It looks like Tennessee is about to launch a Heisman campaign for Eric Berry.

I think that this is a campaign that actually has a chance to get some traction as the season goes on.  The Volunteer offense is likely to be so bad that the defense is going to have to do all the heavy lifting.  If Tennessee can somehow survive and get to a bowl and maybe upset a team or two along the way, Berry will get a lot of the credit because he is such a tremendous playmaker.

Furthermore, if he actually logs some time on offense, he’ll probably be his team’s best player on that side of the ball, too.  The main thing that is in the way of actually pulling off a Woodson-type of run at the Heisman is that Tennessee just isn’t going to be very good this year (remember that Michigan went 12-0 in 1997). 

I think getting into the top five of the Heisman vote is a possibility–though he won’t come close to winning it–and if Berry keeps making the kind of plays he has in his first two seasons, the Thorpe Award is a given, with all due apologies to Taylor Mays.