Analyst’s strong message on if former Auburn QB can contend for Heisman

Ducks Wire’s Zachary Neel heavily leaned in the direction of former Auburn football legacy quarterback Bo Nix being able to contend for the 2023 Heisman Award — who deems the answer to that question a “definitive yes.”

“Can Bo Nix realistically win the Heisman Trophy in 2023? The answer in my mind is a definitive yes,” Neel wrote. ” It won’t be easy, and the Oregon QB is going to need to have another career year, but based on what we’ve seen and heard during the offseason, I believe it’s possible.”

Neel made the case that Nix’s pre-injury performance from the 2022 season, which occurred during a Week 11 matchup between Oregon and Washington, would be a Heisman campaign if kept up throughout an entire season. While Nix’s passing stats were maintained after his right leg injury, he no longer amassed any meaningful rushing yards. Against Utah and Oregon State, he had negative rushing yards.

Loss of former Auburn football offensive coordinator could be Bo Nix’s undoing

From what we’ve seen, Nix has been able to thrive under Kenny Dillingham with both Auburn football and Oregon, while playing very well under Mike Bobo and underwhelming severely under Chad Morris.

In 2023, Nix will be in uncharted territory as he takes orders from new Ducks offensive coordinator Will Stein. The former Louisville quarterback Stein is a rising star in college football, having made the immediate jump to coaching his alma mater upon graduation before being hired as an associate head coach at Lake Travis in Texas and jumping to UTSA during the Roadrunners’ rise from a seven-win team in 2020 to a back-to-back Conference USA champion in 2021 and 2022.

With Dillingham now a head coach at Arizona State, Nix has a chance to prove that he can lead a winning team without the offensive coordinator that brought him his best season on the Plains and in Eugene.