Your Daily J: 12/10

(courtesy of moondogsports.com)

We are officially two days away from the 2009 Heisman Trophy ceremony and the talk is starting to heat up all over the national media. Now, we don't want to beat this thing over the head, but we would like to take a little bit of a look at it, albeit from a different perspective. Not too long ago, we did a little statistical comparison of the front runners and asked who everyone thought should be the winner. The overwhelming response was......... well, no one. Essentially none of you cared enough to comment on who should be the Heisman winner this year. So here we are again to give you a brief comparison of the candidates, as well as to let you know what's been on our minds regarding the race, and trust me, it's not necessarily all about the numbers. As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

The five semifinalists that will be travelling to New York on Saturday for the ceremony are listed below in alphabetical order, along with a little info. courtesy of ESPN.com.

Toby Gerhart
RB, Stanford
311 carries for 1736 yards and 26 TDs
Stats courtesy of ESPN.com

Mark Ingram
RB, Alabama
249 carries for 1542 yards and 15 TDs
Stats courtesy of ESPN.com

Colt McCoy
QB, Texas
504 attempts for 3512 yards and 27 TDs and 12 INTs, 147.46 Passer Rating and 128 carries for 348 yards and 3 TDs
Stats courtesy of ESPN.com

Ndamukong Suh
DT, Nebraska
82 tackles, 47 solo and 35 assists, 12 sacks and 1 INT
Stats courtesy of ESPN.com




Tim Tebow
QB, Florida
279 attempts for 2413 yards and 18 TDs and 5 INTs, 155.59 Passer Rating and 203 carries for 859 yards and 13 TDs
Stats courtesy of ESPN.com




Now, we have already given a little rundown of our thoughts on who should win and why in our post "And The Winner of the 2009 Heisman Trophy is..." So that's not what has been on our minds. What we've been thinking about is how the Heisman picture would be different if we didn't include all the media spin we see in today's system. Who would win and just how different would the race be if we had a system where the voters were not at all biased by the influence of all the national talking heads? So, here are our thoughts. Feel free to let us know yours.

(courtesy of huffingtonpost.com)

Jonah: I just want to provide some full disclosure for anyone that may have happened upon this post without first reading our post "Full Frontal Nudity." If you've already read it or really don't care about my bias, skip ahead a ways. There's a nice little paragraph split to let you know where we get to the good stuff. Anyway, I am, among other things, an avid Gator Hater. In addition, there are few people in this world that I dislike more than Tim Tebow. Now, I know what all of you out there are thinking. Yeah, yeah, he's a great guy with great work ethic. He comes early and stays late. He's had a great career and has been wonderful for the sport of college football. He's a role model to young kids across the country and, yes ladies, he's a virgin. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I would like to explain my dislike for the guy, much of which was just stated in the reasons the rest of the country loves him. I hate that everyone loves him so much. I hate that he has his speech on the walls of The Swamp and he's still playing there (they sure as hell didn't build that statue of Nile Kinnick while he was playing and we're still waiting for a statue of Hayden Fry, who I would argue did more for our program than Tebow has done for his). I hate that he is heralded as one of the best all time when he's not even the best at his position this year. I hate that he's so religious (I think it makes him come off as snoody - yeah, like ND snoody). In addition, I hate that he wears Bible verses on his eye black. I hate that he's a lefty. Did I mention that he's a virgin? Give me a break. Either that makes him a liar or a complete loser. I can almost gaurantee you that there are no other virgins in the Heisman race. Most of all, I HATE the bias toward him by the national media (here's where I get to the part about the Heismen race, so you can start reading again).

For those of you who happened to have the luxury of watching the SEC title game last weekend (which, by the way, was hyped as the game of the century and basically left me wondering why Texas is wasting their time with the "National Championship Game"), you may have noticed a little trend going on. When Jerry and I sat down to watch the game, we had a feeling something like this might happen and had the great idea of keeping track. Unfortunately, we were much better at keeping track of name drops than we were at keeping track of the notepad containing our stats. So, the following is not entirely factually correct, but going from memory, you will get my drift.

Throughout the course of the SEC title game, we heard a lot about two Heisman candidates: Mark Ingram and Tim Tebow. Going into the game, both had been hyped quite a bit and both teams were equally hyped. Becuase we have always felt Tebow is favored by the media, we thought it would be fun to see how often his name was called versus how often the name of fellow Heisman hopeful, Mark Ingram, was called. Much to our surprise, with exactly the same number of offensive drives, Tim Tebow had roughly 35 more name drops than Mark Ingram (somewhere around 115 to 80). "But he had a much better game," you might be thinking. As Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend. In this matchup, Tebow went 20/35 with 247 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. He also carried the ball 10 times for 63 yards. Not bad numbers, but not necessarily Heisman numbers either. Ingram, on the other hand, went off for 113 yards on 28 carries and 3 TDs. He also caught 2 balls for 76 yards (by the way, for those of you wondering, the Bible verse Tebow had on his eye black reads as follows: "I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!"). So, in a game featuring two Heisman candidates, one of which went nuts, the other had his named called more than 100 times in a span of roughly 3 hours. Now, keep in mind that this doesn't even include times when Tebow was referred to as "he" or "him" or "that guy." If that were the case, his numbers would have nearly doubled Ingrams. Throw in the two video montages showing all the great Tebow moments and the Heisman comparisons, and the game was enough to make both of us laugh out loud and make me throw up in my mouth (just a little).

(courtesy of ESPN.com)

In the most recent Heisman predictions, which, beleive me, have been ALL over ESPN, Tebow is projected to come in 5th. I think that is probably fair when you look at the stats of the other 4 guys. But where would he be if he wasn't hyped all the time? Does he really even deserve to be a finalist? Kellen Moore of Boise State and Case Keenum of Houston have better numbers than both Tebow and McCoy (honestly, Keenum has by far the best numbers of any of them - like 5500 yards and 43 TDs best numbers). The difference is they and their teams are not hyped nearly as much. Toby Gerhart of Stanford has much better numbers than Mark Ingram, but Ingram is still projected as the winner. Many of the talking heads on ESPN have even gone so far as to say the reason they will vote for Ingram over Gerhart is because he has carried his team. Are you kidding me? Have you looked at Stanford's tapes? Have you looked at their rosters? Gerhart IS that team. But, he hasn't been on TV as much and he didn't get 85 name drops during those three precious hours of primetime football last Saturday.

Bottom line, this is not about who is the most outstanding player in the country. It is about who is the best player on one of the best teams, which has been on TV a lot so ESPN can hype them. Not that this is so terrible, because I suppose guys like Tebow and McCoy are good for the game (tell anyone I said that and I'll take your mother out for a nice steak dinner and NEVER call her again). I just think maybe college football should change the description that goes under the name of the trophy.

"Heisman Trophy: for the nation's most liked player on a really good team"

Has a nice ring, don't 'ya think?

Note: Again, due to the recent blizzard in Iowa City, along with the fact that Jerry will be blacked out for the next 72 hours, he was unavailable for comment on this issue. However, I am certain he whole-heartedly agrees with everything I have said and would never stick up for a virgin like Tebow.