Wide receiver David Porter remembers the wallpaper quarterback Trevone Boykin had on his cell phone when they became roommates three years ago.

“I’m not kidding you, he had a picture of the Heisman Trophy,” recalled Porter before the Peach Bowl in December. “At first, I thought he was kind of crazy, but that’s the level he wanted to get to. He’s always wanted to be that kind of great player.”

With aerial flips and “SportsCenter” Top 10 plays, Boykin’s 2014 season was, as some in the media called it, “a storybook written with numbers—big, fat, gaudy numbers: 3,901 passing yards, 33 touchdowns (both new TCU records), plus another 707 yards rushing and eight TDs.”

Yet it all fell short of a trip to New York for college football’s most prestigious award: The Heisman. (Boykin finished fourth in the 2014 balloting — same as LT in 2000 and better than Kenneth Davis is 1984.)

But maybe, just maybe, the junior quarterback’s real Heisman campaign is just beginning. With a dominating performance in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and 18 starters returning in 2015, TCU is expected to begin next season near the top of the rankings, and Boykin may be the Heisman front-runner.

As head coach Gary Patterson sees it, Boykin’s strong-armed passing and elusive running is now in the nation’s consciousness. All the quarterback has to do is do it all again. Give a repeat performance. A 12-game encore.

“If [Boykin] can play the way he did this year, can do some of the things he needs to do to get himself back there, he’s in a situation where he can go in being one of the front-runners,” said Patterson.

Boykin was third in the country in total offense per game at 363 yards and averaged a career-best 4.5 yards per rush. He was the third quarterback in the past five years—along with former Heisman winners Robert Griffin III and Johnny Manziel—to average more than 300 yards passing and 50 yards rushing per game.

The Dallas native can catch too. After splitting time between quarterback and receiver in 2013, the Boykin caught two passes in 2014—a 55-yarder that went for a touchdown against Iowa State and a deflection of his own pass against Ole Miss.

“I was reading an article comparing Trevone’s numbers to some of the guys they have invited in the past, and his numbers were right there if not better,” said left tackle Tayo Fabuluje. “I would have liked to have seen him in New York, but something tells me next year, they won’t be able to deny him that trip.”

While Boykin acknowledges a smidge of disappointment, he said simply being considered Heisman material was an honor.

“We kind of laugh about it, joke about it, because who would have thought? Nobody was thinking it last year that I could be up for the Heisman this year,” Boykin told the media after a 41-20 victory over Kansas State on prime-time national television. “I’m blessed and honored to even be mentioned with those guys. Overall, I’m a team guy, and the only thing I really want is what’s best for the team.”

Boykin’s candidacy got a late start and was perhaps the unlikeliest of the Heisman contenders. Co-offensive coordinator Doug Meacham noticed when he arrived at TCU that while Boykin was one of the most athletic players on the team, not everyone believed in the player as a quarterback.

“The biggest surprise was there were a lot of people that weren’t real confident in Trevone,” said Meacham before the bowl game. “But how he performed after a few games—particularly against Oklahoma—you could see that he was really good.”

Meacham and co-offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie charted every throw Boykin made in college.They asked the quarterback to describe it and explain what he was thinking. There were hundreds of throws, and the analysis took time to complete. Boykin did his part and started to show more patience in the pocket, read defensive movements and made easier, smarter throws.

“When you have skills like he does with his legs, your instincts tend to take over,” said Cumbie who also serves as the quarterbacks coach. “Trevone has bought into reading defenses and actually become a quarterback. He’s gotten better at that part of it.”

Boykin’s teammates were early believers in his talents. “We always knew he had it in him, but he surprised a lot of people,” said Fabuluje. “But we always knew he was capable of doing that.”

Now can Boykin do it again?

“It’s how you finish, not how you start,” said Patterson. “That’s what I told him, and the biggest way to do that is to win. You can win ballgames, and people notice. You put up a lot of yardage and you don’t win, then it doesn’t make any difference.”

No one knows how the 2015 Heisman campaign will finish.

But if turns out to be Boykin, everyone will know how it started.

On the Web:
Patterson’s humbling hunch — Coach of the Year retooled the program
School spirit 2.0 — New wave of student section support and traditions
Hall of Fame worthy — LaDainian Tomlinson ’00 with historic honor
One heartbeat — The surprising, amazing 2014 season started from dispair