Yet, that
seems to be almost a sub-category for those in the media who vote on this
award. Basically, there’s a message being sent to players that you must be on a
winning team. Of course, football is a team game, in which contributions from
the offense, defense and special teams are needed for a win. Therefore, basing a
player’s Heisman candidacy on what an entire team does over sixty minutes a
game around twelve times a season, is effectively turning the award into a team
one, rather than an individual one.
I have a
problem with this – a massive problem. Look into the world of college football
at the moment, and pinpoint the most outstanding player in the game. Chances
are, you’re going to point right at Johnny Manziel, the reigning Heisman Trophy
winner. The kid we know as Johnny Football, a polarising figure to be sure, is
most assuredly a walking, talking highlight reel – both on and off the field –
and he’s one of few players whom you watch every snap with bated breath,
because you know that there’s a good chance that something amazing is going to
happen.
For the
simple fact that the extraordinary seems to happen more often than not when the
guy has the football in hand, Manziel should be a long way out in front of
everyone else in the race for the 2013 Heisman. Not just because he’s the clear
leader in touchdowns accounted for (37, at last count) despite obviously being
hobbled by injury at times, but because he is the most outstanding player on a
football field this season.
No one can
take over a game like Manziel can – and frequently does. He’s the guy you tune
in to watch every week. Not Marcus Mariota in Eugene or AJ McCarron at
Tuscaloosa or even Jameis Winston in Tallahassee, though the scintillating
Florida State freshman quarterback certainly comes the closest, and looks the
most likely to steal Manziel’s mantle when the Aggie quarterback makes a move
to the pros. Yet, for the moment, Johnny Football is the undisputed King of Wow
in college football.
Wowing
people is what should win you a Heisman.
But not, it
seems, in the current climate.
What the
Heisman voters are doing now, in determining the winner of the award for the
single most outstanding player in the game, is effectively making it into a
team contest. If a star player plays well but his team loses, that appears to
be that as far as his chances of winning the award go.
Voters are penalising
Manziel because Texas A&M’s defense is so porous that it’s shredded
week-in-week-out by teams who aren’t exactly what you would normally call
offensively prolific. Manziel isn’t a linebacker or a safety or a defensive
tackle. He’s not out there stopping the other offense. He’s forced to sit on
the bench and watch a poor defense erode the good work he’s done on the field.
And, worse, he’s losing his Heisman because of it.
If
anything, it should be the other way around. It’s certainly not a stretch to
put forward the argument that, had it not been for Manziel’s freakish ability
to generate big plays with regularity – and, particularly, big plays out of
ones that seem to be going nowhere – the Aggies would be mired in the middle of
the SEC, with more losses than they currently have.
When are
the Heisman voters and the trust which controls the award going to return to
the old days? The dynamics of the award have changed recently, and I think it
diminishes the heritage and prestige. It should not have been turned into a be a contest fought out only by the best
players on a team that’s run the table undefeated or who’s only lost to one
very good team. It should be a contest fought out between the best, most
electric and most outstanding – there’s that word again – players in America.
And Johnny
Football leads that list. Regardless, the sad reality is that because Texas
A&M’s 2013 season has ultimately been a disappointing one, due mostly to
its defense’s inability to stop anyone, Manziel is, at best, sitting in third
or fourth in line in most people’s ballot cards as we enter the final weeks of
the season. If Oregon’s Marcus Mariota hadn’t played so badly on Thursday night
in Oregon’s loss to Stanford, Manziel might’ve been ranked even lower.
Talk of
strength of schedule comes into consideration, which is why you won’t see me
write an article about how Northern Illinois QB Jordan Lynch, himself putting
up stupid offensive numbers, deserves a Heisman. Same, to a lesser degree, with
Baylor’s QB Bryce Petty or RB Lache Seastrunk – as much as I’d love to see all
three of those guys in New York City.
You can’t
argue with a straight face that Manziel isn’t running and passing rings around
underwhelming defensive opposition. No, this is the Southeastern Conference
we’re talking about, home to some of the best and most elite talent in America.
I mean, Manziel, two years running, has made Alabama’s defense look downright silly,
and look what they’ve done to just about every other team they’ve played in
that duration.
Certainly
numerically, and in terms of the sheer number of big-time plays he made, I
thought Manziel’s performance against Alabama this year was superior to last
year, which is truly saying something. He shredded them, but lost. He came back
from an injury to nearly lead. Yes, he’s turned the football over a little more
this year, but the sheer fact of the matter is that his defense digs him a
hole, and it’s taking speculative throws that, last year, with a better defense
he simply wouldn’t have been called upon to make. Therein is the difference
between a good defense and a bad one. A&M’s bad defense is penalising it’s
star quarterback.
That’s why
Johnny Manziel should be favourite to collect the Heisman Trophy in a couple of
weeks, and make history with back-to-back wins of college football’s most
prestigious individual honour. Sadly, barring a cataclysmic series of upsets
between now and Championship Weekend, he’ll be lucky to make it to New York City
as a finalist.
Ironic,
isn’t it, that Texas A&M’s defense, a collective unit, is going to mostly
be held accountable for their quarterback not winning an individual honour
that, by rights, the Aggie players not named Manziel, J. should have nothing to
do with. Ironic and pretty unfair, too.
Footnote: Based
on the apparent criteria for the Heisman, I have a pretty strong feeling
Florida State’s Jameis Winston will win the Trophy.
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