The Round Up

Brennan completed more than 72 percent of his passes last season, led the nation in passing efficiency and had 58 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. When Jones went over the Hawaii game film last year, he said that he counted 54 drops, which would have elevated Brennan’s completion percentage to 82 percent.

Wow.

-Last year, the SEC played 81.3% of all OOC games at home (83.3% if you count Arkansas’ “Neutral” game in Little Rock.)

-This year, the SEC will play 83.3% of their OOC games at home

-Last year, the PAC10 won 94.4% of their OOC home games – the SEC was second winning 89.7%

-Last year, the Big 12 was an embarrassing 0 for 11 against ranked (in the final polls) OOC opponents

-Last year, the Big East was impressive, winning 82.2% of their OOC games

Such publicity blitzes bring attention to a school, but they have minimal impact on who actually wins the award, according to Rice sports management professor Clark Haptonstall, who wrote his Ph. D dissertation in 2004 on what influences Heisman voters.

Haptonstall asked voters to rank 30 variables in terms of their importance — from statistics, to media coverage, to personal observation. Promotional materials ranked 29th out of 30 categories.

Of course, this is just silly. If you ask someone what influences their vote, NO ONE is going to tell you that it was a t-shirt, a flyer or a bobblehead. Who would admit to that?

Every election year, there are stories in the media about how campaign ads don’t work. Why? Because the voters tell us so, stupid. Yet, every time one of those suckers is released, the polls shift. Yes, to some extent, people are windsocks. And that extends to the Heisman electorate as well.

Then there are a few nuggets here on USC’s past promotions:

Not only did the Trojans do nothing to promote Carson Palmer before the 2002 season, the senior quarterback wasn’t even featured on the cover of the football media guide after an inconsistent first three years. Nonetheless, when Palmer punctuated his rise from mediocrity to stardom with a stunning performance on national television against Notre Dame, he also convinced Heisman voters that he was a worthy recipient of the award.

It is true that USC did nothing before the season to promote Palmer. It doesn’t mean it was the right course of action, or that this decision was a consensus school of thought. As it turns out, the preseason favorite–Ken Dorsey–had his impact diluted by the emergence of teammate Willis McGahee, thus creating the opening for Palmer. Without that occurrence, Palmer’s very nice season might have gone unrecognized by the Heisman voters.

USC did make an effort to promote Palmer in 2002, though, and it came after the Oregon game. I know, because I was there. In fact, Pete Carroll pulled me into his office and said “We gotta do something for our guy. I don’t care what it is, we gotta do something.” Clearly, Carroll was not satisfied with the promotional effort to date. And what followed was–gasp!–the dreaded mailer/flyer and web site that touted Palmer for the Heisman. Naturally, there was a hullabaloo in the media over USC finally touting a Heisman candidate. But, of course, the fact that USC was putting its institutional weight behind Palmer had no effect on his candidacy, none at all, according to the revisionist history.

I do agree that Heisman campaigns tend to have unquantifiable effects. But they are important because it sends a message to the voters that a school believes in its guy. If a school doesn’t think its player is a candidate, why should a voter? In the end, it’s a symbolic gesture that gives Heisman voters the cover needed to mark that box next to a player’s name. Call a player a Heisman candidate and he is one…it’s that simple. Don’t call him one…and he’s not. Got it?

USC employed a similarly minimalist marketing formula in 2004 and 2005 as Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush won back-to-back Heismans.

If similarly minimalist means creating the first-ever blog by a college athlete for Leinart (50,000 words is minimalist?) and an HTML video, plus a weekly Video Blog and highlight films for Bush and Leinart (which, I suppose, took virtually no effort on the part of the athletic department’s never-busy video and editing departments), then I guess that’s the way to go.

The fact that there are stories every year about Heisman promotions not working makes it self-evident that the promotions actually have some impact. It’s just not cool to say so.

Players from losing teams do not win the Heisman Trophy. It has happened only once, and that was in 1956, when Paul Hornung did it for Notre Dame. So if you are looking for Heisman Trophy contenders, start with the best teams in the country and work down.

This is a very common tack to take when talking about the Heisman. And, for the most part, it’s true. But I think that not enough credit is given to the players for making these teams good. Everyone ripped Troy Smith’s Heisman win–mostly after the Fiesta Bowl loss, mind you–because he was the quarterback for the top team. What everyone always forgets to mention is that Ohio State would not have been the top team without Smith. Just like USC would not be No. 1 if it did not have a senior quarterback like John David Booty leading the way.

This is something the voters instinctively understand.

Senior Glenn Dorsey won’t get the Heisman Trophy (though he should) because defensive tackles don’t win Heismans.

Well, here’s the deal. Dorsey is a great player. He’s an HP All-American, even. But even as star tackles go, it’s not like he put up ridiculous numbers last year. He had, what, three sacks? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes I know. He was triple-quadruple-and five-tuple-teamed on every play, thus preventing him from having the 39 sacks he would have had otherwise.

West Virginia does not have any promotional ideas for Slaton or quarterback Pat White.

“I’ve never really been one that thought you had to have a campaign for an individual because it’s a team sport,” Rodriguez said. “You get enough games on national TV, enough exposure, the media and all that will give them enough hype. But the Big East did ask if I minded that they had some kind of promotional thing for the Big East guys in the race. Hey, if they want to do it, that’s fine. It doesn’t bother me because knowing those two guys, it won’t change or affect the way they are.”

At some point, West Virginia will have to choose which of its players has the best shot at the Heisman.

It is called The Heisman Dilemna and includes the following prose:

Kirk Herbstreit is currently ESPN’s leading college football journalist, and I consider him to be the undeniable authority on all matters associated with college football. He created his own website, Heisman Pundit. This website contains “The 10 Heismandments”, which I think accurately capture the unofficial qualifications that the Heisman panel uses to choose the winner.

Anyone know the UMass academic fraud hotline number?