The highest individual honor in American sports will be awarded to the most outstanding player in college football Saturday Night. If I had a vote, it would go a little something like this…
1. Montee Ball, RB Wisconsin
Wisconsin RB Montee Ball deserves the Heisman Trophy - 38 TDs should do it, and the pose above is further proof (Icon SMI)
If Wisky is 13-0 he seems like a shoe-in for the award, 38 total TDs? and he was at his best against the toughest teams on the schedule. 4 TDs against such vaunted defenses as Nebraska and Penn State. 4 TDs in the Big Ten Title game. He even had 2 TDs in each of the losses. Montee Ball did his part to earn the award.
The Badgers were thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to staying perfect this season, on a last second bobbled richochet hail mary loss to Sparty and another last second loss to Ohio State on a busted coverage deep after a long QB scramble. Hell, even with only one of those wins the Badgers might have gotten in over Alabama. one thing is for sure, those losses cannot be pinned on Montee Ball in any way, shape, or form.
Ball has never averaged less than 5.0 YPC in any game this season and has scored at least twice every week. He is also so versatile, registering a catch in 11 games and a receiving TD in 6 games, leading all RBs (with atleast 75 carries) in TD grabs.
College football fans can witness the game’s all-time leading passer on an undefeated team this weekend as ESPN takes its mobile Gameday set to Houston – can ESPN reset the Heisman discussion by providing Keenum a national platform that he does not normally get from the CBS College Sports Network?
The fantasy sports fans among us operate on a very populist level of meritocracy – great example is from 2007 Paul Smith’s yards at Tulsa equaled Tim Tebow’s yards at Florida so we view the sport through a production-centric lens. So, the fantasy college football community will no doubt support Keenum.
Most of the rest of the pundits and fans apply another lens that factors in strength of schedule, or NFL prospect, or their own home team bias. These other viewpoints have their place, but do they really matter when trying to define “the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity”? Read the rest of this entry →
You are either in one of 2 boats: you have Case Keenum, Patrick Edwards, and Montee Ball and have crushed your league this season, your team is set and you arent looking to tinker with what got you here….or you eeked in as the last seed and you have a team that is all smoke and mirrors, you are still looking for the right starts and those sneaky plays to keep you playing one more weekend. And there is nothing like the weak defenses of Conference USA to help you get wins in November.
QB:
Dominique Davis, ECU vs UTEP — UTEP has no chance of slowing down this Pirate attack. The only downside here for Davis is that the UTEP offense doesnt keep pace and ECU goes into clock-drain mode a little early. RB Reggie Bullock is also out for this game, which further boosts the stock of Davis who has had 3 rushing TDs the last 2 games in the absence of Bullock.
GJ Kinne, Tulsa vs Marshall — UCF held Kinne in check last week, Marhsall will not be able to fare so well. UCF aside, he has been on fire since the BYE completing 67% of his passes and the rushing attempts have come back as well with 54 in the last 4 games. Read the rest of this entry →
You may have heard Case Keenum (right, Houston Chronicle) threw 9 TD last night in the rain against Rice .
Case Keenum: "Let's see, 9TD is 36 pts, and 500 yds is 25...ballgame!" (Houston Chronicle)
Only thing more odd is that Rice stayed in man zero coverage the whole freaking game. Phenomenal, and they are supposed to be smart at Rice. You did start Keenum, right?
The rest of C-USA…
QB Dominique Davis, ECU vs Tulane — Davis absolutely shredded Navy last week. True, Navy was short 3 defensive starters in the back-7, but you dont set the NCAA record for consecutive completions by being lucky, even against backups. I think is safe to assume Davis has resumed MUST START status. Tulane has no hope of slowing down this attack this week. Read the rest of this entry →
QB: Case Keenum, Houston vs Marshall – The only downside here would be if he gets pulled early due to blowout. Against ECU, he only ended up with 300/3 but easily could have gone for 500+. Marshall isn’t quite as bad defensively but is in the same zip code if not quite the same neighborhood.
JJ McDermott, SMU vs Southern Miss – If his name were Padron you would probably want to start him. because it isn’t, maybe you have some hesitation…The offense definitely seems to be all about Zach Line, but McD has been no slouch. Still, Southern Miss is playing pretty decent (CUSA) defense against the pass while not as strong against the run. The Mustangs might just be content to pound the rock all day. Read the rest of this entry →
