Wednesday, December 5, 2012

THE HEISMAN 2012 -- yawn -- WAIT, WHAT WERE WE SAYING?


(by Lyko)
It’s “Touchdown” Jesus, Not “Tackles for a Loss” Jesus
(Or, why this is not the year for us to stop being afraid to give the Heisman to a defensive player)[1]

If you don't know this one, leave now
So, the Heisman trust has announced that they will only be reserving three seats in NYC on Saturday.  While I understand that this award that I have had a mild obsession with since I began watching college football in the mid-80s is given every year, this happens to be one of the years I just wish they would skip it and broadcast the Outland Trophy presentation.  It is time to enact the non-existent “Torretta-Salaam” Clause of the non-existent Second Amendment of the non-existent Heisman Carta.  None of these three finalist have had the sorts of season that I remember out of Sanders, Jackson or Walker.  None of them have had the sorts of season that I have read that were had by Dorsett or Staubach. 

As a kid, I would pour over football books at the library, reading about Alan Ameche and Paul Hornung and the Misters Inside and Outside.  There was an awe factor to the award and its winners.  This year is decidedly short on awe.  This year does however guarantee a first.  Collin Klein would be the first ever winner from Kansas State, Johnny Manziel would be the first ever freshmen, and linebacker Manti T’eo of the reborn and the undefeated Fighting Irish would be the first purely defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy.  I’d prefer if we saw none of these firsts, but have the biggest problem T’eo.

Notre Dame LB Manti T'eo
Let’s be clear.  T’eo is a fantastic player.  From everything I have read or heard he is a young man of character as well as an absolute beast.  He is a worthy cover-boy for the deserved rise to prominence of a team that increases the value and enjoyment of all of college football by being relevant.  He will be a top five pick (possibly number one overall), and I will spend the next ten years imagining how good he would look in a Patriots uniform next to Dont’a Hightower and Jerod Mayo.  But Manti T’eo should not win the Heisman, and here is why:

1.     He may not even win the award for being the best player at his position.  Jarvis Jones was a finalist for the Butkus Award last year, a two-time All-American, and, he is the Defensive Player of the year in a conference that also boasts Milliner, Moore, Montgomery & Mingo – oh, and Jadevean Clowney.  Plus, throughout this season, Scouts, Inc. and the Sith Lord Kiper have consistently ranked Jones ahead of T’eo as a pro prospect.

ESPN Draft Guru Mel Kiper, Jr.
2.     This is, obviously, a depleted year in terms of offensive standouts.  Last year gave us the rise of RGIII and the culmination of Andrew Luck.  Case Keenum through about 137 touchdown passes and only 5 interceptions.  Monte Ball flirted with Barry Sanders’ TD record.  I mean, the guy who finished 10th in the voting, LaMichael James was the defending Doak Walker award winner and averaged 7.3 yards per carry last year.  Had Notre Dame and T’eo had this season last year, would T’eo have been a finalist?  Would he have finished higher in the voting than the Honey Badger?  I think not.  If he had his 2012 campaign last year, AGAIN he would not have been the best linebacker in the country.  On his player card on ESPN.com, Mel Vader writes that T’eo is having “one of the best seasons from an interior linebacker I can remember.”  Mel, Luke Kuechly averaged almost 16 tackles a game last year.  He was an absolute machine surrounded by far inferior recruiting classes than what T’eo played with.  Kuechly was a two time All American, the MVP of every bowl he ever played in and in his last year won the Butkus, Nagurski and Lombardi Awards.  All of that and he didn’t even crack the top ten in Heisman voting.  This year, T’eo heads to NYC because Geno Smith flared out, WRs Bailey, Lee and Williams kind of cancel each other out and Matt Barkley accomplishes something extraordinary: he was, by almost all preseason pundit predictions, THE Heisman favorite and did not even get invited to the ceremony.[2]  So, a great season by a great player with a great story (who happens to be playing for the an undefeated team that is playing for the national championship) gets elevated and offered a trip the Big Apple because somebody had to.  Nonsense.

Frank Eliscu
3.     If the mold (kind of literally) is going to be broken, T’eo is not the guy.  This is not only an offensive award, it’s a backfield award.  Only six players have ever won it that were not a running back or a quarterback.  Don’t blame the voters or the fans, blame sculptor Frank Eliscu.  The moment he handed NYU standout Ed Smith a football and asked him to pose with his right leg forward and his right arm out, he condemned the Heisman Trophy to be given ball carriers.   Woodson aside, T’eo would be the first defensive player to win it and is one of the few defensive invitees.  Since 1980, 35 defensive players have finished in the top ten in the voting, but only eight of them finished as finalists[3] – Hugh Green, Dave Rimington, Brian Bosworth, Marvin Jones, Orlando Pace, Charles Woodson, Ndamunkong Suh and The Honey Badger.  Besides Jones & The HB, this is a list that T’eo can’t hang with in terms of legacy.   Suh was more dominant, Pace and Woodson will make the Hall of Fame at both levels, Dave Rimington has an award named after him and Hugh Green (the only defensive player ever to finish as runner up besides Alex Karras) was possibly the greatest defensive collegiate ever.  And what of The Boz?  If it weren’t for the anabolics and the antics, the winner of the first two Butkus awards might get the credit he deserves.[4]  If T’eo does not win the Heisman, I do not see him being remembered on the collegiate level with Green, Rimington, Woodson or Pace.  For my money Suh was an absolutely terrifying player, and in terms of excitement factor and making huge plays, the Honey Badger’s 2011 season was far more celebration-worthy.  If that little guy is ever gonna drop that ball and use that stiff arm to wrap somebody up, I just don’t think T’eo and his season are reason enough to do it.

South Carolina DE Jadaveon Clowney
If T’eo wins, it certainly will not be the greatest miscarriage of Heisman justice, but it will be a let down.  I still hold out for this award to excite me the way it did when I was 11 (it was 1988, Barry Sanders provided plenty excitement), and T’eo isn’t doing it.  Alas, maybe I’m just cynical.  Maybe it will never be as exciting as when I was a kid.  But I say, just give the thing to Klein. T’eo can go dominate at the pro level and let’s leave “first defensive player to win” to another year.

Yo, Mr. Clowney, I’m talking to you here.




[1] I believe Charles Woodson should be listed as a defensive player only if an asterisk is involved.  Yes, he had 8 interceptions in his final season as a Wolverine, but his signature moment was the punt return for a TD in his last Michigan/Ohio St. game when UM was #2 and OSU was #4.  If Woodson doesn’t return that punt, or if he does and the Buckeyes still win then Peyton Manning wins the Heisman.
[2] This observation provided by Christopher Toussaint Burke
[3] The only info I could find was top ten voting lists, so unless I knew otherwise I am using finalist to mean players who finished in the top five.
[4] For what it’s worth, The Boz has been very vocal this year about T’eo and how Heisman’s legitimacy is in question because of it never goes to a defensive player.

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