A Looming Heisman Travesty?

Every year, the Heisman Trophy goes to "the most outstanding player in college football." If you follow the sport, you know that this more accurately means "the most outstanding skill position player on a top team with most of its games televised." Until the past two years, with the wins by Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford, the additional qualifier of junior or senior could be added. Eight of the past nine years, the award has gone to quarterbacks, with the only exception being Reggie Bush's virtuoso all-purpose 2005 season.

Under those criteria, there are only four realistic contenders for the stiff arm at this fairly late point in the season: Florida's Tim Tebow, Alabama's Mark Ingram, Texas' Colt McCoy and Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen. Unfortunately, I have to rule out Houston's Case Keenum, who is putting up numbers usually reserved for quarterbacks from Texas Tech or Hawaii. Keenum does not have the name (or team) recognition that the others do. The Cougars' quarterback also suffers from what HeismanPundit.com calls the 'Andre Ware rule' in that a quarterback from a school whose stats are seen as in someway an artificially inflated due to the system he plays in cannot win the award again.

And I would go so far as to add another disclaimer to that. A player from a smaller conference, in this the BCS era, needs for his team to dispose of all comers in a dominating way with that player being the chief reason. Houston defeated Tulsa Saturday night by the skin of its teeth, scoring 9 points in the last 21 seconds. This reason, along with Boise State's relative lack of team dominance in WAC play, might not only cost the Broncos a BCS at-large, but also severely diminish any faint hope QB Kellen Moore had at the Heisman.

So then let's focus on the four main contenders. To quote each player's season-long statistical totals would be somewhat redundant. You will see them many more times between now and the second Saturday in December. There's also an argument to be made that season-long statistics don't matter as much as you think. After all, if they did, Tim Tebow wouldn't be in the hunt while averaging under 200 yards passing a game, and Eric Crouch (albeit an option quarterback) wouldn't have won with more interceptions than touchdowns in 2001.

It is extremely important, however, to focus on big game performances. After all, the games that the most voters watch leave the biggest impressions on the voters. For the purposes of this column, I'm counting big games as rivalry games or games where the opponent was in the top 20.

Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame

@ Michigan, 25-42, 336 yards, 3 TD (loss)
vs. Michigan, State 22-31, 300 yards, 2 TD (win)
vs. USC, 24-43, 260 yards, 2 TD (loss)
vs. Boston College, 26-39, 246 yards, 2 TD (win)
vs. Navy, 37-51, 452 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT (loss)

Clausen likely has the most impressive statistics of any of the quarterbacks in the race with 20 touchdowns and just 3 interceptions for the year. In the five above games, the touchdown-to-interception ratio becomes 11-1. Clausen has also been remarkably clutch, despite the Irish's disappointing defense and even if his team shouldn't have made the games so close to begin with. However, the quarterback was most definitely not clutch in Saturday's loss unexpected loss to Navy, throwing a costly interception and sputtering on a potential game-tying drive. Clausen will probably finish with the best stats of the QBs, but what could have been a 10-2 season with an Orange Bowl berth will most likely finish 9-3 or 8-4 with a Gator Bowl or Sun Bowl slot. His team's record, more than anything else, will cost Clausen.

Tim Tebow, Florida

vs. Tennessee, 14-19, 115 yards, 1 INT, 76 yards rushing, 1 TD
@ LSU, 11-16, 134 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
vs. Georgia, 15-21, 164 yards, 2 TD, 85 yards rushing, 2 TD
(all wins)

I'm just going to go ahead and say what no one in the media seems to have the stones to say: If these numbers and performances were put up by anybody else other than Tim Tebow, we would simply be looking at an above average player. Not a Heisman-worthy player. In fact, linebacker Brandon Spikes has been more outstanding than Tebow this season as part of a Florida defense that has been on top of its game all year (eye-gouge excepted). Tebow's candidacy was helped by a signature performance in Jacksonville against Georgia, but that has really been the only time 2009 Tebow has looked like the 2008 and 2007 versions of himself.

It can be said that Tebow playing against LSU was a valiant effort of some sort, and I won't try to take the other side by proselytizing that playing after the concussion was some grave life-endangering mistake. After all, Tebow was medically cleared to play. However, the Florida leader didn't look like himself in that game, and with the way the defense was playing, backup John Brantley likely could have won that game. Even if Tebow and the Gators win the remainder of their games, including against Alabama in the SEC title game, Tebow should not win the award for the second time.

Colt McCoy, Texas

vs. Texas Tech, 24-34, 205 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
vs. Oklahoma, 21-39, 127 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
@ Oklahoma State, 16-21, 171 yards, 1 TD
(all wins)

Let's just say Sam Bradford plays the whole game for Oklahoma against the Longhorns in Dallas, and McCoy puts in the same below-average performance he did that day. There's no way to know for sure, of course, but my educated guess is that a Bradford-led offense would be able to post more than 16 points. If Texas would have lost that game, there's no way we're talking about McCoy for Heisman in a serious manner. Why? Because you might not realize it, but the Big 12 is awful this year. Texas might end up as the only team in that conference to have less than two losses at the end of the season. There is a slight possibility that the winner of the North division could wind up not being bowl-eligible.

The factors causing the Big 12's lackluster year are obviously not the Longhorns' doing (the injury to Bradford, Dez Bryant's suspension, collapses by Kansas and Missouri), but McCoy has not exactly put in Heisman-worthy, dominating performances to this point. In recent blowout wins against Missouri and Oklahoma State, McCoy has been very good, but not outstanding as the qualifications state. To that point, McCoy has been intercepted in all but one of Texas' games so far this season. Saturday's stats-inflating win against Central Florida should mean nothing to voters, but likely will.

Mark Ingram, Alabama

vs. Virginia Tech, 26 carries, 150 yards, 1 TD, 1 TD receiving
@ Mississippi, 28 carries, 172 yards, 1 TD
vs. Tennessee, 18 carries, 99 yards
vs. LSU, 22 carries, 144 yards
(all wins)

Three weeks ago, I wrote that Alabama was the team to beat this season. Despite the close call against Tennessee, I not only stand by that statement, but I am willing to say that Ingram should be the Heisman favorite. It shouldn't even be close. Furthermore, it shouldn't matter if the Tide lose to Florida in the SEC title game. Ingram has been that much more impressive than all of the other contenders.

The sophomore running back has been bottled up just once this season, against Arkansas in a game in which the Tide blew out the Hogs. While Julio Jones had the defining play in the comeback win against LSU, Ingram helped ice the game with a strong, power-running performance. Ingram's season is all the more incredible when you consider that he has gotten just over half of the Tide's total carries (175 of 366), and has not fumbled once. As I alluded to in the previous column, Ingram has had his top six rushing totals in conference games or in games against ranked teams. He has also not had a bad, or even average game in all of the big games he has played. None of the other three main contenders can say the same thing.

Admit it, before this season, Ingram was not on your radar for the Heisman Trophy. He wasn't on anybody's, meaning that he had to be that much more impressive than the preseason favorites, just like an unranked team in the preseason has to be that much better than the preseason top 10. Thus far, he has been. But what happens if Ingram has an average game (50-80 yards) against Florida while Tebow has a good, but not great game in the same game? On the same night, McCoy could have a field day against Kansas State, Nebraska or whoever comes out of the rabble known as the Big 12 North.

Does one average game overshadow the body of work for the entire year? For some voters, it undoubtedly will. If that somehow swings the Heisman to Tebow or McCoy, it will be one of the greatest Heisman travesties of my lifetime.