Lamar Jackson Is Not Only a Heisman Trophy Favorite—He Makes Louisville a National Championship Contender

Florida State and Clemson came into the season as the favorites to represent the ACC in the College Football Playoff, with Louisville listed as a popular dark horse. But it appears the Cardinals were wildly underestimated, and really, we should have seen it coming.

After three weeks, Louisville looks like the most impressive team in college football, proving itself with a 63 - 20 throttling of No. 2 Florida State. And the Cardinals—soon to be a top five team—are doing it with the best player in college football, at least so far.

That player would be Lamar Jackson, Louisville's do-everything quarterback who seems capable of living up to the impossible task of being even better than former Cardinals star Teddy Bridgewater.

Jackson burst onto the stage with a massive, four-touchdown game against Texas A&M in last year's Music City Bowl, with a whopping 226 rushing yards. So far this season, he's proven that was no fluke, picking up right where he left off with 11.2 yards per pass attempt and 9.94 yards per rush. That was against Charlotte and Syracuse, and FSU proved to be no tougher.

In a year with few great quarterbacks, Jackson has looked like the best so far—even better than last year's Heisman Trophy finalist and National Championship darling Deshaun Watson. It's one thing to be a great passer who can also run, but Jackson is legitimately one of the best runners and the best passers in the country, regardless of position. He's basically a cheat code.

Take the final play before halftime. Louisville had the ball on the FSU three-yard line on third down with 16 seconds left and no timeouts. That meant having to call a pass play into a tight window, as a run short of the goal line would result in no points. The Seminoles knew they had to defend the pass, but they also had to defend Jackson. So they chose one—defending the pass—and Jackson used a quick first step to glide into the end zone.

This kid is good. Lamar Jackson scores again to give @UofLFootball a 25 point lead at the half #SidelineCam https://t.co/ndi4Riw98z
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 17, 2016

Make no mistake, Louisville has a great team aside from Jackson. Jamari Staples and James Quick are both great receivers who make Jackson look good. Devone Fields is a future high draft pick at linebacker.

But Jackson makes this team go from a great team to an elite team. The schedule is tough, with games at Clemson and Houston, but the Cardinals have a better offense than either of those teams will see all season. Don't hold back from dreaming about a national title, Louisville fans. With Lamar Jackson, all things are possible.