Sunday, September 19, 2010

Pssst. Look at the Heisman Trophy candidates over here

It’s only two weeks into already the most-hyped college football season in the history of Lee Corso and the Heisman Trophy race has started.

On the East Coast.

Out here, on the Left Coast, our Heisman Trophy horses apparently are still in the barn because they are not getting much notice.

Andrew Luck of Stanford had a Heisman Trophy-winning highlight reel of a 52-yard touchdown run on Saturday night on the World Wide Leader in Sports and I bet at least three quarters if not 90 percent of Heisman Trophy voters missed it. The Stanford quarterback completed his first eight passes and finished 17-of-23 for 207 yards and four touchdowns as Stanford built a 55-10 lead before Luck left the game with 11 minutes left in the THIRD quarter of an eventual 68-24 victory over Wake Forest.

Hello, Heisman Trophy frontrunner. Anyone listening?

Unfortunately, most everyone was asleep when ESPN began coverage of the Stanford-Wake Forest game at 11:30 Eastern time on Saturday night. Luck’s incredible performance will be old news by the time Game Day and most the nation catches up with it following NFL Sunday.

Too bad. Unless you happen to be the quarterback of national media darling Boise State, you have about as much of a chance as Reggie Bush of winning a Heisman Trophy if your football team plays west of the Mississippi River or Tuscaloosa these days.

For example after the sun set in Bristol, Connecticut on Saturday, Andy Dalton, the quarterback of the No. 4 ranked team in the nation – TCU – completed 21 of 23 passes for 267 yards and two touchdowns. But he barely got noted outside “The Bottom Line” on your TV screen.
Same with LaMichael James. He is the running back for the No. 5 team in the nation – Oregon – who ran for 227 yards on just 14 carries. Never saw his name on the “Bottom Line” but I did see that the Ducks won 69-0.

And, on Friday night, two players stood out on the Cal-Nevada game. Bears running back Shane Vereen ran for 198 yards and three TDs and Wolfpack quarterback Colin Kaepernick, one of the best all-around quarterbacks in the country, ran through and passed over then the nation’s No. 1 ranked defense to pace his team to a 52-point outburst.

But if you check out ESPN’s Heisman list this week, you will see Alabama’s Mark Ingram (even though, in my opinion, he’s the second best running back on the Crimson Tide behind Trent Richardson) topping the list, along with Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson, Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, Boise State QB Kellen Moore and Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett, the best QB in reputably the best conference in the nation.

All of them are credible Heisman Trophy candidates. But there are many more if you look closer to the Left Coast.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home