Yay alliteration.

Amazingly, this little bit of data may not have been discovered by Florida's SID's, but instead some guy commenting on Heisman Pundit's Live Blog last weekend.

my first question/comment was going to be about tebow becoming the first 20/20 college player EVER (20 rush TDs, 20 pass TDs)...

 

1:24 Do you guys know what Tebow was for Halloween?

1:24 [Comment From J.R. Deluxe]
doesn't this make tebow the first 20-20 player ever?
1:24 Clark Kent

1:25 Good question Deluxe

1:25 I think so

1:25 Amazing

okay, this guy is the "foremost authority" on the Heisman and i had to inform HIM of this fact? i detected a strong urge from "the establishment" to hurry up and find a frontrunner to replace the injured Dennis Dixon QUICK, with someone besides SuperTim...i wasn't having it.

so, i'm not going to take credit if Tebow eventually wins this thing, but i will say that i might have influenced an "influential player" in the game...

UPDATE--i don't mean to brag, but i think my pointing out the 20/20 angle seems to have become the talking point nationally. i think i re-framed this debate...

 

This guy has a future in politics.  Great find, and more than anything I'm shocked Heisman Pundit wasn't on it first, he has a tremendous knack for putting together information/stats/storylines like that.

For years the usual complaints about the Heisman Trophy was that its winners were formulaic, pre-determined, and not necessarily the best players the game had to offer.  The formulaic thing makes sense, I mean the fact that there exist Heismandments speaks to a certain pattern of determining the winner.  Whether or not the Heisman Trophy winner is college football's best player is debatable and ultimately meaningless to its real virtue.

As for that other critique, this season has completely thrown out the window the whole pre-determined thing.

Much like the insanity of the first half of this 2007 college football season, the Heisman Trophy race is one big mess.  The sage and knowing Heisman Pundit has gone so far as to make like its a 1988 Nintendo game and is hitting the reset button.

We have come to a turning point in the race for the 2007 Heisman.

Seven weeks into the season, each of the players on the preseason HP Heisman Watch have suffered devastating blows to their candidacies. It makes for a very confusing race.

No other candidate from a traditional power is in place and ready to make a move. No player is wowing the country with season stats (Texas Tech players aside) that capture the imagination. No one player is dominating week in and week out.

Therefore, I think it is time to re-set the race, because right now there is no real leader.

So yes, sad orangutan.

This thing is wide open and it's exactly what the doctor ordered for Heisman Trophy critics.  At the same time, there's absolutely no energy to this race.  Is there a connection between this lack of excitement and a wide-open field?  You tell me.  What I do know is that this is quite rare what we're witnessing and while the opportunity's there for some player from outside the traditional powers who also isn't a preseason favorite for the honor to make a run ... it just ain't happening.

In a few more weeks those ballots go out and voters have three lines to fill out three names.  If form holds, voters will truly have a wide range of choices and we're going to learn something new about the award and its mysterious cabal of voters here.

Personally, Michigan's Mike Hart has been on my radar since week one.  I believe he's had only one game under 100 yards and showed a real competitiveness throughout some of Michigan's tougher, embarrassing games.  Heisman Pundit and MGoBlog both are banging that Hart drum a bit, so this isn't an isolated sentiment (see: website + shirts).  Hart is college football's Little Engine That Could - and does - so if nobody else makes a break for this thing, why not?

I think he can.

Why not?

First item up: coaches' tenure and BCS appearances.

Ok, so this is a little late, but Georgia Sports Blog went to the trouble of determining the BCS conference coaches with the most tenure who have yet to make a BCS bowl game appearance.  Take a look.

Arkansas' Houston Nutt is atop the list, having coached since 1998.  Last year was his best chance but that kind of fell by the wayside.  Nipping at his heels is Clemson's Tommy Bowden whose team had a late collapse of its own.  A particular burr in this saddle is Cal's Jeff Tedford, tied for 7th longest wait.  He's been coaching since 2002 and would have gone to a BCS game in 2004, but Mack Brown happened.

GSB's Paul Westerdawg also lists BCS appearances by conference teams.  The Pac-10 leads the list, of course, with seven teams appearing in a BCS game.  As noted above it should be eight but Texas two-stepped Cal out of the way in 2004.  The Big 10 is tied with the Pac-10 but also has one more institution.

The ACC is particularly woeful with just four of its 12 institutions collecting BCS cash.  The snag, of course, is that Miami is counted with the Big East, having last entered a BCS game before the whole ugly ACC seduction of several Big East powers.

***
Now, for a moment of Heisman talk.  Heisman Pundit's released his "Winter Top 20", a list of the 20 players who will "at least get a whiff of legitimate consideration".

It's good to see West Virginia's Pat White crack the top ten at No. 6.  He doesn't get enough credit for his contribution to the West Virginia offensive machine.  HP's taken some flack for placing John David Booty at No. 1 but it's hard to argue with a winning, good-stat USC quarterback at the moment.  It's a little like center field for the Yankees, what can you do about it?

***
And now, some entertainment from the FanHouse.

---Top 10 cheerleader videos (???).  The Kelly Ripa one's comical.

---Domestic violence charges won't be filed against Cal's Marshawn Lynch.

---Auburn Tigers: 2004 National Champions? Yeh. Freakin'. Right.  Patrick, this is why it's so easy to take jabs at Auburn on here.

---Hippies get in the way of Cal's new stadium.  The bums lost, Lebowski!  Except, this time they won.  Dammit.

---Troy Smith exacts his revenge on Chris Leak.  Not really.