Who Will/Should Win the Heisman?

[albionmoonlight]

Trying to encompass two different questions in one poll. Don't think that we have this poll up yet.

[GreenMonster]

I think Bush will win, but Vince Young is Texas.. Without him they go nowhere, where I believe USC would still be a great team with Lindale White being the only RB.

[Raiders Army]

I think Bush will win, but Young and Leinart should.

[Butter]

Reggie Bush is the best college player in the country. Young and Leinart are good, but Leinart was mediocre against UCLA and they still won by 50 points, while Young may be the most valuable player in the country to his team, that doesn't make him the best.

[scooper]

Originally Posted by GreenMonster

I think Bush will win, but Vince Young is Texas.. Without him they go nowhere, where I believe USC would still be a great team with Lindale White being the only RB.

Without Bush, USC may have arguably lost the Notre Dame and Fresno games. Bush is the best player. He should win.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Reggie Bush is the best college player in the country. Young and Leinart are good, but Leinart was mediocre against UCLA and they still won by 50 points, while Young may be the most valuable player in the country to his team, that doesn't make him the best.

I agree with Butter here..

I mean.. Bush has just taken over games on a repeated basis. That is incredible from the RB spot. He gained over 500 yards in one game... you can say it was Fresno State, but plenty of other backs have had the chance against worse teams than Fresno St. and have not done it...

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by GreenMonster

I think Bush will win, but Vince Young is Texas.. Without him they go nowhere, where I believe USC would still be a great team with Lindale White being the only RB.

BIG PROBLEM WITH THIS!

Heisman is not an MVP, its the best player in the country...read the fine print before you say that again

[Samdari]

Option 5 needs to be renamed "I am a myopic Texas fan"

[cthomer5000]

Young is MVP, but I don't think that's relevant here.

Bush is the best player in the country, and I think his performance in the last few games has put him way over the top. My guess is that the voting ends up Bush, Young, Leinart.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Samdari

Option 4 needs to be renamed "I am a myopic Texas fan"

option 5?

[GreenMonster]

Originally Posted by Blade6119

BIG PROBLEM WITH THIS!

Heisman is not an MVP, its the best player in the country...read the fine print before you say that again

Not only do I think Young is the MVP of College Football, I think he is the best player this year. Don't get me wrong Bush has had a great, great year, but Young had almost as good a year passing as Lienart (who had a better year this year than last when he won the Heisman) and had about half of what Bush had running + recieving, only Young had to only get it running from the QB position.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by wade moore

option 5?

D'OH!

fixed

[George]

IMO, Bush should get the Heisman, and Young is the MVP.

[albionmoonlight]

Interesting. I thought that there would be a bit more disagreement on who will win. As of right now, everyone agrees (inclusing me) that it will be Bush.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I mean.. Bush has just taken over games on a repeated basis. That is incredible from the RB spot. He gained over 500 yards in one game... you can say it was Fresno State, but plenty of other backs have had the chance against worse teams than Fresno St. and have not done it...

That argument actually makes me lean away from Bush. He put up one-fifth of his rushing yardage against an outgunned and outmanned opponent. Impressive, but if I were voting I would look for someone who was consistent every week and save their best for the biggest games.

Before I wander in here, I was very torn on how I would vote because I don't have a firm idea of who will win and I didn't know who I thought should win. There are so many angles to look at this from -- and I don't think you can divorce team role from this as easily as you might think since this isn't an "MVP" award. Bush's numbers might be more impressive if White weren't around; Leinart's numbers might be better if Bush weren't there. All three might put up better numbers if they hadn't blown out so many opponents.

My initial thought was Bush by a nose over Young with Leinart a more distant third. After looking more closely at the stats and looking at their performances in big games and comparison with other players around the country, I think I'd give it to Young by a nose. I think Young has simply been more consistent and put up more impressive performances when Texas needed him. Bush certainly did the same, but almsot a full third of Bush's rushing total came in the last two games against Fresno State and UCLA -- a cynic might suggest that it was part of a the Heisman "campaign" to get him the ball more in blow out wins.

Bush has an absolutely amazing yards per carry total (8.9), which might persuade me to give it to him -- except Young averages more than 6 yards per carry and his total includes sacks. Both are very impressive numbers.

I think Bush will win -- that seems to be the popular choice. There is always so much made of regional voting. You have to think that Bush and Leinart will split their votes. That might let Young sneak in if the East Coast voters go for him.

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I agree with Butter here..

I mean.. Bush has just taken over games on a repeated basis. That is incredible from the RB spot. He gained over 500 yards in one game... you can say it was Fresno State, but plenty of other backs have had the chance against worse teams than Fresno St. and have not done it...

I disagree. He hadn't really done it until the Fresno State game. And in that one he hits the magical 500 yard barrier because his defense gives up 6 touchdowns and Fresno State kicks off right to him every time because he is not a very good kickoff returner (7 returns for 135 yards in that game - under 20 per; on the year he averaged 17 yards per kickoff return).

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/playerDet...g=657&player=5

I agree he's fantastic and I might just vote for him myself. But the human tendency to attribute the most recent performances to the entire season is shining through here.

Originally Posted by GreenMonster

but Young had almost as good a year passing as Lienart

According to the NCAA's passer rating formula, Vince Young had a better year than Leinart. And he had the best in the nation.

[GreenMonster]

A better rating then Lienart passing and only trailing Bush by 600 yards rushing from the QB position. Very impressive to me..

[Butter]

Bush averaged 9 yards a carry. 9 yards a carry! If he had taken all the carries for USC rather than splitting with White, assuming he could've stood the pounding, he would've gained over 3200 yards.

[Raiders Army]

One thing that was strange to me was that he had 500 yards, but only two touchdowns. Shouldn't he have had at least three?

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Bush averaged 9 yards a carry. 9 yards a carry! If he had taken all the carries for USC rather than splitting with White, assuming he could've stood the pounding, he would've gained over 3200 yards.

wow, thats crazy...i thought marshawn lynch's 8.3 was crazy last year

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Bush averaged 9 yards a carry. 9 yards a carry! If he had taken all the carries for USC rather than splitting with White, assuming he could've stood the pounding, he would've gained over 3200 yards.

That could be the biggest assumption I've ever seen.

But I do agree it's phenomenal. Less phenomenal but very impressive is that Young averaged 7 yards per carry when you take out sacks. Texas had a true freshman RB average 7.4 yards per carry. In the Top 50 rushers this season, second is LenDale white at 6.66 ypc, Bush averaged 8.87 ypc. This just shows how amazing Bush's production was.

[st.cronin]

The Heisman is always a hard race because there's usually a bunch of qualified candidates, and a lot to sort through, including quality of opposition. I don't think I can really make a definitive statement about who will/should win, but my guess is Bush will win.

I, personally, would vote for Brian Calhoun.

[Blade6119]

i will say this, the few guys who deserve a mention even though they wont even get invited are Jerome Harrison from washington state(most underrated player in country...kicked every other running back's ass here) Brad Smith from missouri(watch him when hes on and its crazy...no player, not vince young, no one means as much to their team as this guy), Brian Brohm from louisville(leading all active QBs in career passing efficiency and hes a sophmore...so far, starting for two years, he looks like the real deal...vince young is 8th on that list, leinart#3), and Sam Keller/Rudy Carpenter from arizona state(keller had 3,000 in half a season, and carpenter in #2 to young in passing efficiency..both started half a season about)

[TroyF]

It's going to be Bush, Young, Leinhart ---- in that order on 85%+ of the Heisman ballots.

Were I to fill out a ballot, that's the way it would go as well. Nothing against Young, but Bush is the best player I've seen this year.

[kingfc22]

I'll just re-state what others have already said. Young is the most valuable player to his team and Bush is the best player in the country.

[ThunderingHERD]

3 votes for Bush not winning the Heisman? I didn't know that WrongWay had three different logins.

[cartman]

I guess it goes to whoever had the latest in the season 500 yard game. Back after VY lit up Ok St. for 500+ yards, every single tracking poll had him winning the Heisman by a wide margin. The week Bush got his 500+ yard game, all of the votes swung over to his side.

[cartman]

Dola, it might be the homer in me, but I wouldn't be shocked to see VY come away with the trophy. The current situation kinda reminds me of the '97 vote, where everyone was convinced Peyton would win and Charles Woodson ended up winning.

[Joe]

BUSH

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

I, personally, would vote for Brian Calhoun.

[miami_fan]

Anybody want to guess who the other invitees will be? Brady Quinn and who?

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by George W Bush

BUSH

This made me laugh so hard.

[thetrilogy]

Ladies and Gentelmen, the next Ki-Jana Carter/Akili Smith of the NFL:

REGGIE BUSH

[Young Drachma]

Jovon Bouknight, easily.

Since Wyoming has played it's last game of the season Bouknight's college career has ended. As of this weekend he is 3rd in the NCAA in reception yardage, 8th in the NCAA is number of receptions, 6th in receiving touchdowns. Jovon did all this playing on a team the finished the year 4-7 and with a quarterback who threw more interceptions than touchdowns.

Jovon Bouknight was been a cornerstone of the Wyoming Offense for four years. He has caught at least two passes in every game he played the last 4 years, all 47 of them. He performs equally well as the long ball threat to go deep or the posession receiver who goes across the middle on 4th down.

That said, let someone from USC win it. No one needs the albatross of being the next "it" player only to go to the league and fold under the pressure. Surely not any of the many other talented players mentioned here.

That said, I saw some of the video of Reggie Bush playing in HS, what a beast.

[Huckleberry]

While the Heisman isn’t a career award, it’s interesting to note that Bush has 3,087 rushing yards and 24 touchdown runs in 38 games, while Young, and remember, he’s a quarterback, has rushed for 2,927 yards and 34 touchdowns in 36 games.

hxxp://www.cfbnews.com/2005/Columnists/Fiu/COW/Cavalcade_of_Whimsy.htm

And, yes, I noted that he still voted for Bush. Both are great players.