College Football

2023 College Football Predictions: Heisman picks, other top award winners

Updated Aug. 28, 2023 12:13 p.m. ET

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Bryan Fischer

College Football Writer

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

As the college football season begins, we also enter full prediction mode.

Last week we took a look at some key questions around teams — Can anyone beat Georgia? Will there be a surprise team? Which powerhouse should be worried? — and what fans should expect in the 2023 campaign.

This week, we're honing in on individual awards.

Can Caleb Williams win a second straight Heisman Trophy, and if not, who can beat him? Who will rule the field as the nation's best defensive player? And who will guide his team to glory as the best coach?

FOX Sports college football experts RJ Young, Michael Cohen and Bryan Fischer are here to weigh in on all of these questions. 

Who is your pick to win the Heisman Trophy, and why?

RJ Young: I wrote about my top five Heisman candidates for 2023 last week. And at the top of the list is USC QB Caleb Williams.

Heisman voters are historically biased against awarding that trophy to the same man twice. It's only happened once, and that was 48 years ago when Archie Griffin went back-to-back in 1974 and 1975 at Ohio State.

RJ Young reveals 2023 college football awards predictions

Williams would have to guide USC to a Pac-12 title and its first CFP bid in school history to become just the second two-time Heisman winner and that would make him one of the greatest college football players of all time.

It would also help #CavingForCaleb would reach a new level, and Lincoln Riley would also tie Nick Saban and Frank Leahy for most Heisman winners coached (four).

Bryan Fischer: Having written about Williams and the Heisman this week as well, I agree with RJ that he's got a great chance — perhaps as good a path to joining Griffin of any returning winner in the past 50 years.  

That said, I'll go with Cade Klubnik. The Clemson quarterback showed plenty of flashes last year in his limited starting action, but I think he'll have two things going for him in 2023: a budding narrative of returning the Tigers to the CFP and some hefty numbers in Garrett Riley's system that should help produce a top-10 offense. I'm not exactly high on the state of ACC defenses that the group will face, and Klubnik will get three massive opportunities — all coming in Death Valley — to turn heads when not padding his stats: early against Florida State, in early November against Notre Dame and then against future top-five pick Drake Maye just before Thanksgiving.

I totally understand the path for Williams to hold up the bronze stiff arm again, but it's the tallest task in college football, so I'll go with a fresh face on the scene instead. 

Michael Cohen: Williams is certainly the frontrunner and has an excellent chance to match Griffin's feat. Not only does he play in arguably the most quarterback-friendly offense in college football under head coach Lincoln Riley, whose list of Heisman-winning mentees swelled to three when Williams won the award, but he's also part of a conference — the Pac-12 — that had five of the nation's top 11 scoring offenses last year. Nearly all the signal-callers from those high-powered teams are back for another season, and shootouts can help quarterbacks win the Heisman. 

Aside from Williams, the player who might have the best chance of hoisting the trophy in New York later this year is LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels, a dual-threat runner and passer. Daniels transferred to LSU ahead of the 2022 campaign after three years as the starter at Arizona State. And while he needed a bit of time to adjust to life in Baton Rouge, Daniels finished the year with mightily impressive numbers: 266 completions on 388 attempts (68.6%) for 2,913 yards, 17 touchdowns and only three interceptions, plus 885 rushing yards and 11 more scores on the ground. If Daniels could reach those heights in Year 1 with the Tigers, who themselves were navigating Year 1 of the Brian Kelly era, then it's fair to assume his output might be even better in 2023.

Daniels is the pick.  

Who will be the Defensive Player of the Year? (The Nagurski Award and Bednarik Award both name winners in this category. Alabama's Will Anderson won both last season).

Bryan: Will Anderson Jr.'s departure for the NFL means there's no easy answer to the question of who the best defensive player in the sport is. That said, I would be shocked if Harold Perkins, a similar terror off the edge, isn't at least in the conversation to win either the Nagurski Award or the Bednarik Award this season. I mean, when people at LSU are talking like he was the school's best freshman defensive player in decades, that's enough to sit up and take notice.

Perkins is set to slide inside more this year, so his sack numbers might dip a little bit after he led all Power 5 freshmen in that category in 2022 — even with a full-time starting role carved out. The flip side is he could still have a ton of tackles and TFLs on the stat sheet while also being plenty disruptive in passing lanes over the middle of the field. I love his explosiveness, and he's going to be a load for any offense to handle from September to December.

Michael: With Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. slinging the ball around on offense last season, it was easy to overlook just how good edge rusher Bralen Trice was for the Huskies' defense. Trice earned All-America honors from Sporting News and Pro Football Network after leading the country in quarterback pressures (70), tying for 19th nationally in sacks (nine) and averaging just under one tackle for loss per game (0.92) on a unit that ranked 60th in total defense. That he accomplished all that in his first season as a starter adds an extra layer of impressiveness.

Along those lines, Trice has a worthy backstory for the narrative portion of these awards, which has become increasingly important through the proliferation of social media and the ever-increasing depth of college football coverage. Trice was a three-star prospect rated No. 447 overall by the 247Sports Composite for the 2019 recruiting cycle. He spent two full seasons on the bench at Washington in 2019 and 2020 before finally earning his way onto the field as a redshirt sophomore, but even then he logged just 194 snaps in 12 games. Now Trice has blossomed into a 6-foot-4, 274-pound menace of an edge rusher who put together six games with at least five pressures last season, according to Pro Football Focus, including an incredible 18 against Washington State alone.

There's no question Trice can make some noise in 2023.

RJ: This feels like a two-horse race between the aforementioned Perkins and Ohio State defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau, in large part due to their performances against Arkansas and Penn State, respectively.

Tuimoloau put together the best defensive performance we've seen this century against the No. 10 Nittany Lions, with six tackles, two sacks, two interceptions, one forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and one touchdown in a must-win game for the Buckeyes. He finished with 10.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in 2022. If he doubles his tackles-for-loss number and triples his sack total, putting up those numbers on a great Ohio State team, he could walk away with both the Nagurski Award and the Bednarik Award. 

But that's asking a lot. 

This is why I'll be curious to find out what Perkins is capable of Year 2 in Baton Rouge. As a true freshman, he accounted for 72 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles, three passes defended, and an interception.

JT Tuimolau, Marvin Harrison, Ryan Day preview the season

Who will be the Coach of the Year? (The Home Depot Award and Eddie Robinson Award both name winners in this category, with TCU's Sonny Dykes taking both last season).

Michael: Given how frequently coaches change jobs these days, it might be worth exploring the addition of a Rebuilder of the Year award for the individual who best resuscitates a program that is either ailing, abject or in need of CPR. This year's college football season would be ripe with potential candidates, including Deion Sanders at Colorado, Matt Rhule at Nebraska, Luke Fickell at Wisconsin and Hugh Freeze at Auburn. But the harsh reality is that none of those coaches are likely to win these awards in a year when a half-dozen teams should finish with one or fewer losses. College football is a top-heavy sport.  

For a while, the obvious choice might have been Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, whose combined record of 25-3 over the last two seasons ranks only behind Georgia's Kirby Smart in the fewest losses during that span. The Wolverines have a cupcake non-conference schedule and are likely to be favored in every regular season game they play, including a home date with Ohio State. But an ongoing NCAA investigation into the Michigan program for a series of alleged violations lessens Harbaugh's chances of winning the award, and Monday's announcement of a self-imposed three-game suspension for Harbaugh as a way of "addressing mistakes that our department has agreed to," according to a statement from athletic director Warde Manuel, makes it all but impossible.

This means that in 2023, all roads lead back to Smart. He's lost just one of his last 30 games and has a chance to post back-to-back undefeated seasons after winning the national title last year. That would be more than enough to secure a good chunk of votes.

If Georgia 3-peats, will Kirby Smart surpass Nick Saban?

RJ: Nick Saban hasn't won a consensus Coach of the Year award since 2008, when he won the Football Writers Association of America Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award. Much of this comes down to the fact that he has been so consistently excellent since arriving in Tuscaloosa 16 years ago that he never exceeds expectations.

However, most folks have picked LSU to win the SEC West title this year, which means they're expecting Brian Kelly to beat Nick Saban twice in a row — no one has done that in one of the deepest divisions in the sport since Hugh Freeze's Ole Miss did in 2014 and 2015. (Serendipitously, Freeze is now back in the SEC West at Auburn).

With Saban turning over both the offensive and defensive coordinator positions, not to mention a QB derby that is threatening to yield Saban's most unheralded signal caller since Cooper Bateman, there are many who doubt Saban. I am not one. It wouldn't surprise me to find out Alabama runs the table not unlike it did in 2020. If that happens, it'd be difficult to deny Saban his first Eddie Robinson Award in 15 years.

Bryan: I'm at that point where I've fully talked myself into Penn State living up to the hype this season, so I'll go with James Franklin. Knock off either Ohio State and/or Michigan, win the Big Ten and make it into the College Football Playoff with plenty of momentum, and Franklin will earn plenty of praise around the country for what he's accomplished in Happy Valley.

Other key awards …

Broyles Award (top assistant coach)

RJ: Sean Lewis, Colorado

BF: Ryan Grubb, Washington

MC: Sherrone Moore, Michigan 

Davey O'Brien Award (best QB)

RJ: Caleb Williams, USC

BF: Michael Penix Jr., Washington

MC: Michael Penix Jr., Washington

Doak Walker Award (top RB)

RJ: Blake Corum, Michigan

BF: Raheim Sanders, Arkansas

MC: Quinshon Judkins, Ole Miss 

Fred Biletnikoff Award (most outstanding WR)

RJ: Marvin Harrison Jr.

BF: Marvin Harrison Jr.

MC: Marvin Harrison Jr. 

Jim Thorpe Award (top DB)

RJ: Cooper DeJean, Iowa

BF: Cooper DeJean, Iowa

MC: Kalen King, Penn State

The Butkus Award (top LB)

RJ: Harold Perkins, LSU

BF: Harold Perkins, LSU

MC: Harold Perkins, LSU

Lombardi Award (outstanding lineman)

RJ: Olu Fashanu, Penn State 

BF: Olu Fashanu, Penn State

MC: Olu Fashanu, Penn State 

Outland Trophy (best interior lineman)

 RJ: Joe Alt, Notre Dame

BF: Jer'Zhan Newton, Illinois

MC: Jer'Zhan Newton, Illinois

John Mackey Award (most outstanding TE)

 RJ: Brock Bowers, Georgia

BF: Brock Bowers, Georgia

MC: Brock Bowers, Georgia 

Rimington Trophy (Best center)

RJ: Sedrick Van Pran, Georgia

BF: Sedrick Van Pran, Georgia

MC: Sedrick Van Pran, Georgia

Paul Hornung Award (Most versatile player)

RJ: Travis Hunter, Colorado

BF: Zachariah Branch, USC

MC: Travis Hunter, Colorado

Ray Guy Award (best punter)

RJ: Tory Taylor, Iowa

BF: Tory Taylor, Iowa

MC: Tory Taylor, Iowa 

Lou Groza Award (top placekicker)

RJ: Joshua Karty, Stanford

BF: John Hoyland, Wyoming

MC: Diego Guajardo, South Alabama

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RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The Number One College Football Show." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.

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