Again, it’s way early, but here’s a list of my front runners right now, with the assumption that Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow (among others) go pro.
1. Colt McCoy
2. Mark Sanchez
3. Terrelle Pryor
4. Jimmy Clausen
5. Daryll Clark
6. Jahvid Best
7. Kendall Hunter
8. Zac Robinson
9. LeSean McCoy
10. Max Hall
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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.
Out of curiosity, why assume that Tebow will go pro but Sanchez will not? Has Sanchez announced that he’s staying?
Until the buzz increases on him going, I’ll assume Sanchez is staying. Tebow said he was 50/50, which to me means he is gone.
Is Tebow #1 if he stays?
Sanchez sure didn’t look like a Heisman candidate this year. How can you be #2 for the Heisman next year if you show no improvement the year before?
No Demarco Murray ? thats insane he was like third in the country in ap yards
I don’t think Murray will have the numbers to warrant a second-straight Sooner Heisman.
As for Sanchez, he had 30 TDs this past year and USC is 11-1. It’s a good setup season for a Heisman run.
Yeah, especially if Sanchez has a big game against Penn State in the Rose Bowl.
I’m sure it’s been asked, but I’ll ask again…
Why Clausen, exactly?
Clausen? lmao Notre Dame no longer qualifies as a top program. They avoid top notch competetion so as to have a chance at a winning season. Clausen has never done anything against a real opponent when the game was still in doubt and you list him at #4? Maybe your credentials should be questioned too HP! I repeat…. Notre Dame is not longer a glamour girl in the world of college football they are a joke, a laughing stock now living on past accomplishments. Hell, even my Tigers haven’t fallen that far yet!
Trust me, AUman, three of the worst kept secrets in college football are:
(1) This season’s loss to ‘Bama was the straw that broke Tommy Tuberville’s back.
(2) Tiger booster, trustee, president, and athletic director Bobby Lowder definitely had a hand in both the Tuberville firing and the Chizik hiring.
(3) Charles Barkley is wrong. If Turner Gill had Chizik’s resume and Chizik had Gill’s, Auburn would have likely hired Gill if they had felt he was going to have the best chance to fail. After all, even if they weren’t minorities, there HAD to be several other candidates with better resumes.
Okay, enough ragging on your program. Actually, I feel kind of sorry for Tuberville, the 2004 SEC champs, and by extension, the Tiger program in the wake of UA’s rise to the Sugar Bowl.
That being said, of the top three candidates, I feel that Mark Sanchez, not McCoy, should be the frontrunner for the 2009 trophy.
First off, McCoy will likely suffer from a Tebow-like dropoff in his stats next season, particularly with the completion percentage. He is losing his three top targets, Jordan Shipley, Quan Cosby and Chris Ogbonnaya, to graduation. If Sam Bradford stays in school, Oklahoma will remain a contender for the Big 12 South.
Sanchez gets Ohio State, even if they are much maligned, in a high profile game – at the Horseshoe. He plays for the eight-time defending Pac-10 or co-Pac 10 champs. And it remains to be seen how voters will vote for a true sophomore (Pryor) as compared to a redshirt (Bradford) and the first true sophomore to win it (Tebow)
All Sanchez has to do is help USC overcome the Rose Bowl hump, and the Trojans get their record-breaking 8th Heisman.
Frankly, this is a pretty uninspiring list outside of McCoy. And I agree with Vince G that McCoy’s 2009 is going to look bad next to his 2008 campaign. All the top guys are really suspect. Pryor is too raw and probably too young. Clausen might not be any good. Sanchez might have a great year but he didn’t do that much this year. To me it seems that the race could go to someone completely off this list as the name recognition of everyone below #3 above is pretty suspect.
As for AUMAN and ND: he’s right that ND isn’t an elite program anymore, but not because they are afraid to schedule competition. ND has pretty much always had UM, MSU, Purdue, Navy, and USC on their schedule and likely won’t be replacing any of them soon. They’ve been elite with this type of schedule before. They “just” need some elite players and an elite coach.