Marcus Mariota: Don't (Literally) Sleep on His Historic Season
- Thread starter Infield Infidel
- Start date
If he doesn't win the Heisman they need to stop giving it out. This should be the "no suspense" voting year with Gurley and Winston getting sidetracked, and even if those guys don't have non-football issues get in the way, it still shouldn't be close. I fall victim to the West Coast start times, but when you stop to look at what he's doing its pretty special.
Nice writeup II. I see a lot of Mariota out here in Utah. He's been about as dominant a performer for a major school as anybody I can recall since Tebow.
I thought this throw from the Utah game was pretty insane - jump throw on the run, on a rope to a receiver 20+ yards downfield, squeezed into about an 18 inch window. That's not just an "NFL throw," that's a throw that not many QBs in the NFL can make at all.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11844828
I thought this throw from the Utah game was pretty insane - jump throw on the run, on a rope to a receiver 20+ yards downfield, squeezed into about an 18 inch window. That's not just an "NFL throw," that's a throw that not many QBs in the NFL can make at all.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11844828
Seems like the Heisman has morphed in recent years from the MVP of college football to "little known guy who leads unheralded team to national title contention." Sort of like how manager of the year always goes to the manager of the baseball team that surprised to the upside rather than the manager of the powerhouse team that went wire-to-wire to win the World Series. Pre-season Heisman candidates get brushed aside in the mania around the surprise team.PaulinMyrBch said:
2013 - Jameis Winston (FSU, pre-season #11 in the AP poll, eventual national champion)
2012 - Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M, unranked, eventual #5)
2011 - RGIII (Baylor, unranked, eventual #13)
2010 - Cam Newton (preseason #22, eventual national champion)
I'd wager that Winston, Manziel and Newton weren't on anybody's list of pre-season Heisman hopefuls. Was Dak Prescott on anybody's this year? Will Mariota be this year's Andrew Luck?
I watch a lot of Oregon games (my son is a fan for odd reasons) and Mariota is a terrific player to watch. Hope he doesn't end up on an NFL team that I'm officially required to hate like the Raiders or Jets.
Part of that is that freshmen and transfers have a bigger impact now than ever, which means it's harder to predict who will be good (pre-season polls are a media construction that today are close to worthless). And voters stopped not giving the award to underclassmen after Tebow. Pour one for Marshall Faulk and Larry Fitzgerald, who lost their sophomore years in favor of upperclassmen standard bearers Gino Toretta and Jason White. Also Adrian peterson's freshman year is in consideration.
There have only been two upperclass winners since Tebow: RG3 and Newton (a transfer).
Second, RG3 had a big year the year before his Heisman, everyone knew he'd be good, but people weren't sure if Baylor could be good.
There have only been two upperclass winners since Tebow: RG3 and Newton (a transfer).
Second, RG3 had a big year the year before his Heisman, everyone knew he'd be good, but people weren't sure if Baylor could be good.
Yeah, RGIII is a bit different than the others (did any of them even take a snap the season before they won?) but everybody though Luck was a lock to win the Heisman and he still didn't even though he had a fantastic year. Seems like Mariota might end up in the same place.