Handicapping The Heisman Steve Whitewater

The 2007 college football regular season is almost to its final month and there is still no clear-cut winner for the sport’s most prestigious award, the Heisman Trophy. In most seasons the race would have already been decided, in limbo only because more games are to be played and injuries can occur. But this season is different, as a plethora of upstarts have joined the favorites to create a race that is tighter than Mick Jagger’s pants. In the past ten seasons there have been three major trends in the awarding of this honor:

QB of the #1 team: Chris Weinke in 2000, Jason White in 2003, Matt Leinart in 2004, and Troy Smith in 2006 all fit into this category and won the trophy based in large part on their team’s success. With the amount of upsets in the 2007 season it is hard to imagine the winner following this same path. (Current #1 Ohio State starts Todd Boeckman at quarterback; he is not in the running for the Heisman.)

QB of a BCS participant: Eric Crouch in 2001 and Carson Palmer in 2002 fit into this category. Both played for teams who did not quite reach the nation’s number one position, but were close. Crouch’s Nebraska team even played in the championship game, in which Miami laid a Chuck Norris-style beat-down on the Cornhuskers. There are several players in 2007 that would make up this category.

Best player in the nation: Charles Woodson in 1997, Ricky Williams in 1998, Ron Dayne in 1999, and Reggie Bush in 2005 bucked the trend of anointing the signal caller and nabbed the trophy as a result of their outstanding play. There were several other players in this era who could have joined this list: LaDainian Tomlinson in 2000, Antwaan Randle El in 2001, Larry Fitzgerald in 2003, and Darren McFadden in 2006.

The 2007 season promises to be one of the closest votes of all time. There will not be a huge disparity in the talent level among the top few vote-getters (especially not like 1999, when the winner was Ron Dayne and the runner-up was…Joe Hamilton). Here is a run-down of the contenders:

Andre Woodson: The Kentucky QB has thrown for 2,200 yards and has a phenomenal 26:4 TD-INT ratio. He even led his team to a victory over #1 LSU. Woodson has had a great season and must be considered a top contender for the award. Now, can we just get Ashley Judd to learn to love football?

Almost makes you forget about Double Jeopardy.  Almost.

Mike Hart: The Michigan RB has had a star-crossed season: his team started a poor 0-2 (despite his 150 yard average and 3 TDs), but has rebounded to win every game since as Hart went over 1,000 yards and 10 TDs for the season, before having to sit out the Illinois game (on national TV no less) because of injury. He might be the Susan Lucci of the Heisman race.

Matt Ryan: The Boston College QB has thrown for over 2,100 yards and 17 TDs while leading his undefeated team to wins at Georgia Tech and Notre Dame. Unfortunately for Ryan, he plays in a city that could care less about amateur athletics (blame Brady, Ortiz, and Garnett).

Tim Tebow: The Florida sophomore QB has had a tremendous, Heisman-worthy dual-threat season with 27 total TDs, including five in the huge win at Kentucky. On a lighter note, Tebow was born the same week as the premiere of “Dirty Dancing,” meaning that the haunting legacy of Patrick Swayze grooving to Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes must live on.

Darren McFadden: The Arkansas RB and preseason Heisman favorite has rushed for less than 1,000 yards and 10 TDs and plays for a 4-3 team, resulting in his falling out of style quicker than the Zack Morris cell phone

DeSean Jackson, Ray Rice, John David Booty, Steve Slaton, Brian Brohm: all these stars have fallen off the radar a bit, because of either lackluster individual play or subpar team performance. Jackson’s Cal team has lost two consecutive games to unranked teams; Rice and Rutgers beat South Florida but remain out of the limelight; Booty and USC lost to Stanford and he is now injured; Slaton has gone largely unnoticed since the Mountaineers’ loss to USF; and Brohm’s Louisville team has flat-out fallen apart. Going hunting with Dick Cheney makes more sense than voting for any of these guys.