Heisman winner Jayden Daniels of LSU latest draft prospect to skip his bowl game
Trojans coach: QB Caleb Williams to sit out USC’s Holiday Bowl game
Headlines from the bowl season currently in progress raise some interesting questions:
If you were either of the past two Heisman Trophy winners, would you do what they’ve both decided to do?
Or would you feel a sense of responsibility to your teammates, your coaches, your school and your fans?
What if you were a parent of either?
Would you say, “Don’t risk a big NFL payday by playing in a ‘meaningless’ bowl game,” or would you advise him to play anyway because it’s the right thing to do?
But wait! What is the right thing to do?
Should commitment to others come ahead of money and personal well-being?
At what point does football become “a business” that demands you look out for yourself?
There was a time, long ago, when an invitation to play in a bowl game was coveted, and celebrated; when successful teams and star players were upset if they were denied the opportunity to perform on the national stage either on New Year’s Day or just before that.
But no more. It hasn’t been that way for decades, as, first, made-for-TV bowl games proliferated, and, more recently, NIL riches and the transfer portal burst onto the scene.
The portal, in fact, has become as big a threat to the integrity of bowl games as the NFL Draft. Maybe even bigger.
Scores of players have entered the portal or announced their intention to do so. They can still play in their current team’s bowl game if they haven’t yet committed to another school. But is a lame duck’s heart really in it anymore?
Today, only an invitation to the College Football Playoff evokes the feelings common to when you could count the bowl games on your two hands and have fingers left over.
Now, in most cases, only playoff games are worth extending a college career for those players who would otherwise “opt out”—another term that has entered intercollegiate football’s lexicon.
Nick Saban of perennial national championship contender Alabama had an interesting take on “opting out” last year when quarterback Bryce Young—the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner—and outside linebacker Will Anderson Jr., projected to be a “top three” pick in the NFL Draft, both played in the 2022 Sugar Bowl against Kansas State.
“(That) sets a great example for guys who respect their teammates,” he said.
“It’s kind of interesting that people opt out of playing for their team. The way you create value for yourself is to play football . . . When you do that against good competition, that creates value for your future.”
Young certainly lived up to his coach’s words.
In Alabama’s 45-20 victory over Kansas State, he completed 15 of 21 passes for 321 yards and five touchdowns. He was voted the Sugar Bowl’s most valuable player.
“For me, it was just about doing everything I can to help the team,” Young said afterward. “We had pride in how we played and how we prepared—us wanting to finish, us wanting to push ourselves and hold each other accountable.”
The opposing coach, Kansas State’s Chris Klieman, asked a member of the Alabama staff to thank Young for playing.
“That’s what college football is about,” he said. “I was happy Bryce played. That was really good for college football and really good for kids to see.”
Young was taken first overall by Charlotte in the April draft, and Anderson No. 3 by Houston. They weren’t the only Crimson Tide players who excelled in the Sugar Bowl and subsequently were chosen by NFL teams.
Brian Branch, drafted 45th by Detroit, and Jordan Battle, who went 95th to Cincinnati, both had interceptions.
“It speaks volumes of your character,” Saban said after the game, “when you choose to be a part of your team and you can be counted on to be part of your team, regardless of the circumstances.”
Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels aren’t the only NFL draft prospects who have eschewed playing in their teams’ 2023 bowl games. More than two dozen players whose names will be called in April have “opted out.”
Do you agree with them, or with Saban, Klieman, Young and his teammates who played last year?
Denny Dressman is a veteran of 43 years in the newspaper business, including 25 at the Rocky Mountain News, where he began as executive sports editor. He is the author of 15 books, nine of them sports-related. You can write to Denny at denny
dressman@comcast.net.