Matt Leinart won the Heisman, and in any other year I’d say that he was deserving. But not this year.
Jason White put up some outstanding numbers this year, and finished third. Third!?!?! How is that possible? First off, he was the defending Heisman Trophy winner. Second, his season was in many respects better than last year. Third, when someone wins an award and does absolutely nothing to lose it the next year, he should be given the award by default. Face it, folks. This was a robbery.
The only way that he should have lost the trophy this year with the numbers he put up and the results that he led his team to is if someone puts up appreciably better numbers. For instance, whether or not his team wins the Super Bowl, Peyton Manning should be the MVP of the NFL. Why? His numbers are head and shoulders above everyone else. Sometimes the best player puts himself so far ahead of the pack that failing to vote for him is an act of lunacy. That said, Matt Leinart’s numbers were not appreciably better and his team ended up with an equivalent record to White’s team. There was simply no excuse not to go with the defending champ.
He was robbed. Plain and simple. Argue your case all you want, but in my mind it was a no-brainer. And this from a guy who doesn’t even like Oklahoma that much.
It’s rare I watch football outside of the Big Ten or SEC (well apart from FSU games for reasons untold, and the occasional West coast game, but only in a bar semi-drunk), so I really can’t comment on the merits of the candidates. However, I don’t agree with the assertion that someone was last year’s winner should have anything to do with this year’s selection. If he was stiffed, he was stiffed on this year alone. It’s not like boxing, where you have to flat out beat the champ. The slate starts clean each year here.
That said, I find it extremely unlikely that the fact he won last year did not count against him in the mind of more than a few decision makers. That of course is equally wrong IMHO.
In the minds of the voters, a previous winner would probably have to do even more spectacular than someone who has never won to be allowed into the even more exclusive club of multiple winners.
I know nothing about the rest of your post, but this seems just plain silly to me. Sure, the guy who won last year might have had another good year. But if someone else had a better one, then they deserve to win. Period.
Maybe the voters realized that Jason White didn’t deserve it last year and decided to not make the same mistake. Of course, Leinart didn’t deserve it, either. Neither should have been in the running. Reggie Bush should have won.
Frankly, the whole “starting QB on the best team gets the Heisman” thing has made the award completely irrelevent. It’s a joke of an award nowadays.
Could be he got marked down by some voters for losing his last two games last year after the votes were in. Could be he shoulda played in a major media market. Could be he needed to be clearly a level above the competition, and he wasn’t.
Alex Smith of Utah went undefeated, had a better QB rating, had a better completion percentage, threw fewer interceptions. Sounds to me like he had a better year.
But saying that he was the best player this year is quite a different thing from saying that last year’s winner should win again as long as he does nothing to lose it the next year.
The scoresheet goes back to zero at the beginning of each season, and what he did or did not do last season should have absolutely nothing to do with it.
I think Jason White had a great season, and would’ve been a perfectly fine selection, if the Heisman voters had gone that way. But I can’t get too outraged over Matt Leinart’s selection.
Very rarely is there one and only one worthy candidate for the Heisman. This year, I probably would have voted for Adrian Peterson (who definitely WOULD have won if he hadn’t been just a freshman)… but none of the 5 guys present at the awards ceremony looked like a horrible choice to me.
I think White’s problem was this: most voters only see each of the top college teams play 2 or 3 games each season. So, if you want to win the Heisman, you need to put up big numbers in those few games that everybody sees. Stats are nice, but they’re not as helpful as a 200 yard rushing performance, or a 5 TD pass performance in a nationally televised game against a well-known rival.
Oklahoma’s showcase game was against Texas. And in THAT game, it was Adrian Peterson, not Jason White, who made the biggest impression on voters.
FTR, every region except White’s Southwest had Leinart on top. Each of the 5 was worthy of it, none really stood out above the others, and I’m perfectly fine with the result.
P.S. Here in Austin, there are a lot of fans outraged that Cedric Benson wasn’t one of the 5 finalists. And while I agree he deserved more consideration than he got, Benson lost the Heisman the same day that Jason White did.
As I said earlier, if you want the Heisman, you have to shine in the handful of nationally televised games you play in. So, even though Cedric Benson’s stats for the season were marvelous, what really mattered to voters was how he did in the Oklahoma game, the game everyone was watching on TV.
Benson was okay against the Sooners, but Adrian Peterson was superb against the Longhorns. I think that Benson’s chances at the Heisman evaporated with that game, because there was no way anyon e would vote for him over Adrian Peterson.
P.S. Here in Austin, there are a lot of fans outraged that Cedric Benson wasn’t one of the 5 finalists. And while I agree he deserved more consideration than he got, Benson lost the Heisman the same day that Jason White did.
As I said earlier, if you want the Heisman, you have to shine in the handful of nationally televised games you play in. So, even though Cedric Benson’s stats for the season were marvelous, what really mattered to voters was how he did in the Oklahoma game, the game everyone was watching on TV.
Benson was okay against the Sooners, but Adrian Peterson was superb against the Longhorns. I think that Benson’s chances at the Heisman evaporated with that game, because there was no way anyone would vote for him over Adrian Peterson after that game.
White himself seems almost relieved that he didn’t win, so I’d have a really hard time working up any outrage here even if I thought the case for him winning the Heisman were open and shut.
It was Adrian Peterson who got jobbed, not Jason White. That dude is flat out amazing, and as astorian already mentioned, he probably would have won it if he wasn’t a freshman.
I was listening to ESPN Radio on Friday night. They interviewed all the candidates and White said that he thought Leinart should win, with Peterson (White’s teammate) 2nd. Interesting.