It's no surprise, with the numbers put up by Stanford's Toby Gerhart and Alabama's Mark Ingram, that this was the year of the running back.
What is a surprise, however, is that the voters actually agreed and almost made the right choice.
I was certain they were going to give what has become the "quarterback trophy" to Colt McCoy because he was a preseason favorite to win it and, in spite of his Big XII Title Game performance, is playing for a national championship in January. Instead, the winner was another preseason favorite in Alabama running back Mark Ingram.
The 5-foot-10 back would have been third on my ballot, behind Gerhart and Ndamukong Suh, the big defensive lineman from Nebraska (who officially ended any chance McCoy should have had at the award).
Why Gerhart over Ingram? The Stanford bruiser had more rushing yards (1736 to 1542), touchdowns (26 to 15), and yards per game (145 to 119) than Ingram while playing with an inferior supporting cast.
The argument against Gerhart is his team's 8-4 record but, to me, that makes him an even better candidate. Gerhart, even with his team losing four games, and playing one less contest than Ingram, still led the nation in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns (For the record, Ingram was fifth in yardage and tied for 13th in touchdowns).
In addition, Gerhart never disappeared in a game. His lowest rushing output was 82 yards and he scored at least one touchdown in every game this season but one.
Gerhart, like any Heisman-worthy player, was at his best in Stanford's biggest games. He had huge games against Pac 10-champion Oregon (38 carries for 223 yards and three scores), USC (29-178, 3 TDs), and Notre Dame (29-205, 3 TDs) in the finale on national TV.
In fact, Gerhart was strongest for his team down the stretch run, totaling more than 135 yards and crossing the goal line at least three times in each of Stanford's November contests.
Ingram, on the other hand, was virtually a non-factor versus two of Alabama's biggest rivals. He rushed for just 50 yards on 17 carries against Arkansas and 30 yards on 16 carries in the Iron Bowl against Auburn on Nov. 27.
Yes, he did have big games against LSU and Florida, but the fact that Ingram was such a non-factor in two of the Tide's biggest games should have deterred more voters, especially with another player at his own position being consistently better than he was this year.
Instead, Ingram (as Kirk Herbstreit pointed out during the presentation show) picked up votes in the regions of the country without a candidate, which all happened to be closer to Alabama than California, to take the trophy in the closest vote in Heisman history.
With this, he became the second running back to win the award since the turn of the century (joining Reggie Bush, 2005).
While I applaud the voters for not blindly selecting a quarterback, they again went with a player in the national title game. Ingram is the eighth of the last 10 winners to be playing in the national title game and took the prize based on that fact.
While I give the voters credit for not simply taking the best quarterback in the national title game, I still wish the majority would have looked away from the big game to find the true best player in the nation.
No player was more valuable to his team, or better overall than Gerhart this season.
List of Heisman winners and result in national championship games since 2000
Post a Comment
