2010 Heisman Trophy
 

Didn't see the 2010 annual thread so decided to start one. Candidates as of week 9/6 are

Boise State's Kellen Moore tops QB-heavy Heisman Watch - Cory McCartney - SI.com

I think we need to be in a couple games of conference play before it starts to shake out. Am rooting for Mallett but he has not yet proven himself in the big games.

is this trophy relevant to anybody but ESPN?

Fred Goldman

Bitter Texas fan?

I'm excited to see Cam Newton tonight. He sounds like what Michigan fans are hoping (and claiming) Denard Robinson is.

I don't talk to a lot of other Michigan fans these days, but I think putting Robinson in a list of 10 or so Heisman candidates is silly. Then again, Forcier was mentioned on some Heisman lists I saw last year, which was equally silly IMO.

Is Jake Locker not in consideration?

They are taking the top 10 "stars" of week one and making a list. After week 1, the list looks pretty good to me. I seriously doubt it'll look like that after week two, but for a week one list, I'm ok with it.

Sack,

Lockler had a subpar game against BYU. He can still get back in the race, but he'll need monster games against Nebraska, USC, Stanford and Oregon to do it. That loss hurt him badly.

I know, I know, he's "improving vastly" under "QB guru" Sarkisian, and he was banged up a lot, but when do his career 54% completion percentage and <3.5 ypc the past 3 seasons start to hurt him? [/ducks]

Is the Heisman a career award or a yearly award?

Ron Dayne and Cedric Benson would probably lean toward it being a career award.

Seeing Denard Robinson on there makes me chuckle. I think it's funny that with the state of UM football right now, they still get way too much respect. He'll come down to earth fairly soon.

Edit: I thought I was over my over-the-top hatred of Michigan. I guess I'm not. :)

Dola.

I hope Locker can come back and win it. He's from here and still comes around a lot and helps in the community. Nice kid.

Which of these ten is most likely to be asked to return the trophy five years from now if they win it?

John Clay will win it.

No love for Christian Ponder?

The Michigan bashsers are out in full force this year. It's funny how 90% of them thought UConn would beat them, and then when Michigan runs over the top of em how they are a bad team and Robinson is going to come back down to earth.

All I know is that "Shoelace" rushed for close to 200 yards, threw for close to 200 yards and his negatives for the entire day consisted of 3 incomplete passes.

No, he won't win the Heisman. No, I don't expect him to be invited to NY for the ceremony. Yes, he's going to drop off, that's fairly obvious.

Laughing at him being on the top ten list now? I'd be laughing at any list that didn't have him.

The two names I were surprised weren't on the list were both QB's from Florida. Ponder and Harris are both studs.

Cameron Newton will fall out of the top ten after last night. I expect Peterson will fall off as well. A bad game in ND and Shoelace will be off the list. One bad game will wipe out someone like Hunter or Keenum as well.

That will give both Ponder, Harris and Clay chances to jump into the top 10 next week.

Mallett didn't hurt his changes with 400 yard passing and 3 touchdown day. Let see how he does against UGA. Denard was super good against ND.

You guys sure were right on about Robinson :P

Let's see how that body holds up running it 30 times a game.

Is that seriously the best comeback you have to that?

i know little about college football, so this is not a prediction but just a cool little picture ...



:D

What else does anyone have right now? I mean, the guy has played two games and has 885 total yards of offense, 5 TD, 0 turnovers, a punt that was downed at the four yard line, and he accounted for every play and yard of a 12 play, 72 yard drive to win at ND.

He hasn't played against Ohio State or Alabama. On the other side of it, he hasn't played against La-Monroe or Tennessee Tech either. (not bashing on Mallet here, just pointing out his stats are a tad more impressive right now)

The only thing a basher can say at this point is "he's going to break down"

And he might break down. The bashers are going to have to hope he does. His next three are UMass, Bowling Green and Indiana. I doubt his performance in those games will drop him off the top ten in the Heisman lists. After that they have Michigan State, Iowa and @ Penn State. That's the area he'll either cement his place in NY or wash out of the race.

For the first two weeks, he's been the most exciting player in college football. He'd rank #1 on my list after last week. (I still think Mallett, Pryor or Luck will likely win it, but time will tell)

Very well put. Robinson is simply the most jaw dropping player in college football this year so far. I'm not a Michigan fan, but I'm rooting for him to stay healthy and do well.

This little stat that they kept dropping after the ND game... who gives a shit? He's the QB, of COURSE he accounted for all of the plays and yards. You don't hear them say that about a 7 play, all passing, 97 yard TD drive that some other QB put together... "hey, the QB accounted for all the yards!" Just because he put a few runs together, does it really matter that he was the player behind the whole drive? What about the wide outs? Do they get no credit on the catches? If you want to say that his runs were key to the drive, that's different.

That said, even as an OSU fan I will give it to Robinson. Great performances so far.

Robinson has been awesome. He really has been an electrifying player so far this season. He would have to be the Heisman front runner at the moment. That said, it's only two games into the season. I remember people murmuring about Tate Forcier as a potential Heisman candidate after week 2 or 3 last year.

While I think Robinson is a better player than Forcier, I remain cautiously optimistic that he can continue to be the player he has been for the first two weeks, once he starts facing stiffer competition and teams have more time to game plan against him.

Still, it's been a joy to watch him play these last two weeks.

the point is that in a lot of cases, running backs pick up comes of the yardage with runs. It's fairly rare that you have a 12 play drive where the QB accounts for all of the yards.

And you might show me otherwise, but I don't really remember a 7 play, 97 yard game winning drive where the QB didn't get 95% of the credit.

Michigan's Denard Robinson vaults into top spot - Cory McCartney - SI.com

Somewhat off topic but related.

Reggie Bush to forfeit 2005 Heisman Trophy – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

Is this is like resigning vs being fired?

Sheesh... I hate to continue a possible derailing, but in reading an article on Newsweek, I ran across one of the best lines ever in print (My bold for emphasis...):

Figured I would bump this one up now that we are 4 to 5 weeks in.

Right now there is #1 and everyone else.

If he slips up, I like LaMichael James to make a run at it. Pryor has some huge games coming up and could get back in the conversation as well.

Best player in football this year is Patrick Peterson. I'd say my personal top 5 would be:

1. Denard
2. Peterson
3. James
4. Pryor
5. Moore

And with one of the top five picks in the 2011 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions select...

Patrick Peterson, cornerback, Lousianna State University.

One can only hope.

We all know it doesn't go to the best player, it goes to the best QB/RB/WR.

If it goes to a corner, he'd better be leading a historically great defense or have a boatload of offensive/special teams plays.

Even with Peterson in the mix, I'd have to give the edge to shoelace right now. Michigan is at best 2-3 without him. He's had two games of 200+ rushing and passing yards in his first five starts, more than anyone else has had in their career.

Still time for him to get hurt (he takes a ton of hits), fall off (the competition is going to get better starting this week), or just fall off (he couldn't complete 70% against the same group of teams with a do over, could he?)

Robinson is a joy to watch. He really is. He is an electric a college football player as I have seen in a long time. As the facts have shown, he has the ability to score from anywhere on the field at any time. Granted, he's done so primarily against less-than opposition, hopefully he will be able to keep it up against the stouter defenses in the Big Ten.

I don't think there is any single player more important to his team right now than Denard. In fact, I think they should replace Greg Robinson with Denard Robison. Denard has to be a better DC than Greg. He really couldn't be any worse.

QFT

And this team isn't 2-3 without Denard, they're 0-5 likely. I don't know why they even bother to play defense. They should just play some crazy defense scheme that will either make a big play or give up a big play since they're not capable of stopping anyone...that way Denard would get more time on offense and could go for even crazier stats :)

The problem is that Michigan is going to finish 8-4 probably and Robinson's last game is going to likely involve his "worst" game of the year against the Ohio State defense. Meanwhile, Terrell Pryor is going to tool along on his way to a 12-0 regular season, and he'll Troy Smith his way into the Heisman. Ingram's eliminated because too many old men voting won't let him in the same mention as Archie Griffith, Kellen Moore's school sucks, Oregon doesn't have anyone known enough in the East, and outside of Robinson, and no player outside of the BCS title hunt is actually eligible anymore.

If the East doesnt know about Oregon's James, then they really shouldn't be watching any college football

Maybe they think that a player suspended for part of the season for domestic violence doesn't fulfill the "integrity" portion of the Heisman criteria. Or maybe the West Coast/next big thing loving hype machine spent all offseason hyping Jake Locker instead of James, Andrew Luck, or even Kellen Moore. Maybe they heard about Kenyon Barner going off when James was suspended and figured he was more a product of the system a la Colt Brennan or Case Keenum than the superlative player his stats make him out to be. Or maybe half of them were in bed before halftime and the rest didn't watch the Stanford-Oregon game because it was relegated to ESPN2 SD for that incredibly important ND-BC matchup. (At least one of those reasons is mostly true, and sadly it's not the first one.)

I didn't mention Heisman in my post for a reason. But not knowing about James is pretty bad, even for the east coast. And I do find it odd that they dont know how good he is, but would be aware of his suspension this season :)

Troy Smith had an awesome year the year he won the Heisman (save the BCS game). Pryor is no Troy Smith.

Some quick points:

1) I don't think Pryor is going 12-0 this year. He has a great shot at the Heisman if Shoelace slips up, but I don't think they are going 12-0.

2) Ingram isn't going to miss out on the Heisman because of a bunch of old men. He's going to miss out on the Heisman because he missed 2 games and had under 50 yards in a third. And his backup has run just as well as he has against ranked opponents.

3) Barner played well against a team without a win. James outplayed him on national TV against the Vols. Then he went nuts against Stanford. He will play on national TV a minimum of three more times this year. Once on a Thursday against UCLA. Another time on a Friday against Arizona. (those nights he'll be the only show on tv) He also will get a national game against USC.

4) Were he to keep up his 8 yards a carry pace through the rest of the year, he'll be the guy who will get the award should Shoelace slip up.

You may want to go look at the stats. Passing numbers between Smith and Pryor are very close so far and Pryor is a much better rusher.

I wasn't advocating the position, I was mentioning it as a reason some people wouldn't have him near the top of their list. Like I said in the other thread, sadly ND-BC was shown on ABC in the majority of the northeast, MSU/Wisconsin was ESPN's secondary game nationally, and that meant Oregon-Stanford wasn't available in HD here. I do think James is better than his backfield mates, and that playing in a great system doesn't mean the player isn't great as well, but I'm not sold on him being any better than Shane Vereen, Jacquizz Rodgers, Noel Devine, Chris Polk, Daniel Thomas, even a Donald Buckram or Mikel LeShoure.

Also, just a reminder - at this point last year Mark Ingram was averaging less than 100 ypg, Toby Gerhart and Ndamukong Suh were probably completely unknown to about half the voters, Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy were the favorites and Jacory Harris and Tate Forcier were still in many top 5's.

You don't have to sell me on the fact that strange things can happen. Ingram shouldn't have won the award last year. I'm still stunned he did. There are plenty of guys who could jump in and take it. My money today would be on either Shoelace or James winning it. Next Saturday? Who knows.