UPDATE: I just realized I never, anywhere in my post, actually congratulated Mark Ingram. Apologies, sir. While Ingram was not my pick, he's still as deserving as anyone. He was a bruising, pace-setting back, running out of a traditional offense in the age of the spread, and faced 6 of the top-20 defenses in the nation. His acceptance speech was reverent and emotional, and he carried himself at the ceremony the same way he's carried himself on the field all year: with class. So, once again, congratulations to Mark Ingram.
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It was the closest race in Heisman history, but the drama faded and the race still ended predictably with Mark Ingram taking home the hardware. I'm not trying to take anything away from Ingram, he's a beast with unquestionable talent and by all we've seen a class act, but I think the voters need to rethink their criteria. The Tide are undefeated and in the BCS Title game and that meant more to Ingram's candidacy than almost anything his legs did this season. Could a guy on a west coast 8-4 (like Gerhart at Stanford) team have had as miserable of a season finale as Ingram did against Auburn and still be in the running? Probably not. As a matter of fact, a player from a 4-loss team hasn't won in over 40 years. Plus, what would a non-skill player have to do to win this thing? Woodson won it, sure, but he played both ways. Yes, Orlando Pace was finalist, but he came in 4th had no 1st place votes, despite being considered the best OL ever. So what kind of chance did Suh really have with the voters? I'd have to say absolutely zero with those two strikes against him. I will say this, though, at least 'Bama finally has a Heisman now and we can move on - even if the trophy should have gone to a mountain of a man in Lincoln or a non-stop motor and portrait of consistency in Palo Alto . Ingram finished a hair ahead of Gerhart, with McCoy, Suh, and Tebow finishing out the top-5.
My final ballot (which -shocker-carries no actual weight in the Heisman totals) was posted last week. I had Gerhart, Suh, Spiller, Ingram and Tebow.
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