Heisman Hopefuls

The 2011 Heisman Trophy goes to.......
Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III
Maybe. Maybe not. A poll of a couple hundred Heisman voters showed that Griffin has passed Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck as the expected winner. I like Griffin a lot. He's very deserving. Its actually kind of refreshing to not see the qauarterback or runningback from a top team automatically get the award. Its supposed to go to the best college football player. It rarely does. If Griffin does win, I'll be mildy disappointed that Luck missed again. I see Luck as the college player best suited for NFL success. That doesn't necessarily mean that he was the best college player this year. In all honesty that player was probably Griffin. His performance has been incredible. Without him Baylor wouldn't even be a thought on the national level. He's elevated the program to heights rarely seen in Waco. I was absolutely floored when I saw that he had more touchdown passes than incomplete passes after the first handful of games. After Griffin and Luck, Runningbacks Montee Ball of Wisconsin and Trent Richardson of Alabama have been fantastic all year. Ball will likely break Barry Sanders' season touchdown record in the Rose Bowl. You'd have few complaints if any of those four left New York with the trophy. Defensive players are unfairly pushed aside in Heisman voting. Ndamukong Suh was deserving a couple of years ago. Charles Woodson won in the '90s with defense and incredible return skills. This year LSU defensive back Tyrann Mathieu has made a Woodson-like impact. I don't think that it was enough to take the Heisman from the offensive players. Its unfortunate that defensive players are always at a disadvantage. Right now there is little doubt that the award is going to one of the quarterbacks. Whether it goes to Griffin or Luck this year, it goes to a fantastic college football player. That's far better than most years.