Most other candidates
would have already been eliminated if they had a
three interception performance like Quinn had against
Michigan a couple of weeks ago. Quinn
also salvaged his Heisman hopes last Saturday
with a brilliant, five touchdown performance in
their comeback win over Michigan State. If he
continues to play like that the rest of the year,
the Brady talk will start intensifying again.
Quinn’s fall makes
Ohio State’s Troy Smith the favorite to
win the award. Smith is the very successful quarterback
on the number one team in the nation. He may be
the slight Heisman favorite at this point, but
the question remains why his “buzz”
is not higher around the nation.
There are a number of theories
to answer that question. One is that there is
a racial element involved. There have been only
two black quarterbacks who have won the Heisman,
Florida State’s Charlie Ward and Houston’s
Andre Ware. Neither did anything on the professional
level, unless you want to count Ward playing basketball
for the New York Knicks.
If we are looking for recent
Heisman busts in the NFL though, we can easily
turn to white quarterbacks, Jason White, Eric
Crouch, Chris Weinke, Danny Wuerffel, Gino Torretta,
and Ty Detmer. Basically, most Heisman trophy
quarterbacks over the last 20 years have failed
miserably at the next level regardless of color.
Carson Palmer and possibly Matt Leinart are exceptions
to this rule.
The other theory about Smith
is that his pro prospects are uncertain due to
his relative short height of 6’1”.
Or course, that hasn’t hurt players like
New Orleans Drew Brees, but there is still a stigma
attached to undersized signal callers.
For the year, Smith is averaging
221 yards through the air, and has eight touchdowns
versus two interceptions. He did not have his
greatest game against Penn State last week, so
he needs to bounce back this Saturday at Iowa.
Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson
is considered the best running back in the nation,
and he has done nothing this year to dispute that.
Peterson is second in the country in rushing yards,
and is averaging 5.5 yards per carry. The Sooners
are still complaining about getting robbed at
Oregon 10 days ago, but having a Heisman trophy
winner would ease their pain somewhat.
Injuries have derailed the
chances of two Louisville stars, running back
Michael Bush and quarterback Brian Brohm. That
leaves Florida quarterback, Chris Leak and West
Virginia running back, Steve Slaton as the other
two favorites.
Leak looks much more comfortable
in the Florida offense this year, and he keeps
putting up good numbers for the undefeated Gators.
The tough part of their schedule is coming up,
so we will know more about Leak’s chances
in a few more weeks.
Slaton was held in
check against East Carolina last week, but he
will rebound in West Virginia’s potent running
attack, and he is still a Heisman candidate.
For
all College Football lines, please visit VIP.com
Posted by miker at September
26, 2006 08:45 AM
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