My Yearly Heisman Hatin’ Blowup
December 12th, 2008 by John Huss
First off, let me say that I don’t think Graham Harrell should win the Heisman. As a matter of fact, I agree with our own Drew Smith’s assessment of why Sam Bradford should win the hardware. On the other hand, its not a runaway win by Bradford. Nor Tim Tebow should he go back to back Heisman.
However, it is a travesty that Harrell isn’t even allowed to play in the Downtown Athletic Clubs version of reindeer games. Look at Coach Leach giving Harrell (left, Icon SMI) the bad news…
I wonder what our friends over at Heisman Pundit think about all this.
Just last year, Colt Brennan was invited to attend the bash. For good reasons, he got to sit there and smile big for the cameras. On the year, Colt passed for 4,343 yards and 38 TDs (against 17 INTs). He also led Hawaii to an undefeated regular season and a #12 ranking on the BCS poll. At the end of the night, the results came out that he finished 3rd in the voting.
This year, Harrell surpassed the stats put up by Brennan. He compiled 4,747 yards thru the air, 41 TDs and only had 7 INTs. Texas Tech has a much stronger schedule than Hawaii, playing four straight games against ranked opponents. One of those wins included Harrell driving his team down the field and tossing the game winning TD against Texas. Despite the loss against Oklahoma, Texas Tech finished the season ranked #7 by the BCS poll. That resume alone tells me that a certain QB attending college in Lubbock, Texas deserves to share this year’s stage.
Of course, the argument can be made that last year’s eligible Heisman finalists were built differently than this year’s model. Fair enough…let me go over my checklist here:
1. Harrell threw for more yards than both Tebow and Colt McCoy
2. Harrell had more TD passes than both Tebow and McCoy.
3. Harrell didn’t need a loss like Bradford or Tebow to motivate him to put his team on his shoulders…he did it from day one and got his team ranked as high as #2 in the polls. The loss to Oklahoma came so late in the season, that realistically no heroics were going to get them back into BCS Title Game contention.
4. Texas Tech played 4 straight games versus ranked opponents. Harrell took down 3 of those teams in a row (teams ranked #23, #1 and #9 at the time). The fourth game was against #5 Oklahoma and resulted in that damaging loss.
5. But wait…Texas also had 4 straight games against ranked opponents. Colt McCoy led his team to wins versus the first three teams but lost the fourth game just like Tech. Of course, the difference was their fourth game was against Texas Tech. Harrell was the “most outstanding” (Heisman term) QB on the day.
6. Tebow did not have to play 4 straight games against ranked opponents. During the regular season, neither did Bradford. However, I will note that the BCS Championship Game will be Bradford’s fourth game against a ranked foe.
Statistically, Harrell is a better choice than both Tebow and McCoy. If you throw out the gimmicky offense excuse, Harrell’s body of work is better than Colt McCoy’s. Harrell beat the McCoy led Longhorns and won just as many games. You also have the mess that Texas beat Oklahoma and that UF lost to Ole Miss.
If there is a college football deity, please consider these two requests to vindicate Harrell. Let the Gators take down Oklahoma in the Championship game to devalue Bradford. But before that, let Harrell carve up Ole Miss so bad that it’s Alum won’t be able to eat that “Red Raider Chili”. Then, and only then, will Graham Harrell have the last laugh.
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