Bill Connelly's alternative awards for the 2025 college football season - ESPN

If betting odds are to be believed, Indiana's Fernando Mendoza wrapped up the 2025 Heisman Trophy last Saturday with a 222-yard performance in the Hoosiers' historic 13-10 win over Ohio State in the Big Ten championship.

Based on the weekly Heisman race I maintain in my Sunday recap columns, Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia should have received infinitely more credit for his work than it appears he probably will, but Pavia was still named a finalist, and Mendoza, Pavia, Ohio State's Julian Sayin and Notre Dame's Jeremiyah Love will all be celebrated during Saturday night's ESPN ceremony before Mendoza is presumably handed the trophy.

The Heisman is the culmination of college football's awards week — other honors, such as the Biletnikoff Award (best receiver), Bednarik Award (best defensive player), Groza Award (best kicker) and more will be given out during «The Home Depot College Football Awards» on ESPN on Friday evening. But why stop with the standard fare? There are lots of good players and teams out there. Before this weekend's smorgasbord of worthy old reliables, let's add a few more awards to the pile. Here are college football's alternative awards for 2025.

Jump to: Dog in Him | Journeyman | YAC King
Havoc King | Best Hard Coaching Job | No Bowl All-Americans

There are the best quarterbacks, and there are the quarterbacks we often come to love the most, and those in the latter category often share certain attributes. They run around and improvise. They try to make things happen. They can both take and dish out a hit. To borrow from internet parlance, they've got that dog in them.

We therefore begin our alternative awards ceremony with the most important of all alt-awards: the Dog in Him Award. I built a formula around a