Stanford Football: K.J. Costello could be a legitimate Heisman candidate

The Stanford football team could have a legitimate dark horse Heisman candidate on their hands in senior quarterback K.J. Costello.

Stanford football has long been a program that’s been overlooked on a national scale. Despite 10 straight seasons with eight or more wins, Stanford has found themselves underappreciated year after year.

In actuality, that notion could likely be applied to the entire Pac-12 as a whole.

As such, players competing regularly on the west coast have often gone unnoticed by the vast majority of the college football world. And as a result, some of the Pac-12’s best players have fallen short of achieving the single greatest honor in college football.

The Heisman Trophy.

Since 2006, only one Pac-12 player has managed to win the prestigious award, that being Oregon’s Marcus Mariota back in 2014. And even that season was a relatively weak year for Heisman candidates.

The Pac-12 bias is real, and Stanford has an uphill battle to face if they want to see any of their players reach those heights. Historically speaking, Stanford hasn’t been all too successful with the award.

The Cardinal have only seen one player in school history win the Heisman Trophy — quarterback Jim Plunkett back in 1970. However, they have managed to see their fair share of runner-ups with the likes of Andrew Luck, Christian McCaffrey, and Bryce Love all coming up just short in recent years.

But this season, there is one dark horse Heisman candidate that very few seem to be talking about. And he just so happens to reside on the Stanford football roster.

While the national attention is on quarterbacks such as Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa, and Jake Fromm — among others, Stanford’s K.J. Costello has seemingly flown under the radar.

He isn’t as naturally-gifted as Lawrence. He isn’t as flashy as Tagovailoa. And he doesn’t play for a big-name SEC school with recent College Football Playoff success like Fromm.

But K.J. Costello could be the dark horse Heisman candidate that no one east of California sees coming.

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Costello enjoyed his first full season as a starter last year with the Cardinal where he threw for 3,540 yards and 29 touchdowns to go along with 11 interceptions. Playing in a usually-run-heavy Stanford offense, Costello still put up some impressive numbers.

But he should have the opportunity to do even more this season.

Following the departure of Bryce Love, Stanford will likely depend even more on the vertical passing game. And given that Costello led the Pac-12 in passing efficiency last season and his 3,540 passing yards were good for second in school history, that’s good news for the talented QB.

Costello will have his fair share of obstacles to overcome, however.

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Aside from Love, Stanford graduated its top three pass-catchers and a whopping four starting offensive linemen. Apart from All-Pac-12 left tackle Walker Little, the rest of the offensive line remains a major question mark.

Costello will have to do his best to work with the new talent around him on offense while hoping that his offensive line could give him enough time to make plays.

Much like the Stanford football team as a whole, Costello has been overlooked and underappreciated leading up to the 2019 college football season. And if Stanford is used to one thing, it’s being overlooked.

Perhaps K.J. Costello could help buck the trend of runner-ups and shock the college football world by winning Stanford’s first Heisman Trophy in nearly 50 years.

The quest for greatness will begin later this month when the Cardinal take on Northwestern to open their season.