Who gets your vote for Heisman this year?

The Game Room
1

The finalists are:

Colt McCoy of the Texas Longhorns (AP Top 25 Rank #3, 11-1)
QB Rating: 179.2
Yards: 3,445
TDs: 32
Int: 7
Rush Yards: 576
Rush TDs: 10
Tim Tebow of the Florida Gators (#1, 12-1)
QB Rating: 176.7
Yards: 2,515
TDs: 28
Int: 2
Rush Yards: 564
Rush TDs: 12

Sam Bradford of the Oklahoma Sooners (#2, 12-1)
QB Rating: 186.3
Yards: 4,464
YDs: 48
Int: 6
Rush Yards: 65
Rush TDs: 5

It’s a very tough choice this year. I think it comes down to Tebow or Bradford.

I haven’t seen many arguments for McCoy, although he WAS the Longhorns’ offense, leading the team in passing AND rushing.

Both Tebow and McCoy have something that Bradford don’t, and that’s scrambling and rushing ability. Both ran for over 500 yards, Bradford for only 65.

My pick would have to be for Tebow. His proven leadership skills coupled with his strong, accurate arm and rushing prowess make him my Heisman winner. Also, his quote after the Gators’ lone loss to Ole Miss was inspirational and one in which he definitely followed through:

Oh, and what’s with only three finalists this year? Graham Harrell got a huge snub. The guy is an amazing quarterback, finishing as a top-3 passer in each of the past 3 seasons.

2

That’s pretty much the argument for McCoy. It’s not unconvincing.

It seems to me that Bradford’s lack of rushing is more due to his mastery of finding the open receiver on quick slants and shallow crosses. He trusts more in his arm to make a completion when a host of linebackers and lineman are about to swallow him up.

See, Tebow to me is the least deserving. I don’t think you can argue that he carried his team any more than the other two men. Knock out any of these quarterbacks, and I think you’d see three extra losses a piece (at least) for all three. All three teams are good teams, so it’s not like you have a situation where McCoy and Bradford are working with a lot of quality tools and Tebow is working with bent ones.

Given that, I think you have to give the nod to the QB with the best numbers. To me, that’s Bradford, but I could see giving McCoy the nod.

(And leadership skills? What does that involve, yelling at your teammates to get them pumped up? I prefer to give the award to the player with the impressive arm [or legs for a RB or hands for a WR etc], not the player with the impressive mouth. And I couldn’t care less about an “inspirational” quote. I’m not about to give the award to the player who would do best as a PR agent.)

But I do agree that Harrell got dissed – I don’t think he should have won, but I think he should have at least gotten invited to the soiree.

3

My vote would go to Bradford.

However, I think Tebow wins, the midwest bias will split their votes btwn Bradford and McCoy and the leaving Tebow to mop up the West, East and Southeast votes.

4

I should mention that Tebow also played against defenses in the SEC that are generally superior to those in the Big 12. No team from the Big 12 is ranked higher than 50th (Texas) in total defense, and only one team (Texas, 20th) is ranked in the top 50 in scoring defense.

5

Where are these defense rankings? (I don’t doubt you, I’d just like to see. I have a feeling that a lot of the “dominant” SEC defenses this year are due more to sputtering, Auburn-like offenses).

6

Without Tebow, Florida still goes 12-1. Without Bradford, Oklahoma still scores 40 ppg. Without McCoy, Texas finishes behind Baylor.

McCoy is the most valuable to his team.

7

I would vote Tebow, for the same reason that I long ago would have gone for Jason White: he won it last year, therefore it is the job of the other players to prove to me why they are more deserving. This year nobody made a compelling case, but Tebow backed up his Heisman from last year by taking the Gators to the national championship game.

The only justification for not giving him a second Heisman is that he already has one. I find that to be a specious argument at best, even though it has been that way ever since Archie Griffin won two in the early '70s. I don’t know why there is such reluctance to award a second one, but if anybody is deserving it is Tebow, no matter what he might or might not do in the NFL.

8

I don’t think Florida would have won 12 games without Tebow. There’s quite a dropoff between him and the second stringer. He’d have my vote. GO GATORS!

9

I was just checking the stat page here. You can sort the conferences with the drop down box.

Average yards per game given up by SEC teams: 307.9
Average points per game given up by SEC teams: 20.7

Average yards per game given up by Big 12 teams: 400.8
Average points per game given up by Big 12 teams: 29.2

I do see your point about the SEC having weaker offenses though. The SEC has five teams that averaged over 30 points per game, with Florida being the only team to average over 40. In the Big 12, five teams averaged over 40 points per game, with Oklahoma averaging over 50!

In both cases, Tebow and Bradford’s teams were the standout offenses.

10

I don’t think the Heisman mentality works that way. You hear about reigning National Champions, but I don’t often hear about reigning Heisman winners. (In fact, google “reigning heisman” and you only get 9370 hits!) I think maybe it’s because, historically, the award has gone to seniors, and they can’t reign after graduation.

I still think each of these men is worth at least three victories above and beyond their backups, so I don’t think you can make a compelling case that one is more valuable to their team than the others. So it’s gotta come down to the numbers. And if Tebow gets credit for getting the Gators to the NCG, then so does Bradford (and the Sooners have a worse defense than Florida to boot). Plus, Bradford’s numbers are astronomical. That’s gotta count for something.

11

You’re probably right, but I’m not so sure. Florida has a load of talent (I’m sure you know) outside of Tebow and the SEC this year was rather un-SEC-like.

Regardless, I think Texas would have fallen much farther without McCoy than would have Florida without Tebow. Much farther. McCoy was more important to his team. IMHO of course.

12

While I agree with you, Harrell made the cardinal mistake of having an off day at the end of the season. You won’t realistically contend for the Heisman if you throw four picks two weeks before the ballots are due.

13

The best player in college football this year was Tebow.
The best draft prospect is Bradford.

Tebow will win. The Big 12 qbs will split votes between them. I also think some of the votes that might have gone Bradford will go to McCoy to try to compensate Texas for the Big 12 Championship game.

14

Did you mean **four **picks **two **weeks before the ballots are due or **two **picks **four **weeks before the ballots are due?

Harrell’s last game of the season was against Baylor and he was 41 for 50 with 309 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT.

15

Not at all. McCoy has him beat on stats and importance to his team. Tebow is a great player, but McCoy simply edged him out this year.

16

Without Tebow Florida would have been crushed by Alabama, and might have lost 2-4 more games. I saw this having watched what happened whenever Brantley, the backup, got into the games. He didn’t lose them, but he probably couldn’t muster enough offense to win. Florida would have won by many more points and Tebow would have put up gaudier numbers if he’d played almost every down (like last year).

It would be interesting to see a comparison of stats/ play from scrimmage. I think that they’d probably be closer.

17

Eh, you understood my point, anyways. In the last game of substance Harrell played in, he stunk the joint up.

18

If I had a vote, I would give the award to Colt McCoy.

I should add that, while I live in Austin, I am not from Texas and did not attend the University of Texas.

I would be fine with Sam Bradford winning. I also wish that Michael Crabtree (NOT Graham Harrell! Texas Tech has had lots of quarterbacks with gaudy numbers, but Crabtree is a uniquely gifted receiver) had gotten enough votes to receive an invitation to NEw York.

The only guy I could NOT endorse is the one I’m pretty sure will win it, Tim Tebow.

My thinking is this: IF Tim Tebow deserved the Heisman last year, he definitely does NOT deserve it now. And if he DOES deserve it now, he shouldn’t have gotten it last year. There is absolutely no way you can argue he deserved it both years.

Last year, Tebow had great statistics for a so-so Florida team that was never an SEC championship contender. Nonetheless, Florida/SEC backers asserted that Tebow deserved the Heisman because his numbers were stellar, and insisted that it didn’t matter whether his team won games.

This year, Tebow’s numbers are unimpressive, but his team has won a lot of games and may win the national championship. So, now Florida/SEC backers have changed their tune. THIS year, the numbers don’t matter, all that matters is that Tebow “is a football player, damn it, and he knows how to win! You can throw the stats out the window, all that matters is that the W’s.”

Well, ake up your mind, folks. Is the measure of a quarterback his statistics, or is it his supposed ability to “will” his team to victories?

If stats are what matter, he deserved the HEisman last year, but has no business being invited to New York this year. If it’s all about wins, he should have stayed home last year.

So, which Heisman does Tebow NOT deserve- this year’s or last year’s?

19

I feel both satisfied and vindicated. I would have felt satisfied had McCoy won as well. Had Tebow won, I would have disappointed – the guy has played a good second half of the year, but so have a lot of people. And his first half of the year was very unHeismanlike.

Now of course Tebow is saying that his snub (my paraphrase) is just going to motivate him more to win. Usually, sports reporters seem to just roll their eyes when an athlete makes a comment along these lines, but this time they seem to be swooning with Tebow* admiration.

So, will Tebow play his balls off enough to give his team the victory? Or will, as I suspect, the Oklahoma scoring machine put up another 60? Discuss.

[sub]I originally typoed Tebow as Tebor, which reminded me of that idiot Tibor from the Simpsons. Hee hee.[/sub]

20

I’m a Gator alum and don’t mind that Tebow didn’t win. Maybe he’ll win it again next year. I think it does add another layer of intrigue to the game next month. I’m sure that Tebow didn’t need it to motivate him and Bradford will play well. I seriously doubt that Oklahoma will put up 60 points on the Gator defense, though*.

One thing I found interesting was when they showed a ground level camera shot of Bradford, McCoy and Tebow walking and TT just looked like a MOOSE. I guess you don’t appreciate how big he is until you see him next to a couple of (normally) big kids and he just seemed like a tank by comparison.

I do think the stats thing can get blown out of proportion, last year and this year. Last year Tebow stayed in a lot of games that he didn’t need to be in and more or less ran up his numbers. This backfired when he hurt his shoulder toward the end of the season. Bradford and McCoy “benefited” this year, a bit, by virtue of Oklahoma’s defense keeping teams in the game later than you’d expect from a championship caliber team. Maybe the Big 12 just has that many good offenses… or maybe their defenses suck. January 8th we should find out which it is.

*If they do it’s more likely to be via the ground attack, since Florida is missing two of their starting defensive linemen IIRC