For the eleventh consecutive season, the College Football Researchers Association has bestowed a Player of the Year award to the best overall player in college football, and this season Caleb Williams from Southern California has taken the title. Williams garnered 6 of 13 possible first-place votes to get the victory over runner-up Max Duggan by a total of nine points. Interestingly, the third place finisher was Hendon Hooker who we already know is not one of the top four vote-getters for this year’s Heisman Trophy. Over the past decade, eight of the previous ten winners of this award went on to win the Heisman Trophy, with Deshaun Watson (2016) and Tua Tagovailoa (2018) being the two CFRA Players of the Year to fall short in the Heisman Race. The full breakdown of votes is below with the number of first-place votes each player received in parentheses:
1. Caleb Williams, Southern California (6)– 43 points
2. Max Duggan, TCU (2)– 34 points
3. Hendon Hooker, Tennessee (3)– 26 points
4. Stetson Bennett, Georgia– 21 points
5. C.J. Stroud– 16 points
6. Blake Corum, Michigan– 14 points
7. Bijan Robinson, Texas– 6 points
8. Jalen Carter, Georgia (1)– 5 points
8. Mohamed Ibrahim, Minnesota (1)– 5 points
10. Marvin Harrison, Jr, Ohio State- 4 points
11. Brock Bowers, Georgia– 3 points
11. Bryce Young, Alabama– 3 points
11. J.J. McCarthy, Michigan– 3 points
14. Frank Harris, UTSA– 2 points
14. Deuce Vaughn, Kansas State– 2 points
14. Jalin Hyatt, Tennessee– 2 points
17. Michael Pratt, Tulane– 1 point
17. Drake Thomas, NC State– 1 point
17. Drake Maye, North Carolina– 1 point
17. Cameron Rising, Utah– 1 point
17. Jordan Addison, Southern California– 1 point
17. Kendre Miller, TCU– 1 point
The College Football Researchers Association 