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Bo Nix will not be the fourth Alabama native to win the Heisman Trophy. He will not join the elite list of Auburn’s Pat Sullivan and Bo Jackson and Florida State’s Jameis Winston.

Not because he’s not going to win. He’s one of four finalists along with LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., and we won’t know the results until Saturday night. But having been born in Arkansas while his dad, Patrick, coached there at Henderson State, Bo is not an Alabama native, although he’s as close as you can come without an in-state birth certificate.

He led Pinson Valley High School to back-to-back Alabama state titles in 2017 and 2018, earning Mr. Football honors as a senior. He won his first college start in the 2019 opener as an Auburn true freshman with a TD pass eerily reminiscent of his dad’s legendary scoring toss to Frank Sanders in the 1993 Iron Bowl. He won his first Iron Bowl in a wild 48-45 shootout that knocked Alabama out of the 2019 playoff hunt.

As a junior, Nix directed Auburn to its first win at LSU in 21 years, but his three seasons on the Plains didn’t all go according to the storybook legacy script.

There were injuries. There was inconsistency. There was an epic fail of a coaching transition from Gus Malzahn to Bryan Harsin. Nix became a whipping boy for some Auburn fans, so it was no surprise when he transferred to Oregon for the 2022 season.