Race for the Heisman – Mark Ingram

Season statistics: 249 carries, 1,542 yards (6.2 yards per carry), 15 touchdowns

Why he deserves to win:

With an untested quarterback starting for Alabama this season, Ingram put the offense on his back in most of its games, leading the Crimson Tide to a 13-0 season.

From the opening game against Virginia Tech in Atlanta, where he ran for 150 yards and scored one touchdown both rushing and receiving, Ingram was clearly the best player on the best team.

He is not the flashiest player in the country, but he is as versatile as they come in terms of his ability to run both in between the tackles and on the perimeter.

Why he wouldn’t win:

If the voters want to select the player who had the most outstanding season, it’s Toby Gerhart. If they want to select the most dominant player, it’s Ndamukong Suh. If they want to select the player who did the most for his team, there’s an argument for Ingram.

However, his two backups, Trent Richardson and Roy Upchurch, both ran with great power when they were in the games and were arguably nearly as impressive as Ingram.

While Ingram had a great season, playing his best football against the best opponents, he simply never stood out above the rest.

Best game of 2009:

Like Suh, Ingram saved his best game for last. In the same building where the Tide started the season, Alabama rolled the top-ranked Florida Gators 32-13 for the SEC championship.

Ingram scored three touchdowns in that game to lead the way while rushing for 113 yards on the ground. It is always an advantage to leave the voters with your best game fresh in their minds as they fill out the ballot. For Alabama to have knocked off a-Florida, and b-Tim Tebow thanks in large part to Ingram, it gives him a great shot at having his named called around 8:58 p.m. Saturday night. 

Race for the Heisman – Tim Tebow

Season statistics: 182-279 (65.2 completion percentage), 2,413 yards, 18 touchdowns, five interceptions, 203 carries, 859 yards, 13 touchdowns.

Why he deserves to win:

Go ahead, try and find a more successful career for a college quarterback. Two national championships, one Heisman Trophy, and his own play bearing his namesake (the “Tebow jump pass”), there are few players in the history of the sport to have made such a substantial impact.

He has rushed for nearly 1,000 yards, which is unusual for a quarterback of his style. Unlike many of the fleet-footed scramblers that leave defenders in their dust, Tebow is a quarterback in a fullback’s body. His bullish running style is unprecedented for a quarterback in the spread offense.

He also became the first quarterback in this decade to lead his team to back-to-back unbeaten seasons in the SEC.

Why he wouldn’t win:

While this season was solid, it was far from spectacular by Tebow’s standards. His production dipped in the passing game, throwing 12 fewer touchdowns than in 2008.

One of the knocks against his resume last year was his season was not as impressive as his sophomore campaign. If he didn’t win it last year, it’s unlikely the voters will give him the credit for an even less impressive year this time around.

Best game of 2009:

Two weeks after being knocked out of a game for the first time in his career with a concussion, Tebow took the field at Tiger Stadium against LSU. With coach Urban Meyer admittedly using a ‘conservative’ offensive game plan, Tebow was not sacked the entire game, and carried the ball 17 times for 38 yards. In the passing game, he completed 11-of-16 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown.

However, it was not the statistics that defined this game for Tebow. It was his gutsy decision to play at all. He did not practice in between the Kentucky game (where he was hurt) and the LSU game, and was not medically cleared until the day before the game.

Many fans worried for the quarterback’s safety, even if he was medically allowed to play. The Tiger defense is not exactly a bunch of pussycats. It was one of the most courageous performances in recent memory.

Race for the Heisman - Ndamukong Suh

Season statistics: 70 tackles, 16 TFL, 7.5 sacks, 10 pass break-ups, 22 hurries.

Why he deserves to win: He is the most dominant force on the defensive line this side of Warren Sapp in college football. Defensive tackles with 10 pass break ups and nearly 30 visits to the backfield (from sacks/hurries) come around as rarely as a solar eclipse.

Suh rendered double-team blocking schemes obsolete this season. Instead, he would often attract three offensive linemen struggling to keep him off their quarterback. Just ask Colt McCoy if you want to know what kind of difference Suh can make in a game.

Why he wouldn’t win: A defensive tackle…hell, a full-time defensive player has never won this award (Charles Woodson played both ways when he won in 1997). Though he may be the most dominant player the sport has seen in 30 years, it’s going to be difficult for Suh to dissipate tradition and earn the most votes.

Besides, the trophy depicts a running back carrying the football, striking a stiff-arm pose, not a defensive tackle leaving offensive linemen in his wake.

Best game of 2009:

There was a certain level of buzz surrounding Suh the second half of the season. That buzz turned into full-fledged hype after Suh sacked Colt McCoy 4.5 times last Saturday in the Big 12 Championship.

The Husker offense managed only 106 yards of total offense, yet only lost on a last-second field goal. The talent disparity between the Longhorns’ offense and the Huskers’ was enormous, but Suh, in large part helped Nebraska stifle Texas all night.

Had Hunter Lawrence’s field goal as time expired taken a flight path of about three feet more to the left, Nebraska would have clinched the conference title, and Suh’s odds would have instantly doubled at the least. 

Race for the Heisman – Colt McCoy

Season statistics: 330-468 (70.5% completion percentage), 3,512 yards, 27 touchdowns, 12 interceptions.

Why he deserves to win: There is no Deadly Accurate Tree from which quarterbacks grow, so McCoy is a rare breed. For the second straight season, his completion percentage broke 70 percent; a remarkable statistic given how much Texas relies on its passing game.

McCoy has led the Texas Longhorns to the BCS national championship game and a 13-0 record. History is on his side. Three of the past five Heisman winners were quarterbacks gearing up for the title game that year.

Why he wouldn’t win: It’s tough to envision McCoy winning the award for a couple reasons. For one, his production in 2008 was unparalleled, and this year he simply did not live up to that standard he set for himself.

Second, in the two games the Longhorns played in with the biggest national audience, McCoy floundered. Against Oklahoma and Nebraska, he completed only 54 percent of his passes, and the offense only scored an average of 14.5 points per game. For many voters around the country, those two games may have been their only chance to see McCoy play this year.

Because the Nebraska game was this past Saturday, and fresh on the voters’ minds as they turned in their ballots Sunday afternoon, it puts McCoy in a tough spot. He will probably lose a lot of votes in the Big 12 area to Nebraska’s Ndamokung Suh, who outplayed McCoy by miles on Saturday.

Best game of 2009:

The week before the Nebraska debacle, McCoy had seemingly put himself in the forefront of the race with the most complete performance of his season against Texas A & M.

Early on in the game, McCoy dashed 65 yards for a touchdown, setting the tone for a big game.

He would throw for 304 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions….and that’s not all. He also ran for 175 yards on 18 carries in the ‘Horns 49-39 win. Had he not flopped the following week in the championship game, this would have easily been his signature Heisman-winning moment.

Race for the Heisman – Toby Gerhart

Season Statistics: 311 carries, 1,736 yards (5.7 yards per carry), 26 touchdowns

Why he deserves to win: When it comes to consistency, Gerhart is the Cadillac of productive running backs. He broke the 100-yard mark in all but two games, and found the end zone in all but one.

His play was special all season, but he seemed to find another level when the stakes were highest. There was not a defense in the country that could bring him down at the point of attack.

Almost every team would stack the box on first down and any other short-yardage situation to stop him, but he would plow through them like a runaway bulldozer.

What Gerhart has done is turn back the clock about half a century. It has been a long time since a running back that makes a living hammering the ball between the tackles has even sniffed the Heisman.

In an era where a quarterback takes home this award every season, Gerhart has brought a refreshing new flavor to the group of finialists.

Why he wouldn’t win: The last time a player won the Heisman from a team not playing in a New Year’s Day bowl or later was 1990, when Ty Detmer won the award at BYU. It’s hard enough to be a running back in this day and age and win the award; even harder still to be a running back on a third-place Pac-10 team.

The award is as much a reflection on individual performance as it is on team. Fair or not, that’s the way it is (one dollar to Celine Dion).

Having said that, if there is a year for that trend to be bucked, it’s this year.

Best game of 2009: There are plenty of worthy candidates, but his 223-yard, three-touchdown performance against Oregon ranks as one of the best games by any player this year. The Ducks were fresh off a monumental win over USC the week before, when Gerhart and the Cardinal were literally unstoppable. After that game, people outside of the state of California took notice of the senior’s accomplishments.

Fifth Down Heisman poll is now open!

I want to know what the people think. 

Using the poll feature on the right-hand side of the page, please vote on who YOU would vote for to win the Heisman Trophy next Saturday. Voting will be open until Dec. 11, encourage anyone and everyone to stop by and vote! Would love to see a good number of people contribute. Thanks for reading, everyone. 

Heisman race finally gets interesting

Hello all, and happy Thanksgiving!

I had planned on a great day of eating, watching, and blogging on Thursday. That was until I found out my aunt and uncle had no high-speed internet. So much for that...but here is a quick recap of my thoughts on the weekend.

Jerrod Johnson and Colt McCoy put on one of the most entertaining shows of the season, combining for nine touchdowns in the Longhorns' 49-39 win. The Aggies went down swinging, but they just made too many mistakes in key moments to be able to hang with the third-ranked team in the land.

Johnson's untimely interception in the end zone, along with Christine Michael's fumbled handoff and Marquise Goodwin's kickoff returned for a touchdown cost Texas A & M its fourth victory in four years against Texas. 

As well as the Aggies played, McCoy played even better. His career-high 175 rushing yards included a highlight-worthy 65-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. Every time it seemed the Aggies were making a comeback push, McCoy marched the offense down the field in convincing fashion. 

It was a Heisman-worthy performance, and hopefully set the stage for a huge weekend in deciding who will take home the award this year. 

In the past, the list of potential Heisman winners has been narrowed to three, maybe two, and even sometimes one by the last weekend of the regular season. Instead, this year there are as many as five or six guys still vying for the trophy. 

McCoy showed last night that this weekend is the perfect opportunity for all of the guys in the forefront to make a statement on the national stage. 

Mark Ingram has a chance today to carry the Alabama Crimson Tide to a second straight unbeaten regular season against Auburn. If Ingram steps up in the spotlight as he has all season, he will be a finalist in New York.

Tim Tebow has a great chance as well to keep his name in the mix. All the eyes of college football will at the very least have a peak in on the Florida-Florida State game. It will be Tebow's final home game of his illustrious career, and also a chance for the Gators to finish 12-0 for the second straight year as well. 

Toby Gerhart's dominant season has gone largely unnoticed until his Stanford team's recent upsets of Oregon and USC in consecutive weeks. Now, Gerhart has a chance to face one of the nation's worst rushing defenses in Notre Dame at home in prime-time. 

More than anyone else left with a shot at the Heisman, Gerhart needs a big game to give himself a chance. The beauty of it for Gerhart is, a great game could not only put him in contention, but could be enough for him to sneak away with the award, depending on how the rest of the nation pans out. 

Check back for more later, but if last night is any indication, we're on in for one helluva weekend in college football.