Despite numbers that pale in comparison to previous years, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow is back on top of the long-running Scripps Howard Heisman poll with a third of the season remaining.
Ten voters select their top five players each week, and Tebow garnered three first-place votes and 35 points overall. Alabama running back Mark Ingram actually garnered more first-place votes (4) but is currently running in second with 33 points.
Houston quarterback Case Keenum (31), Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen and Texas QB Colt McCoy round out the top five.
No disrespect to St. Timothy, but if his season is what qualifies as Heisman-quality this year, can the Downtown Athletic Club just skip the 2009 award altogether?
Anyway, in an effort to open myself up to further abuse, I’ll give you my Top Five:
1.) Ndamukong Suh – DT, Nebraska2.) Case Keenum3.) Mark Ingram4.) Eric Berry – S, Tennessee5.) Colt McCoy
Feel free to fire away, but if there is ever a year for the best, most dominant defensive player in the country, this is it.
There is still a lot of football to be played, but who has been more outstanding up until this point? Especially playing against SEC quality teams. Tebow accounts for 2/3 of the Florida offense, delivers come back drives, and keeps plays alive. My ballot would be this, up until this point:
That’s one hell of a list by the way…
Tebow will win this entirely off media hype. I can’t believe people overrate this guy so much that he’s considered the “greatest college athlete ever”. Do people forget that Vince Young played about 5 years ago? Look at both of his performances in the Rose Bowl. Tebow has NEVER came remotely close to that level of brilliance.
I can’t believe I’m saying this as a graduate of OU.
i don’t think tebow should be on the list this year, but i don’t think you can fault tebow for that. this is the media propping him up, he has no control over that.
i will say that what the stats don’t tell you is how tebow is carrying that team. he IS the offense. how many other heisman candidates ARE their team? only Clausen, McCoy, and Keenum by my estimates.
Of those, Keenum is the most impressive, and he would be my winner if the season ended today. Ingram’s play is impressive, but he doesn’t even have the best stats of all RB’s, and his team has shown you that you can plug any talent in at RB and enjoy some success. (much like QB’s at Texas Tech).
max, I can’t believe you’re saying it either!
Vince Young had ONE SOLID YEAR!
Tim Tebow has had the BEST SUPPORTING CAST that I can think of, whether it be 2 of the fastest people ever to play college football (Demps, Rainey), or his NCAA leading defense.
Did you know that Florida had the highest average for high school ranked position players upon their entrance to UF? I did the math a while ago, and of UF’s starters, they averaged 4-point-something in the nation upon high school graduation respective to their position. No one else came close.
It is disheartening that a sport that is continually surrounded by bullshit, politics and media, is giving away the top award in its history to a player who has bullshit his way through politics to the media.
You can be upset each week that the love of the game gets away from college football with each article on a player taking money from the school, a player being arrested, a coach cheating during recruiting… but when it comes to Saturday, there is nothing like watching the games solely for the simplicity of the game.
And when a player is to be awarded the role of best player in the nation, you hope the pick is justified.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is an ass-hat move by the DAC.
Also, Keenum is a fantastic player. But what separates him from Paul Smith, David Johnson, Graham Harrell, Omar Jacobs, or Kevin Kolb? Nothing. Houston runs a fantastic system offense (Yes, they do run a system offense; you don’t need to just pass to be a system offense), much like NC State or Texas A&M. Just because the media doesn’t put Houston in the same light as Texas Tech doesn’t mean Keenum should receive more attention than past TTU quarterbacks. Hell, Kevin Kolb had an incredible senior year; only four interceptions, three of which were on tipped passes.
the heisman voting process has been rigged ever since 2002 when certain people afiliated with the usc athletic department purchased the heisman for more picks than tds carson palmer.
if you contact the heisman trust and request the names of the voters, in addition to all living heisman winners, you will be told that the heisman trust does not give out asny such information.
obviously, we are obtaining all of those records in civil court actions.
for a preview, try the public voting section for the davey o’brien award and click on the voting process.
you will find a long list of names of media hacks who are as qualified to evaluate the performance of college qb’s as my pet dogs.
why should the voting for these awards not be limited to the current and former nfl qbs(in the case of the davey o’brien award) and pro bowl players at the appropriate positions who have the best statistics, in addition to the previous winners of those awards?
obviously these qualfied people should be the voters.
however, until we bring down crooked college sports enterprises in the civil courts completely over the next year, these awards will continue to be frauds on the public and on the student athletes.
“Feel free to fire away, but if there is ever a year for the best, most dominant defensive player in the country, this is it.”
OK. Then how about Rolando McClain? If you are going to put a player from a 4-4 team on your list then Christian Ponder needs to be on there as well. Tebow will win it. The spin will be, “he rushed for 1,000 yards as a QB and is the SEC ‘s all time rushing TD leader.” There will be no mention of his 3.5 yards per carry average.
@ Seeryer: Ponder was the one I really struggled with leaving out of my Top Five. I wouldn’t have an issue with anyone putting him in theirs. McClain either.
I’d put Ponder in over Keenum or (and my orange and blue blood hates typing this) Tebow.