By John Shinn
The balloting ended at 4 p.m. Wednesday with over 1,000 voters sending in their Heisman Trophy vote. Most ballots listed three quarterbacks: Sam Bradford, Oklahoma; Colt McCoy, Texas; and Tim Tebow, Florida.
The only debate is the ordeer. There’s a strong — very strong — rationale for putting any of three on top.
Bradford said he hasn’t spent much time thinking about it.
“I’ve probably paid attention to it very little,” he said. “I’ve focused on other things.”
But he’s one of the few. There hasn’t been this much focus on the Heisman Trophy in years. Perhaps that’s because there’s no clear favorite to pick up the award, which will be handed out Saturday night.
Each resume is very similar.
All three led his teams to at least 11 wins. Bradford and Tebow won conference championships and will lead their teams into the BCS national championship game Jan. 8 in Miami. The case for McCoy’s team being there was laid out pretty strongly as well.
In the end, it comes down to where you think the best college football was played this season and which games carried more weight.
If you’re looking for the best quarterback in the classic sense, or what the NFL typically seeks, Bradford’s your man. He has the best passing numbers (48 touchdowns, only six interceptions and 4,464 yards). He’s proven a very good field general with the Sooners averaging a nation’s best 54 points per game. And he’s been consistent, throwing at least two touchdown passes in every game.
Perhaps the best thing to look at when gauging Bradford is what he did in the Sooners’ 45-35 loss to Texas Oct. 11. Throwing for 387 yards and five touchdowns doesn’t call for deducting points.
But McCoy’s team won that game and nowhere does it state that the best “pro-style” player should win the award. Most would say college football’s biggest individual prize has changed over the last two decades. Each Heisman Trophy ballot requests a vote for “the most outstanding college football player in the United States.”
Over recent years, the focus has shifted toward the best quarterback on the best team and away from running backs who once dominated the award. It’s no surprise the three finalists are the quarterbacks of the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 teams in every major poll.
But McCoy and Tebow are quarterbacks in a different sense. Not only have they put up huge numbers throwing the ball — McCoy has thrown for 3,445 yards and Tebow has put up 2,515 — they’re also huge cogs in their teams’ running games.
McCoy led the Longhorns during the regular season with 576 rushing yards. Tebow rushed for 546. Bradford rushed for 65 this season.
The rushing numbers are Bradford’s only detraction. In his favor, the Sooners’ three biggest wins this season have been their last three. OU has beaten three ranked teams — Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Missouri — over the last three weeks. Tebow has that going for him, too. His last two games, against Florida State and Alabama, were in front of big television audiences.
McCoy is the only one lacking the big games down the stretch. But he has the best win (OU) and the best loss (at Texas Tech).
A telling barometer could come tonight. All three will be in Orlando, Fla., for the ESPNU College Football Awards show. All three are up for the same awards. Whoever hauls the most hardware could be the one to hear his named called Saturday in New York.
OU coach Bob Stoops has done some lobbying for Bradford throughout the season.
“I don’t see how anyone could be playing any better,” he said.
Florida coach Urban Meyer and Texas coach Mack Brown have said the same things about their quarterbacks. A strong case can be made for any of the three. They each have a different style, but there’s no arguing with there results.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
