Shedeur Sanders was included on Joel Klatt's Heisman ballot at the No. 3 spot, which was a somewhat controversial inclusion considering Dillon Gabriel and Cam Ward's performance. Klatt explained this on FOX Sports Radio.
“The third slot was really difficult. And there was a lot of players that I considered,” Klatt said, per On3. “Ultimately, I landed on Sanders and the reason is, I just think he had the best quarterback year of anybody. And again, there are a sector of people that just don’t want anything to do with the Sanders and with Deion and with Colorado.
“But if you actually look at Shedeur’s season, what you’re going to find is that nobody had a better quarterback year than Shedeur Sanders because no one was under the amount of pressure he was — both from a production standpoint and a pressure standpoint.”
Klatt celebrated Shedeur's QB profile as being an artist at work.
“He’s got this rare combination of both surgeon and artist,” Klatt said. “Normally, quarterbacks really lean heavily into one or the other, and I feel like he’s got equal parts of both. When he is protected, which was rare, but when he is protected, he is surgical. He has a real command of the game.
“… But then he’s also got this like artist component to him, and I think that’s the one that gets overlooked a little bit. And the reason that they live with 38 sacks and that he lives with holding the football a little bit longer than other quarterbacks, is because he can make those plays.”
Shedeur was never a true contender with Travis Hunter running away with the Heisman narrative. But Colorado having multiple Heisman candidates in one season shows how well Deion Sanders did in reshaping the Buffs.
Will this continue without Coach Prime's "Louis Vuitton"?
If the answer is yes, "Prime Time" is coming as quickly as Deion said it would. If not, the 2024 season featured two top-three players in the country.
At least according to some ballots.