Does Anybody Want To Win The Heisman?

At this point in the college football season we are usually dissecting certain games in a player’s season to give them the upper hand in the Heisman Trophy race. Halfway through a season we usually have some idea of who the clear cut Heisman leaders are and one of those college stars uses the second half to separate himself from the rest of the pack. In 2009 in doesn’t look like we have that star. It doesn’t even look like we have a pack.

After Sam Bradford went down in the first half of Oklahoma’s first game of the season against BYU, we turned to Texas QB Colt McCoy and Florida’s Tim Tebow for star power. Texas’ and Florida’s weak early season schedule has never done much for either candidate besides pad their stats and this year was no different. While Tebow and McCoy were eating cupcakes, we looked for a player outside the ‘Big Three’ to make a name for himself and give us a dark horse in the race to root for. After Tebow and McCoy both put up underwhelming performances in their first conference games against Tennessee and Texas Tech respectively, we were begging for someone, anyone to take the Heisman race by storm.

Case Keenum put himself in the mix for the first few weeks of the season with an upset over then #5 Oklahoma State and another big win against Texas Tech two weeks later. Three games into the season Keenum – a 6’2″ 210lb junior who is more than a system quarterback – had thrown for 1,150 yards, 8 TDs and only two interceptions for a high powered Houston team that looked poised to burst the BCS bubble. He led his team to wins over a top 10 team and another program that was ranked in the top 5 for a few weeks last season. Even though he threw for 5 TDs and 0 INTs in the game, a loss at UTEP doomed Keenum’s Heisman hopes. Fair or not, Case Keenum doesn’t seem like a realistic candidate even though he’s thrown for close to 2,500 yards, 19 TDs and only 4 INTs only six games into the season.

Keenum’s situation clarifies what a Heisman candidate must have on their resume in order to win the award. First of all, they have to be an offensive player at a skill position. Don’t tell us about Charles Woodson, he was the exception to the rule and shouldn’t have won it anyway. Besides, the only reason he ended up winning the award was because he played wide receiver and returned punts for the Wolverines. If he didn’t make those 11 receptions for 231 yards and 2 TDs, a Heisman Trophy would be sitting in Peyton Manning’s loaded trophy case.

A Heisman winner also has to be from a BCS conference. Not since 1989 and 1990 has there been a Heisman winner from a non-BCS school. Since 1952, Andre Ware (1989, Houston) and Ty Detmer (1990, BYU) have been the only winners who didn’t play at a BCS school or service academy. The only chance a player from a non-BCS school has of winning the Heisman in today’s college football landscape is if his team goes undefeated, or is in the running for a National Championship all year long. There can’t be too much BCS competition either. When Ware and Detmer won their Heismans, the runner-ups were Indiana’s Anthony Thompson (1989) and Raghid ‘Rocket’ Ismail (1990). While both were excellent college players, neither carved out paths that couldn’t be followed. This is not the year – with two returning Heisman winners for the first time in the history of the game – for a non-BCS player to make a case for the Trophy.

With those criteria in mind, we can erase Boise State QB Kellen Moore from contention. The media is looking for every reason to drop the Broncos in the polls and it would be a pipe dream for a sophomore from a non-BCS school to receive an invitation to New York in the first place. Even though Moore is second in the nation in quarterback rating and has thrown for 16 TDs and only 2 INTs, he hasn’t built up the type of campaign needed for a non-BCS player to steal the Heisman. So, since there isn’t a player outside of the BCS conferences with a chance to win, who do we have left?

California RB Jahvid Best was everybody’s Heisman upset choice before the season started and it seemed like a wise choice after Best ran for 73-yard and 2-yard TDs in the first quarter of Cal’s opening game against Maryland. After one quarter of play, Best was on pace for 3,264 yards and 96 TDs, numbers that probably would have won him the trophy. In his first three games against subpar competition, Best rushed for 412 yards and 8 TDs, highlighted by a 5-TD performance against Minnesota. In his next two games against Oregon and USC, games that could have put him at the top of the Heisman race, Best only rushed for 102 yards on 30 carries and zero touchdowns. While Best could have used those two games to put himself ahead in the race, voters will point at them as the time Best’s chances were killed.

Even though a wide receiver hasn’t won the Heisman since Desmond Howard did it in 1991, nobody would have been surprised if Oklahoma State’s Dez Bryant received an invitation to New York City at season’s end. Not only was Bryant a threat to make huge plays on the outside in Oklahoma State’s devastating offense but teams also had to be careful every time they punted the ball. Bryant was always waiting deep, ready to explode. In his first three games of the season Bryant accumulated 323 yards and 4 TDs, with 166 yards and 2 TDs coming in his last game against Rice. He also scored two huge touchdowns against Georgia in the season opener, considered OSU’s biggest game in school history. Bryant was making a great case for himself until an NCAA investigation about his relationship with Deion Sanders unjustly derailed his Heisman train. Bryant hasn’t played since the Rice game and it’s unclear whether or not the NCAA will even allow him to come back to Oklahoma State at all this year, meaning his college career and Heisman hopes are pretty much over.

It’s easy to eliminate players from Heisman contention and we can do that with Bradford, Best and Bryant. The hard part this year is finding players who deserve to be a part of the conversation and presentation. Considering the criteria, we can throw a couple names in the mix and suggest they have a chance if they stay on the pace they have set halfway through the 2009 season.

Stanford’s Toby Gerhart and Oregon State’s JaQuizz Rodgers are two of the best running backs in the country and have surpassed Best as the best statistical running backs in the PAC-10. Gerhart is on pace to rush for 1,500 yards and over 20 TDs this season, a year in which Stanford looks to put itself back on the college football radar. Rodgers, who single handedly beat USC as a true freshman last season, already has 697 rushing yards and 13 TDs on the season. He has also caught 38 balls for 268 yards. If he goes over the 2,000 yard mark for combined offense he will surely draw some Heisman votes from around the nation. The problem with both backs is that they play on the West Coast for middle of the pack programs. The last time a Heisman Trophy winner came from a team that wasn’t in the hunt for a BCS title or hadn’t won it the year before was in 1999 when Ron Dayne won it at Wisconsin.

While the nation has been waiting for someone to emerge as a Heisman frontrunner, the player who has compiled great stats and has the ability to make a late push for the trophy is the quarterback for the media’s favorite program. Jimmy Clausen is on pace to put up numbers that any past Heisman winner would be happy with. Clausen is currently third in the nation in passing efficiency, even after a matchup with USC’s dominating defense. He has only thrown 2 interceptions in 191 attempts and has been the focal point of every Notre Dame opponent’s defense this season. He hasn’t had the best protection -Clausen has been sacked 13 times this year and 69 times for his career at Notre Dame – but has shown the ability to create time for himself with his feet. He has led the Irish to a 4-2 record by limiting his turnovers and converting big third downs on multiple occasions. He has orchestrated fourth quarter comebacks against Michigan State, Purdue and Washington. Most people’s argument is that the Irish should not have needed comebacks to defeat these lowly programs but the bottom line is that Clausen has done everything Notre Dame has asked of him in order to win games. You can’t penalize Clausen for the Irish’s porous defense but you could imagine what their record would be like without him. At best, the Irish would be 2-4 without Clausen with the chances of being 1-5 or winless probably greater than 50%. Jimmy Clausen is arguably the most valuable player in college football.

Alabama sophomore RB Mark Ingram put himself in the conversation with an explosive performance against South Carolina this weekend. He exploited the Gamecocks run defense and rumbled for 246 yards and a touchdown in a 20-6 win. Ingram has been looked upon as the lead back in Alabama’s system after rushing for 728 yards and 12 TDs as a freshman in 2008. He has already surpassed his yardage total from last year, rushing 905 yards to go with 8 TDs on the season. He has also become a receiving threat out of the backfield with 19 receptions for 186 yards and 3 TDs. Ingram has helped himself by racking up the necessary stats and, more importantly, has helped Alabama has remain undefeated, which will further help his cause as the season goes on. If Texas and Florida keep up on their pace, McCoy and Tebow are going to be in the Heisman race by default. If Alabama is in the BCS race at season’s end and Ingram keeps putting up his numbers, he will have a chance to be the first player ever to beat out two Heisman Trophy winners in the same year.

Nobody would be disappointed if players from the three best teams in the country – Tebow, McCoy and Ingram – and a Notre Dame quarterback were the players in the final conversation for the most coveted personal trophy in American sports. They all have some serious work to do in order to get there but up to this point, there isn’t much competition. In the most wide open Heisman race in recent memory, anything could happen.

Come December, we will look back on the season and choose a defining moment for each of the Heisman Trophy finalists while they sit in the Grand Ballroom at the NYC Hilton. It’s hard to believe that any of those moments have already happened though, a thought that should give college football fans something special to look forward to.