Judgement Day has come and gone. College football will soon crown a new Heisman winner. All that remains to be seen is who will face Ohio State in Glendale.
So Michigan remains No. 2 in the BCS for now. All the experts say that if USC wins out, it will pass the Wolverines and play for the title. One thing I don’t get is this: If the polls make up 2/3 of the BCS and the computers just 1/3, how come USC is still No. 3 in the rankings despite being No. 2 in both the Harris and Coaches polls? Michigan is No. 2 in the computers while USC is No. 3, but that only makes 1/3 of the equation. How does that 1/3 overtake the 2/3?
Troy Smith will win the Heisman by a wide margin on Dec. 9, but here’s one voter who won’t be picking him.
The Ohio State quarterback has gained college football immortality, thanks to a fantastic season, talented teammates and a monumental group effort by ESPN to make sure he wins the Heisman.
But I will not vote for Smith, because he is a cheater, and I have no room on my ballot for those who break the rules.
I tried cheating once. I won. It felt like kissing a skeleton. Yes, I was getting kissed, but by what?
In case you’ve forgotten – in case that Hydra beast of Kirk Herbstreit, Mark May, Reece Davis, Lou Holtz, Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Co. has squeezed it out of your memory – Troy Smith once took $500 from a Buckeye booster.
Honestly, I’m sick and tired of people saying that ESPN somehow controls the Heisman race. I mean, it’s not as if the idea of Smith winning the Heisman is this outlandish notion that needs prodding by a bunch of television commentators.
The Big Game certainly lived up to its billing. The high score gave credence to my notion that neither defense had really seen any legitimate offenses all season. So the talent on the offensive side of the ball was probably a shock to both teams, thus resulting in all the points being given up.
I guess we don’t have to worry about Rutgers getting left out of the BCS title game anymore. Sounds strange to say, but the loss to Cincinnati will help that program in the long run. You just don’t go from rags to riches overnight in college football. Some dues have to be paid. The next time the Scarlet Knights are 9-0 in November, they’ll be better prepared.
I’m not sure if USC is the second-best team in the country, but if the Trojans win out, they definitely have the best case for making the title game. After all, USC will have beaten four BCS top 25 teams, including (potentially) the Big 12 champ, the SEC champ, Notre Dame and the Pac-10 runner up.
Does Michigan deserve a rematch? I don’t think so. I mean, the game with Ohio State was very close. But does that mean Michigan is the second-best team and should get another shot? We really don’t know, do we?
I do find it ironic that Urban Meyer is complaining already. What is there in the drinking water down South that causes SEC coaches to reflexively complain about the BCS before the season has even been played out? Does Meyer know that Florida’s only national title was itself the result of a rematch?
Arkansas running back Darren McFadden, one of the front runners for next year’s Heisman, didn’t have a big rushing game against Mississippi State, but he did break off a 92-yard kick return for a TD. Heisman voters love exciting kick returns.
Can you remember a better November of college football than this year’s? There have been so many great matchups, many of them involving undefeated teams. If we had a playoff, would these games have mattered as much? Probably not.
Gotta give credit to Bob Stoops for the job he has done at Oklahoma this year. The Sooners lost their starting quarterback and a starting offensive lineman the week before the season started, then lost Adrian Peterson halfway through. OU was down to its third-string tailback against Baylor. Yet the Sooners stand at 9-2 and are ranked 11th, with one of the losses being that bogus result against Oregon. A dominating defense has been the main reason why OU has been able to right the ship. I think you could make the case that this is the best job Stoops has done since the Sooners won the title in 2000.
Shame on those teams that padded their late season runs with cupcakes. I’m talking Wisconsin playing Buffalo, Florida playing Western Carolina and South Carolina playing Middle Tennessee State.
Speaking of Wisconsin, they finished the season 11-1, giving the Big Ten three 11-win teams. I think that right there shows you how bad the Big Ten was this year. When three teams can go 22-0 against the other eight teams in the conference, there’s just not a lot of competition, is there?
Look at Ohio State. The young Buckeyes led the nation in scoring defense for most of the year. They caught Texas before Colt McCoy had matured and then the rest of the Big Ten was just awful offensively. When Ohio State finally played a legitimate offense, it gave up 39.
So, there is a little hope for whoever plays OSU in Glendale.
About Heismanpundit
Chris Huston, A.K.A. ‘The Heisman Pundit‘, is a Heisman voter and the creator and publisher of Heismanpundit.com, a site dedicated to analysis of the Heisman Trophy and college football.
Dubbed “the foremost authority on the Heisman” by Sports Illustrated, HP is regularly quoted or cited during football season in newspapers across the country. He is also a regular contributor on sports talk radio and television.
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