The weekend’s games are done and here’s how I think the Heisman race looks right now:

1.  With one week to go, Colt McCoy is the current front runner and likely winner.  Pending a status report on the health of Mark Ingram, I am close to calling the race in his favor.

2.  With his monster game againt Notre Dame, Stanford’s Toby Gerhart has assured himself of a trip to New York and he has a shot to finish a strong second in the race.

3.  Ingram is fading fast, but he could rebound with a heroic performance against the Gators.  As it stands, he had his least-productive game of the season at the worst possible time:  When Heisman ballots had gone out and many voters were seeing him up close for the first time.

4. With his emotionally-driven performance against Florida State, Tim Tebow might’ve solidified his place at the Heisman ceremony.  He won’t win, but he’ll get one last go-around in the Big Apple. 

If the vote were held right now:

1. Colt McCoy

2. Mark Ingram

3. Toby Gerhart

4. Tim Tebow

5. Kellen Moore

The Alabama Heisman curse seems to be rearing its ugly head. 

Mark Ingram’s hopes for the trophy took a major hit today, as he rushed for just 32 yards on 16 carries against Auburn.  The Tide pulled out the game, but he was a complete non-factor in the dramatic win and now he might even be hurt heading into the SEC title game.

It will take a huge performance against Florida combined with a Colt McCoy tank against Nebraska for Ingram to jump back on top of this contest.  And even then, I think we are looking at a squeaker of a race. 

As it now stands, McCoy is the strong favorite to capture the 2009 Heisman Trophy.

Colt McCoy might have made his Heisman statement with a huge game against Texas A&M tonight.

The senior quarterback threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns and added another 173 rushing yards and a score (a 65-yarder).

The ball is now in Mark Ingram’s court.  Can he return serve?

All eyes on Alabama-Auburn tomorrow.

I’ll be checking back all weekend to give commentary on Texas-Texas A&M, Alabama-Auburn, Stanford-Notre Dame, Clemson-South Carolina and Florida-Florida State and what it all means for the Heisman.

Enjoy the weekend!

He’s not going to win the Heisman this year, but Tim Tebow still has a chance to go out as one of the greatest players in college football history.

I’m seeing way too much emphasis on statistics when it comes to analyzing the Heisman race.

That doesn’t mean that stats aren’t important.  They are an essential element of determining the worth of a player.

However, an overreliance on stats can sometimes cause us to lose sight of what makes a player great.

I was recently emailed this statistical comparison of Colt McCoy and Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson.  The writer writes:

McCoy is presumed to be the top candidate for many national quarterbacking honors.

But the numbers seem to indicate that Johnson has had just as strong of a season statistically as McCoy — or any other quarterback in the league.

It is true that Johnson has some good numbers.  But if you’ve actually seen both McCoy and Johnson play, there’s just no comparison right now in their overall performance.  McCoy is by far the better quarterback. 

Whatever the case, the Heisman race is not about splitting hairs in the stat sheet to come up with a winner. 

This is why I’ve always maintained that there is a certain statistical threshhold that a Heisman challenger must meet to be considered and then after that it’s all about the intangibles that the individual voters value in a player.

Colt McCoy, Mark Ingram and Toby Gerhart have all crossed the statistical threshhold of Heisman-worthiness for this season.  C.J. Spiller and Tim Tebow are still trying to get there and may yet do so. 

But once a player is considered Heisman-worthy in a given season, it is pointless to delve too much into the nuances of the numbers.  Sure, some voters are going to be impressed by record-setting stats, or good performances against high-level competition.  But if Mark Ingram wins the Heisman over Colt McCoy, it’s not going to be because Alabama’s schedule is ranked 41st in Sagarin while Texas’ is ranked 56th, or that Ingram played against seven top 50 defenses while McCoy played against four.  None of that matters.

At this point in the season, there is general agreement that McCoy, Ingram, Gerhart, Tebow and Spiller (among others) are very good-to-great players.  More than one of them is worthy of winning the 2009 Heisman Trophy.

The task now before the voters is to determine who is most worthy of being dubbed the most outstanding.  Stats will play a big role in this, but they will not be the only determiner.