Heisman blogging

By Heraclitus

A brief post on the Heisman trophy and an argument in favor of its being awarded to Brady Quinn, Notre Dame's quarterback. I had been meaning to post on this a little earlier, and by now, this may be conventional wisdom. I don't think it is, though: from what I've seen, Troy Smith, the quarterback at Ohio State, is still the front-runner. Here's a breakdown of their numbers.

Troy Smith: 170 of 256 (66.4 completion percentage) for 2191 yards and 26 touchdowns, with only 4 interceptions on the year. His QB Rating is 168.7.

Brady Quinn: 230 of 357 (63.9%) for 2786 yards and 29 touchdowns, with only four interceptions. His QB Rating is 154.5.

Smith has actually played one game more than Quinn, even though the later has over 600 more yards and three more touchdowns.

Both are obviously very good players, and I certainly don't want to take anything away from Smith. But Quinn is much more crucial to his team's success than Smith. Notre Dame is 9-1, and it sure as hell isn't because of their defense. Quinn has led his team to two Elway-esqu comeback wins, against Michigan State and UCLA. I think Smith has more talented receivers, certainly across the board, than Quinn. Quinn's receivers tend to drop passes, and don't have the speed of Teddy Ginn or even OSU's number two or three receivers. Neither team has played a terribly grueling schedule, but I think OSU is weaker than people think, and their schedule has been something of a cake-walk (we'll find out this coming Saturday).

In short, I think Quinn is clearly deserving of the Heisman. But I don't think Notre Dame's team is as good as some might hope. Like I said, their defense is weak, especially their defensive backfield. Their offensive line isn't physical enough, and one of the reasons Quinn struggled early in the season is because they failed to protect him. As a Notre Dame fan, I hope they go to a good bowl game (and win, for the first time in, I believe, over a decade), but they're not a championship-game caliber team (it's hard to tell who really is a BCS-caliber team this year). But I think Brady Quinn should certainly be awarded the Heisman.