Kaleb Driggers won the first round of the 2026 Cinch Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on a horse he may ride in the Thomas & Mack Center in December.
Georgia’s Driggers and Junior Nogueira stopped the clock in 3.8 seconds Friday night, Sept. 25, with Driggers aboard SCR Sporties Playgun—Coleman Proctor’s “Heisman,” the 18-year-old bay gelding who has been one of the most dangerous head horses in Las Vegas for the better part of a decade.
The round win paid $12,533.40 a man and pushed the world leaders to $219,086.28 (Driggers) and $219,086.25 (Nogueira) in TRJ’s unofficial standings. Driggers, the 2021 and 2022 world champion header and reigning Governor’s Cup champion, asked Proctor about riding Heisman at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Sioux Falls is the test run.
Asked why he wanted to ride Heisman, Driggers didn’t need long.
“Because I want to win.”
How the Deal Happened
Proctor, who finished 30th in the world in 2025 and split with longtime partner Logan Medlin that October, had Heisman prepped this summer in case he needed him for his own NFR run. When that run didn’t come together, he didn’t want the horse to sit.
“I sent him to Signature to get ready in case I needed to go, but when I wasn’t making it, I thought he still had a chance to go,” Proctor said. “Signature had him looking and feeling so good, I wanted him to get to show what he could do. Driggers called and asked about riding him in Vegas. I told Driggers he better take him to town and feel him and he’d probably have some head shake and jump around, and he said ‘what if I take him to Sioux Falls?’”
Proctor got a last look himself before the horse left.
“I got home at 9:30 from the steer roping and ran three on him and figured he felt good,” he said. “Austin was the last time I rode him.”
Driggers isn’t the first to ask. Proctor has always turned the others down.
“I’ve had people ask me about riding him there before, but I’ve never been interested in sending him,” Proctor said. “I respect Driggers in the way he takes care of stuff, and I know he’ll ride him right. At the end of the day, in 18 when I missed the finals the first time, Heisman and I were dragging calves at my buddy’s ranch. But just because I didn’t do my job, doesn’t mean he doesn’t get to go. People don’t realize how good that sucker is.”
The Scoring Question
On paper, the fit isn’t obvious. Driggers built two gold buckles on horses that score. In a first-person piece for TRJ in 2024, he wrote that “one thing I have needed across every horse in my career is the ability to score.”
Heisman has never been a back-in-and-wait horse. He needs a few spins in the corner to settle, and Proctor has said he took some of the score out of him on purpose.
“When you want to make a good horse for the NFR, that’s kind of one of the first things you want to take out of them,” Proctor told TRJ in December 2024. “They need to be pulling you out of the corner trying to get gone. And he’s adapted to that style very well.”
Proctor told Driggers to expect exactly that on Friday—and was glad when he got it.
“If Heisman had backed in there like a shotdog I’d have been so betrayed,” Proctor said. “I told Driggers not to be afraid to talk to him. I was so excited to see him jump around in the box and snap his head back when he left. It looked like stealing. Whenever he pulled his head to the inside, I thought ‘here it comes.’ I’ve had people ask me about whipping him in the box, but nah, it’s just him. Once he locks in there, he’s all business.”
Proctor watched the run from a steer roping.
“Just like last night, Driggers jackpots one and goes 3.8,” he said. “It gave me a reason to tune in. I was at the steer roping last night watching it. That’s a broke sucker, but he lets his attitude come out. Clay Logan always says if Heisman doesn’t shake his head he doesn’t mean business.”
Driggers has made a borrowed horse work on a big stage before. In 2023, with his world champion Remis Gays On Ofadoc (“Cuervo”) sidelined, Clint Summers loaned him WSR Hesa Alive, “Transmission.” The then-19-year-old carried Driggers to his fourth American Rodeo title with a 3.61-second run. Driggers has since won a fifth, a record for a header.
Built for the Yellow Walls
Heisman’s resume is a big-building resume, and it starts with the biggest check in team roping history. At the 2019 American Rodeo in Arlington, Texas, Proctor and Ryan Motes won with a 4.24-second run worth $433,333.33 a man.
That same year, Heisman carried someone else to Las Vegas. With Tyler Wade on the NFR bubble heading for Billie Jack Saebens and his own horse hurt, Proctor offered Wade his pick of the trailer. Wade picked Heisman and made the Finals.
He’s been Proctor’s NFR horse of choice since. He carried Proctor and Medlin to a split of Round 5 in 2022 with a 3.8 worth $25,882.42 a man. In 2024, he was at his best when it mattered most, winning Round 7 in 3.5 for $33,687.18 a man and Round 9 in 3.8. The Round 9 win moved Proctor to the top of the all-around standings and within reach of two gold buckles going into Round 10. Proctor finished $675.74 behind Shad Mayfield for the all-around title.
TRJ’s December 2024 count had Heisman carrying Proctor through six NFRs and earning $377,953 inside the Thomas & Mack as of Round 7 that year, before the Round 9 win.
“What makes him so good at the NFR is—he gets across the line in a hurry and he never lets me get pinned up against the wall, even when the other night I ran him into the wall,” Proctor said then. “There was yellow all around me and he just zips into the corner, spins on a dime and jumps back… he wants to win just as bad as I do. That’s a rare find in a horse.”
From Amateur Rodeos to Arlington
Heisman was bred by Sorrel Canyon Ranch of Brownwood, Texas, and started by Bobby Lewis. Proctor’s friend Shane Boston, whose son had been riding the gelding, told Proctor he had to buy him. Proctor did, even though the horse hadn’t been to a rodeo.
Leaving for the Reno Rodeo, Proctor handed the green 7-year-old to friend Justin Turner with instructions to haul him to every amateur rodeo he could. Heisman got his first call under Proctor that same summer, when Proctor’s good horse Carmine pulled a shoe in Lovington, New Mexico, and came up sore.
At home, he’s a different animal. Proctor’s wife, Stephanie, has barrel raced on him, and he’s quiet enough to drag calves in split reins with no tie-down.
HEISMAN
Heisman is a son of Playgun, the 1992 gray stallion by Freckles Playboy out of Miss Silver Pistol by Doc’s Hickory. Owned by Burnett Ranches’ 6666 program and now deceased, Playgun earned $183,538 in the cutting pen and was the 1995 AQHA High Point Junior Cutting champion. His foals have earned more than $10.4 million, and he sat on the all-time leading cutting sire list every year from 2003 through 2024.
Heisman is the only rodeo horse among the top earners on Playgun’s sire record, listed alongside NCHA Super Stakes and futurity champions for his NFR go-round wins.
His dam, Haidas Sportie, is by Haidas Little Pep, a son of Peppy San Badger. The Playgun-on-Haidas Little Pep cross also produced PRF Playguns Pep, the $283,887 NCHA Non-Pro Reserve World Champion.
What’s Next
Round 2 of the Governor’s Cup starts Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The top eight teams in the average advance to Sunday’s semifinals at 2 p.m., and the final pays $34,000 a man to win. Driggers and Nogueira won it a year ago with a 3.8 in the four-man final.