When discussing who the best football player on any given team or in any given league is, the most common answer is almost always a quarterback. Nine out of the last 10 Heisman trophy winners and 12 of the last 13 NFL MVPs have been QBs.
The Heisman Award odds creators do LSU’s Derek Stingley Jr. no favors. As of Sept. 22, the sophomore cornerback came in at 29th in the Heisman odds, just behind Georgia running back Zamir White.
We know the Heisman is a quarterback and running back award. The last defender to win was Charles Woodson in 1997, and before that, it was Ernie Davis in 1961. Stingley does have the highest odds of any defensive player, but as we’ve seen, the likelihood of a defender winning the award is slim.
Despite Stingley’s low chances at winning the Heisman, he’s ready to become the sport’s best player.
The LSU defense missed Stingley last Saturday in the 44-34 loss to Mississippi State. Quarterback KJ Costello threw for an SEC record 623 yards and added five touchdowns against a secondary that started a freshman, a sophomore and a Nicholls State transfer in the absence of Stingley.
Would Stingley have been enough for LSU to flip the script and come out with a victory? When he’s healthy, he virtually erases his side of the field completely. His presence also eases the pressure on the young and inexperienced defensive backs, like the ones who saw time as a result of Stingley’s absence.
New defensive coordinator Bo Pelini’s defenses are ultra-aggressive, and we saw that last Saturday to the tune of several different blitz packages that featured six or seven defenders rushing the quarterback. This is hard to do when you have cornerbacks who struggle in coverage like Elias Ricks, Cordale Flott and Darren Evans did, and it resulted in Costello and Mike Leach tearing the secondary to shreds. With Stingley bringing some stability to the unit, Pelini can be more aggressive and bring more pressure this Saturday in the matchup with Vanderbilt. 
To fully understand just how good Stingley is at such a young age, look back to when he first arrived on campus, back in December of 2018. He graduated from Dunham High School that month and was practicing with the team heading into the Fiesta Bowl.
Stingley isn’t new to being advanced for his age. He played so well in his first three games at Dunham as an eighth grader that he was immediately promoted to the varsity squad as a 13-year-old.
Coming out of Dunham, Stingley was a consensus 5-star recruit, the 2018 Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year and the number one overall recruit in the nation, according to Rivals. He was ready to impress at practice, leading up to the Tigers’ bowl game.
Defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, who has since moved on from LSU after being hired as Baylor’s head coach, said Stingley, “looked like he was the best guy we got” at those practices.
The cornerback group was already thin, with Greedy Williams previously declaring for that years’ draft and Kristian Fulton sidelined with an injury at the time. Regardless, this was high praise for a true freshman who had graduated high school just weeks earlier.
“Stingley’s a great story right there,” Aranda said. “Before it’s all over, it’s going to be something.”
Fast forward to the fall of 2019. Stingley earned the starting cornerback spot opposite Fulton, and the Baton Rouge native was ready to show the college football world why he could have played in the Fiesta Bowl that spring.
Stingley’s freshman season featured a four-game interception streak, where he picked off quarterbacks such as Utah State’s Jordan Love, Florida’s Kyle Trask and Auburn’s Bo Nix.
After a perfect 12-0 regular season, Stingley picked off Georgia’s Jake Fromm twice in the SEC Championship game.
“Derek is a freshman, in case anybody forgets that. I forget it a lot,” teammate Joe Burrow said following his performance in the contest.
His next task was to slow down Ceedee Lamb, a member of the All-Big 12 first team who led the conference in touchdown receptions and was second in receiving yards. Stingley held Lamb to just four catches.
When asked this past offseason who the best cornerback he faced in college was, Lamb gave that honor to Stingley.
“I know he’s young, but that guy knows football. His technique is unbelievable,” Lamb said in February.
When all was said and done, Stingley led the conference in interceptions, led the country in pass breakups and was named second team All-SEC.
As a true freshman.
ProFootballFocus graded Stingley as the best cornerback in the nation and listed the then-18-year old fourth in their top 101 college football player rankings. Of the three players ranked ahead of Stingley, two (Burrow and Chase Young) are now in the NFL, and one (Penei Sewell) opted out of this season.
Coming into his sophomore season, Stingley was named a Walter Camp preseason All-American and is featured on the preseason All-SEC teams: first team as a cornerback, second team as all purpose and third team as a returner. Now, he’s ready to take home a new honor.
He’s ready to become the best player in college football.
Of ProFootballFocus’ top-101 players of 2019, Stingley is one of only three players in the top-10 who will be playing this season. The others are Heisman favorites Trevor Lawrence of Clemson and Ohio State’s Justin Fields, both quarterbacks.
Similarly, ESPN ranked Stingley second. Of the other four in the top five, two (Ja’Marr Chase and Sewell) have opted out. The remaining two are the aforementioned Lawrence and Fields.
Becoming the best player in the nation this season will be a tough task. We already know fans, the media and even the Heisman committee are biased toward quarterbacks. With two superstars at the position this season — Lawrence and Fields — all eyes will be on them.
Stingley finds himself in elite company, but he’s up for the challenge of distancing himself from the rest of the pack. He did it as a 13-year-old on Dunham’s varsity team. He did it as an 18-year-old early-enrollee at LSU and now he attempts to do it again as a 19-year-old All-American.
Former LSU star Patrick Peterson called him the “real deal.”
“He’s made for those moments,” Peterson said. “You can’t deny that. That’s greatness right there.”
Lamb called him the best defender he faced in his college career.
Teammate and All-SEC first team safety JaCoby Stevens watched Stingley, who he called the best returning defensive back in college football, all offseason. Stevens says he noticed his “hunger and drive to get better.”
“He knows he’s not where he wants to be,” Stevens said.
Stingley is right where fans want him to be, among the best defensive players in the country and on pace to become another top defensive back who LSU produces.
But 29th in Heisman odds isn’t good enough for him.
He’s ready to become the best player in college football.