RANDOM RANTING

HEISMAN TALK
I like Colt McCoy. I think he is a very entertaining player to watch on Saturdays. But he is not a legit Heisman Trophy candidate.

Before I get into why he is not a legit candidate this year let me say that I think the Heisman Trophy has become one of the biggest joke awards there is in college football. It used to be given to the best player in the nation. Now it is given to the QB of the best team in the nation. Only once this decade has the award gone to a non-quarterback (Reggie Bush, 2005). Only twice this decade has the award gone to a player that was not playing in the BCS National Title game (Tim Tebow, 2007; Carson Palmer, 2002). Now, I do understand that there have also been some very deserving players that have won it in this same time frame, but when you see names like Troy Smith (2006), Jason White (2003), and Chris Weinke (2000) you have to wonder.

All of that being said about the award it would not shock me if Colt McCoy wins the award this year. I would be glad for him (not that he deserves it this year, but I though he should have gotten it last year). There seems to be this underground push to get McCoy the award this year almost as a career achievement award. So lets see if you think he deserves the award this year.

Here are 4 players’ stats this year, you figure out who is most deserving of these three.

PLAYER 1:
67.6% completion percentage
1544 yards
12 TD’s
2 INT’s
179.3 QB Rating

PLAYER 2:
66.7%
1256 yards
13 TD’s
3 INT’s
163.5 QB Rating

PLAYER 3:
73.4%
1410 yards
10 TD’s
6 INT’s
149.2 QB Rating

PLAYER 4:
53.4%
810 yards
7 TD’s
4 INT’s
147.9 QB Rating

PLAYER 1: Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame
PLAYER 2: Bill Stull, Pitt
PLAYER 3: Colt McCoy
PLAYER 4: BJ Daniels, USF (who made his third career start last night)

As you can see the numbers don’t lie, McCoy is simply not deserving of the award this year. McCoy has throw 6 INT’s this year already, he threw 8 all of last season. He has thrown at least one in every game this season. Although he leads the nation in completion percentage (he set an NCAA mark last year completing over 76%) he ranks way down in many other categories; Touchdowns (28th), Interceptions (25th), 7.7 yards/attempt leaves him 42nd in the nation. These are not numbers of a Heisman Trophy winner.

Let’s look at a couple of guys that do have the numbers so far this season.

Clausen, he leads the nation in QB Rating and yards per attempt. He also is averaging over 300 yards a game, despite missing time with turf toe. He has some signature moments already in three come from behind wins.

Kellen Moore, quarterback at Boise State, has almost as impressive numbers as Clausen, on what I think is a better team that has played tougher competition. Moore has thrown 16 TD’s against just 2 INT’s. He has put up these numbers all while blowing teams out (some good teams) and not getting to throw the ball as much as Clausen does. The sophpomore has attempted more than 30 passes just twice in his six games, while his team has averaged over 38 ppg. Clausen has had over 30 attempts in every game but two, and one of those games he was sidelined much of the 2nd half by injury.

Ryan Williams, running back at Virginia Tech, has 734 yards on the ground and nine touchdowns to start his college career. The freshman back also has 143 yards on just seven catches for the Hokies. He ranks 5th in the nation in yards (12 behind the leader) and 4th in scores.

TOP 50
A lot has been made of the terrible play this season by JaMarcus Russell, but I found one very telling stat that summarizes it all up, his QB rating. QB Rating is a very complicated stat, but it is also a very telling stat. It is used as the standard in comparing and ranking the quarterback position. That being said Russell ranks 50th in the NFL in that stat. Let me remind you that there are only 32 teams in the NFL. JaMarcus has a rating of 47.1. The only starter with a worse rating is Derek Anderson of the Browns who has only started two games so far this season. Other players ahead of him include 1 WR, 3 RB’s and a punter. In fact his numbers are so bad that players with zero completions are close on his tail. If you throw 1 pass and it falls incomplete you have a passer rating of 39.6. Russell has thrown 4 INT’s so far to just 1 TD in 5 games and 121 pass attempts.



WEEKEND PREDICTIONS:
Pitt starts us off tonight traveling to Rutgers. Rutgers is the only team in the Big East that Dave Wannestedt has yet to beat; he is 0-4 against them. Pitt has by far the better talent, but Pitt always loses at least one game every year that they have superior talent against, and have not done that yet this season. Pitt should win this one by about three touchdowns, but I’ll settle for just one. PITT 27-16.

Penn State takes on Minnesota in a barn-burner in the Big Ten, PENN STATE 4-3.

Texas-OU in the Red River Shootout, I like Texas BIG! OU lost too many players from last year and Texas kept everyone. For as hyped as this game normally is, it is very rarely a good game. I think the trend will continue with Texas winning easily, TEXAS 41-28.

Charlie Weis said this week that he believes that this is the first year since he started in South Bend that his player feel that they can beat USC. Let me ask you this, what does that say about Charlie Weis? He coaches at what was the most prestigious place in college football with a team that was absolutely loaded with talent in 2005 and lost to USC on the final play of the game and that team didn't have enough confidence going in to really think they could beat the Trojans? Chalk this up as just another reason Weis should be fired and another reason that Notre Dame will never again be what it once was. USC 31-17.

I like the Phillies and the Angels to win each of their series. In the NL I really don’t care who wins, but I think the Phillies pitching with Lee and Hamels combined with their deep lineup will be too much for LA. In the AL I just simply hate the Yankees so I’m going with the Angels.

My First Rankings of the College Football season will be unveiled next week!