HEISMAN VOTING 101

October 24, 2012

I am proud to say I have been an official voter for the Heisman Trophy since the 2005 season. I take this task very seriously, and I am not exaggerating when I say I am honored to receive a ballot. 

I would never tell someone who to vote for. It is your vote not mine. However, I do have some advice for my fellow voters.

First, you have to wipe the slate clean. The award is for the most outstanding player in college football for that particular year. In other words, what happened last year is irrelevant.  I don’t think voters look at stats or performances from previous years when comparing players, but I believe they do take past performances into account without acknowledging they are doing it.

I have seen numerous polls and debates in print, on radio and on TV rating Hesiman favorites or front runners. In some cases, I have seen people rank the top Heisman candidates in May for the upcoming season. If you are rating someone as a favorite in May, you are giving them a head start based on the previous season.

I have never ranked pre-season candidates. In fact, even now after eight college football weekends I do not have a “favorite.” There are a few players that have stood out to me, but this isn’t the BCS poll.  Teams can lead the polls for most of the year, but if they fail at the wrong time, they drop and run out of time to climb back to the top. I know it is referred to as “the Heisman race, but that doesn’t literally mean that people lead week to week and whoever finishes with the biggest flourish is the best in the country. I wait until the season is over and then look back at the entire year as a whole.

Secondly, don’t fall in love with stats. This isn’t baseball. Numbers can be deceiving. The offense they run and the competition they play can both skew numbers. Ty Detmer was given the 1990 Heisman because the passing numbers he was putting up were unprecedented. The problem  was he played at BYU and other than an early season win over Miami, he beat up on bad WAC teams. Meanwhile, the most exciting player in college football, Raghib “the Rocket” Ismail finished second. This hasn’t been as much of a problem since then. In fact, the last time I believe somebody won the Heisman due to stats was Colorado RB Rahsaan Salaam in 1994.

Last and most importantly, the award is not for the best player on the best team. In some cases, the most outstanding player is on the best team, but just because a team is ranked in the top three, that does not mean their QB deserves Heisman consideration. 

From what I can tell, that trend began in 1992 when Miami QB Gino Toretta won the award. The Hurricane defense carried that team thru the regular season, but he was the QB of an undefeated team. To me you can’t give him credit for quarterbacking the team to a perfect season when they managed to win one game with eight points and another with 80 yards passing. If anyone on that team deserved the award, my vote would have gone to LB Michael Barrow.

This thinking is not limited solely to quarterbacks. In 2009, Mark Ingram of Alabama won the Heisman. He had a couple big games for a team that went undefeated and he put up great numbers in the SEC Championship Game. The problem is he was a non-factor in a defensive win over Tennessee and was invisible in a come from behind win at Auburn. Bama was a great team, and Ingram was a very good player. But the best in the country? Hardly. 

There are plenty of people in this country who are quick to say the Heisman doesn’t mean as much any more. I understand why they say that. Too many voters are lazy and do not follow the basic guidelines I have laid out here. 

As for me, I will continue to record games every week with my Tivo, so I can see how the top players perform in their biggest games.  I will take the entire season into account along with big game performances, stats and competition. Around Thanksgiving, I will start thinking about who should be one, two and three on my ballot.

Games of the Week:

Florida vs. Georgia- The Cocktail Party has been dominated by the Gators in recent years. The men from Gainesville have won 18 of the last 22 games. If Florida can win here, they will have clinched the SEC East and a spot in the league title game. Georgia CB Damian Swann told the world this week that his team knows the Bulldogs need to win a big game to be taken seriously. The Gators have been impressive defensively, but they have struggled in their passing game. I expect the Bulldogs to keep this close, but the Gators win a defensive affair to stay perfect. I say Florida 17-10.

Notre Dame @ Oklahoma -The folks that don’t consider Notre Dame to be a true national title contender have pointed to this game as the reason why. Oklahoma has the most athletic defense the Irish will have faced, and there is no debating that OU has a more prolific passing game than anyone on ND’s schedule. If ND is going to be exposed, it will be here. I have said recently that the ND front seven is the best I have seen in South Bend in years. They won’t get embarrassed, but they won’t win either. I will take the Sooners 24-14.

Texas Tech @ Kansas State - While ND tries to prove it is a national title contender, Kansas State has already cemented itself in the conversation with road wins at Oklahoma and West Virginia. The Red Raiders can put up points with QB Seth Doege. It’s their defense facing KSU QB Collin Klein that will be the problem. Tech surrendered 53 points in a 3OT win at TCU last weekend. I think this game will be close. In fact, if it was in Lubbock, I’d take Texas Tech for the upset. In Manhattan, I will pick KSU to win 35-28.