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Heisman Trophy Candidates: Week 14

Written November 25, 2008 by Jack Jones

This week we’re mixing things up with our Heisman watch. We’re moving from 5 players to 4 as there are probably only 4 players in the nation (realistically, more like 3) that could legitimately win the Heisman. We’ve also got a new #1 after Saturday’s wild game between Oklahoma and Texas Tech.

Oklahoma’s quarterback, Sam Bradford steals the top spot from Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell after Oklahoma’s truly dominating performance over the Red Raiders last week. Bradford leads the nation in passing touchdowns and has the best QB rating of any quarterback in a BCS conference. Oklahoma needed a win badly last week to stay in contention for a BCS Championship Bowl bid. Bradford needed to lead his team to victory and he delivered. The same expectations were placed on Harrell last week and he wasn’t able to accomplish what Bradford was. Bradford’s stats stack up against Harrell’s in everything but total yards, but keep in mind that the Oklahoma QB throws the ball a lot less than Harrell, and Bradford’s 10.6 yards per attempt are the best in the nation from a BCS conference quarterback. Bradford’s Sooners are 7 point favorites at Oklahoma State this week.

Maybe no other player in the country is more valuable to their team than Colt McCoy. Both Sam Bradford and Graham Harrell have better numbers than McCoy in every category other than completion percentage, where he leads the nation with a 77.2 percent mark, but you can’t look past what he’s done for his team. For the first time in a long time, the Longhorns haven’t had a real standout at the running back position and that’s made McCoy’s job even tougher. To his credit, the Texas QB has made all of the necessary adjustments and has put his team in position to win every single game they’ve been in this season. Adding to McCoy’s burden has been the Texas defense, which also has not been up to par this year. Now, this could be due to the influx of talent and big-scoring offenses to the Big 12 this year, but McCoy and the Longhorns have needed the offense to produce more than ever this season and they’ve been up to the task.

Graham Harrell took a big hit in his Heisman chase, but that doesn’t mean he can’t (or won’t) win the trophy. Even in last week’s horrible team performance, Harrell threw for 361 yards and 3 touchdowns. Harrell still leads the nation in passing yards and is among the best in total touchdowns, completion percentage, and QB rating. So why the steep decline this week? Yes, it’s the loss to Oklahoma that has most impacted Harrell’s status. You might glean from his statistics that it wasn’t really Harrell’s fault that the Red Raiders lost their first game of the year to Oklahoma last week. Well, while you can’t blame Harrell for having a terrible game, you can blame him for what he did not do, and that’s lead his team to victory when they needed it most. Good numbers or not, in college football, as well as in the Heisman voting, the numbers that end up mattering the most are wins and losses. Like it or not, Tech’s loss put Harrell’s hopes for the Heisman in jeopardy.

Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators just keep rolling along and daring someone to stop them. Tebow doesn’t come close to having the numbers as a Quarterback as Harrell, McCoy, or Bradford, but he is leading one of the most impressive college football runs in years, and he is a former winner of the trophy. That should at least get him an invite to the ceremony, right? Probably. I don’t see Tebow repeating simply because there is so much great talent above him this year. Last year the competition wasn’t nearly as close, and though Tebow did need Chase Daniel to get wiped out by Oklahoma to solidify his spot for the 2007 Heisman, I simply can’t imagine the same thing happening to Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech, which is what would truly need to happen for Tebow to be considered for his second Heisman Trophy. Tebow and Florida are favored over Florida State by 17 points Saturday.

Close, but no cigar: Shonn Greene, RB, Iowa & Michael Crabtree, WR, Texas Tech

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