2019 College Football: Ranking the top Defense for Heisman candidates

Isaiah Simmons, LB/S, Clemson

Over the last four-five years, the Clemson Tigers have had many players be considered for this award and redshirt junior linebacker Isaiah Simmons should now apart of that group. Initially, Simmons spent his first three years at Clemson playing the safety position before making the full switch to linebacker in 2019. And between you and me, I think this was the right decision.

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Simmons is an extremely versatile defensive piece who is rangy in coverage and a sound tackler who hits like a ton of bricks. His prowess in coverage from playing safety has really helped him blossom into his linebacker role as well.

So far on the year, Simmons has notched 27 total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. While I do think interceptions are still to come, he would need to notch a few in order to be considered for the award in our hypothetical scenario.

He will have to make a handful of splashy plays for Clemson on the defensive side of the ball, but all in all, I firmly believe that Simmons should be among the names to look out for if defensive players were considered for the Heisman.