Seeping Matter

So, before the voting finishes today, I have to make my case for who should take the Heisman Trophy.  Because obviously, what I have to say on the matter is critically important to all the voters.

Actually, considering how influential my opinion is, it is really surprising they don’t just let me vote.

Anyway, the Heisman Trophy is supposed to be awarded annually to college football’s most outstanding player.  It isn’t meant to be a career award.  It isn’t meant to be for the best quarterback, running back, or even offensive player, although it is usually awarded this way.  It isn’t meant to go to the best player playing for one of the country’s top teams.

It is meant to go to the most outstanding player, period.  I read that to mean the player that stands out the most among his teammates and among those he plays.  I interpret that as the player who has the most amount of impact on whether his team wins or loses.  I understand that to mean a person who not only fills his role but redefines his role and makes people better around him.

And I think it should be someone who does this consistently, every down, every play.  When it seems like there is no way to compete, this person finds a way to compete and win and gives life to his team.  When the chips are down and the competition is at its strongest, this person plays even better than they normally do.  In other words, the effect of competition on this person is that it magnifies his strengths, instead of exposing his weaknesses.

One other thing.  Quarterbacks have a distinct unfair advantage in this process.  Unlike many other positions, quarterbacks tend to play in, and be involved in, pretty much every play on their side of the ball.  Voters should consider this and try to mitigate the differences when voting.  Like I said, it shouldn’t be a “best QB” award.

I didn’t watch Nebraska play much this year.  But I did watch Texas play on a number of occasions, with their own deserving Heisman Trophy candidate QB, Colt McCoy.  In every game of theirs I saw, McCoy was outstanding.  He’s a great passer, very efficient, careful with the ball, explosive on offense.  Texas averaged 43 points per game through their season.

That is, up until they played Nebraska.  Nebraska’s defense made Texas look like a nothing school.  They completely shut their offense down.  If it weren’t for a few seconds of mental lapse by the special teams at the end of the game, Nebraska would have won that game.

Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska’s outstanding defensive lineman, was the dominant player of the game.  Not Colt McCoy.  It was Suh who most affected the play of the other team.  In a big game, it was Suh who elevated the level of his play; McCoy’s level of play was at the worst of the whole season.

Against a national championship title contender, Ndamukong Suh was, as I understand he was all season, the most outstanding player.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Suh will win the Heisman.  He should, but there’s too much stacked against him.  He’s a defensive player, for one thing; only one defensive player has ever won the Heisman.  And there’s a lot of sentiment for him to overcome.

How do you not give the Heisman to Tim Tebow?  He could be only the second two-time Heisman Trophy winner!  He serves “missions” every summer!

How do you not give the Heisman to Mark Ingram?  Alabama has unbelievably never produced a Heisman Trophy winner before!  His team is undefeated!

How do you not give the Heisman to Colt McCoy?  His team is also undefeated!  He posted some of the most incredible stats of any QB this season against Big 12 competition!

Easy.

First off, let’s just get Tebow out of the way.  I appreciate the kind of man Tim Tebow is.  I like him.  He’s polite, he’s a great leader, he sincerely seems like a good guy, and he plays his guts out.  But this was not his best season at Florida, and when his team needed him most, like against Alabama, he let them down.  He was not the most outstanding player in the SEC or arguably even on Florida’s team, let alone in the whole NCAA.

(While we’re at it, let’s address this “mission” thing.  I greatly respect the fact that Tebow takes time from his off-season to travel around the world, serving and speaking to people less fortunate than himself.  I think he’s sincere in his desire to help others.  It’s really awesome.  But, let’s be serious:  It isn’t a mission.  He isn’t really sacrificing that much.  I know, because I served one.  I gave up everything — friends, family, girls, music, television, movies, sports, school, hobbies, everything — to work over 80 hours a week for two straight years on my own dime serving people in a foreign country.  Not one week here or there when there’s nothing better to do.  What Tebow has done and continues to do is outstanding, noteworthy and worth emulating, but he’s not really sacrificing anything major, and it isn’t really a mission.  Glad we could clear that up.)

Colt McCoy has been a great quarterback this season, that is for sure.  Of course, Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis’ style of offense combined with a great supporting cast (e.g. Jordan Shipley among others) certainly helps to prop up those amazing stats.  Unlike Tebow, I think McCoy has a future as an NFL quarterback.  But, like Tebow, when it mattered most this year, McCoy couldn’t elevate his game and help his team win.  That’s not outstanding either.

Mark Ingram is a great running back.  I love watching him play.  He’s my kind of running back, one who doesn’t waste a lot of time dancing around, but instead just finds a hole and heads upfield.  He never gives up on a play until the defense forces him to give up.  But Mark Ingram isn’t the best running back in the country, so I don’t know how he should deserve the Heisman.

The best running back in the country is Stanford’s Toby Gerhart.  He’s the guy that played best against the toughest competition, racking up some of his best games in upsets of Oregon and USC (oh thank heaven for that).  Still, I don’t think any of these other four had a greater impact on the performance of their team as well as their opponents as Suh did.

So, all you voters who read my blog regularly, ignore your biases and go with your gut.  Give the Heisman to Suh, who is certainly the NCAA’s most outstanding player.  If you aren’t going to do that, give it to Toby Gerhart, the nation’s best running back, or Mark Ingram if you just can’t stand the fact that Alabama has never had a Heisman Trophy winner.  At least Ingram continued to play well even against tough competition.

If you can’t ignore your QB biases, then I guess give the award to McCoy.  He certainly deserves it more than Tebow does.

Or, take the safe route.  Give your vote to the golden boy with that million dollar grin.  Let Tebow become only the second two-time Heisman Trophy winner.

Just don’t be surprised in a few years when people are talking about the 2009 season as yet another time when the Heisman was given to another NFL flameout, and also the season when up-and-coming NFL MVP candidate Ndamukong Suh was snubbed in the Heisman voting.