a blur. Seriously.
If you watched Oklahoma that year, you saw a guy who could throw a 60-yard bomb on a rope and then, on the very next play, make three defenders miss in a phone booth to scramble for a first down. He threw for 4,054 yards and 40 touchdowns while rushing for another 892 yards and 11 scores. He was the definition of "must-watch TV."
What People Forget About Tua and Dwayne
It’s kinda crazy looking back at how good the runners-up were.
Tua Tagovailoa was the frontrunner for about 90% of the season. The only reason his stats weren't even more inflated was because Alabama was so good he rarely played in the fourth quarter. He finished with 3,966 passing yards and 43 touchdowns (including bowl stats). But a shaky performance in the SEC Championship against Georgia, where he got banged up and eventually replaced by Jalen Hurts, opened the door just enough for Murray to sprint through.
And then there’s Dwayne Haskins.
Poor Dwayne. In almost any other year, he wins by a landslide. The guy threw for 4,831 yards and 50 touchdowns in 2018. Fifty! He rewrote the Big Ten record books. But because Ohio State had a weird blowout loss to Purdue earlier in the year, he was sort of relegated to the "third man" in the conversation.
The Baseball "What If"
The 2018 Heisman race was also weirdly overshadowed by a different sport: baseball.
Kyler Murray had already been drafted 9th overall by the Oakland Athletics in the MLB Draft. He had a $4.66 million signing bonus waiting for him. Everyone—and I mean everyone—assumed he was just playing one last year of "amateur" ball before heading to the minor leagues.
Winning the Heisman changed the math.
It made him a lock for the first round of the NFL Draft, eventually leading him to choose the Arizona Cardinals over the A's. But during that trophy ceremony in December, we all still thought we were watching a future center fielder give a farewell speech to football.
Why Kyler's 2018 Still Matters
If you’re looking for a blueprint of the modern "Air Raid" quarterback, this is it. Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma's coach at the time) built a system that allowed Murray to be the ultimate point guard.
Murray’s win solidified Oklahoma as "QB U" for the modern era. It also proved that height—Murray is famously listed at 5'10"—didn't matter if you were fast enough and accurate enough.
2018 Heisman Voting Breakdown:
- Kyler Murray (OU): 517 first-place votes
- Tua Tagovailoa (Bama): 299 first-place votes
- Dwayne Haskins (OSU): 46 first-place votes
It wasn't just a win for Oklahoma; it was a win for a certain style of play. It was the moment the "dual-threat" quarterback stopped being a niche category and became the gold standard.
What You Should Do Next
If you want to truly appreciate what happened in 2018, don't just look at the box scores.
- Watch the highlights of Oklahoma vs. West Virginia (2018). It was a Friday night shootout in Morgantown where Murray and Will Grier basically played a game of "anything you can do, I can do better." It’s arguably the game that won Kyler the trophy.
- Compare the efficiency. Look at Kyler's yards per attempt (11.6). That is an absurd number. Most "great" college quarterbacks hover around 8 or 9. Murray was averaging a first down every time he let the ball go.
- Check out the 2019 NFL Draft results. Seeing Murray go #1 overall just months after being a "baseball guy" puts the magnitude of his 2018 season into perspective.
Murray’s 2018 run remains one of the most efficient, high-stakes, and entertaining seasons in the history of the sport. Whether you’re a Sooners fan or just a casual observer, it was a year where the Heisman Trust actually got it right, even if it broke Alabama fans' hearts at the time.