We're deep in the heart of the college and pro football seasons, folks, and it's the time of year when the debate over who will be crowned the next winner of the Heisman Trophy starts to heat up.
A quick look at the award's storied history tells us that quarterbacks and running backs are easily the most common winners of the award. Recently, however, it has been quarterbacks who have taken center stage in Heisman races, having won in seven of the last eight years.
This year's Heisman race is no exception to this recent trend, and in fact, it's pretty safe to say that the player who hoists the hardware at the Downtown Athletic Club this year will be a signal caller.
Going into this past weekend's action, the only non-quarterback with even a remote shot to be invited to the ceremony -- much less to win the award -- was the University of Georgia's stud running-back Knowshon Moreno. Moreno's slim Heisman dreams fell by the wayside during the University of Florida's drubbing of the Bulldogs, however, in which Moreno was held to 65 yards on 17 carries.
Florida's Tim Tebow, at least in the eyes of some, still had an outside shot, but between the drop off in his stats from last year and the added burden of being the repeat winner when that simply doesn't happen anymore, Tebow's task was too tall. And yes, it still stands that way even after his virtuoso performance leading the Gators over Georgia.
Going into Saturday's action, there were three quarterbacks at the top of the race. Colt McCoy was sitting pretty atop the list in the eyes of most, and the consensus seemed to be that if McCoy had a mistake-free game in a victory over Texas Tech University, the award was his to lose. This widely held opinion confused me a great deal, considering that McCoy's stats -- though Heisman worthy -- were not quite in the league of those of his two main competitors at the top of the race.
Granted, of the three, he's the most dynamic and had been making a healthy number of plays with his feet, but nonetheless, the consensus opinion that he was the cream of the crop heading into this weekend was misguided. Naysayers cited the University of Texas's victory over Oklahoma University as a reason to give McCoy the heads up advantage over Bradford, but both quarterbacks performed about equally well that game. Saturday's Texas-Texas Tech match up was an instant classic, with the Red Raiders pulling off the victory as a result of an improbable game-winning drive with just over a minute left to play.
Texas Tech's victory celebration will have to be short-lived, however, as the Red Raiders must square off against Oklahoma State University this coming Saturday and then hit the road for a pivotal match up with Oklahoma in the brutally tough road atmosphere of Norman. Though McCoy could conceivably get back into the race if Tech falters, it seems as though who wins the Heisman will ultimately be decided by which quarterback acquits himself better in the Texas Tech-Oklahoma game.
I've thought all along that Harrell and Bradford were more Heisman-worthy than McCoy, and now that those who decide the award are no doubt marching to the beat of the same drummer. A showdown for the ages is in store a couple weeks from now. Harrell stands as the front runner right now, and he's got the big "M-O" on his side.
Add the fact that the Heisman voting contingency tends to become enamored with unconventional candidates, and the case for Harrell becomes even stronger (see: Charles Woodson, 1997 and Tim Tebow, 2007). The position Harrell plays, is of course, very conventional of a Heisman winner, but the school and offense he plays in is not, and I think this will play significantly in the minds of voters when it comes time to decide.
