BYU Football: Taysom Hill named as a Heisman Hopeful

Taysom Hill continues to use his legs to run all over the place.  In fact, if you blink you may miss Hill score against Texas again.  His latest accomplishment comes in the form of his addition to the Heisman Pundit 2014 Heisman Trophy Watch List.  This list is fluid throughout the season and will have names added and removed as the weeks go on.  Just to be on the list is an accomplishment as this year begins with only 25 names.  This shows not only a belief that Hill has improved his passing game, but is also a testament to how impressive his running ability was last year.

So lets take a quick look at what this all means:

What is the Heisman Pundit Watch List?

The Heisman Pundit was created by Chris Huston who covers college football for NBCSports.com.  He runs a weekly poll that gauges the feelings of the Heisman voters to see where they stand throughout the year.  According to his website at www.heismanpundit.com, his poll has been the most accurate of all the Heisman polls over the last four years.

What are Hills chances?

He is a lock! Okay, so maybe that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it sounds better than the reality that his chances are slim.  His running skills have put him in the conversation, but his passing skills need to be improved in order to stay in the discussion.  In 2013, Hill had 1344 yards rushing and 2938 yards passing.  This season he will need to transfer some of his rushing yards into passing yards.  If he can have a 3500 yard passing season along with close to 1000 yards rushing, his name will be kept in the discussion.  Currently many fans want to believe that he should be in the top five, but without seeing marked improvement as a player and as a team, it will be very much an uphill battle.

Who is his competition on the list?

With only 25 names on the list, many of the names will be familiar to college football fans across the country.  The list is headlined by the heavy favorite for the Heisman, Jameis Winston from Florida State.  Winston had impressive stats in 2013 on his way to winning the award and will look to improve on his 4000 yards, 40 touchdown season.  If he can duplicate this, it will be hard for anyone on the list to beat him out.

Another name that stands out is Marcus Mariota out of Oregon.  Marcus had almost 3700 yards passing, 31 touchdowns to 4 interceptions, and over 700 yards rushing.  As a sophomore he came in seventh in last year's voting and even more is expected from him in his junior season.

The last name I want to highlight is Braxton Miller from Ohio State.  Against Big Ten competition, and missing a couple of games due to injury, Miller was able to put up over 2000 yards passing and over 1000 yards rushing.  He received a vote for the Heisman last year and is looking to rebound for his senior season.

Take a look at the full list and remember the names, any one of them could be in New York come December.

What do you think about this list? Who would you remove from the list, or add to the list? What do you think about Hill's chances?  Let us know in the comments below!