Suh a Heisman Winner?

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

SI.com

If he reaches the end zone for the fourth time in his career, Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh might reprise the Ducky Dance. The 300-pounder debuted the jig, named after a Parasaurolophus from The Land Before Time movie series, last season after he lined up at fullback and caught a touchdown pass against Kansas. But could Suh, a player NFL scouts could consider the nation's best college football player by season's end, use such a moment to make a more iconic statement?

 

"Do I strike the pose?" Suh said. "No, I do not. I do not strike the pose."

 

With that vaguely Suess-ish answer, Suh scuttled the notion he might channel Desmond Howard and strike a blow for all the husky-section shoppers ignored by Heisman Trophy voters. Besides, even if Nebraska bought a billboard in Times Square and treated tourists to a 30-foot tall image of Suh doing his best impression of former New York University back Ed Smith's classic stiff-arm, Heisman voters probably wouldn't think of Suh when they cast their ballots.

 

Which is unfortunate, because even in an era when television and the Internet take fans deeper inside the game than ever, most Heisman voters can't wrap their brains around the possibility that the "Most Outstanding College Football Player in the United States" -- the man voters are asked to elect -- could be someone other than quarterback, running back or wide receiver who also returns kicks.

 

 

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[HuskerJen]

The Heisman trophy has become a joke. It rarely goes to the best player in college football. Instead it usually goes to the the player with the gaudiest statistics.

 

Put Sam Bradford at Iowa State, Tim Tebow at Duke, Colt McCoy at Syracuse and ask yourself this question: If these guys were on those teams, without the awesome supporting cast they have on their respective teams, would they do as well as they did last season? No chance in hell.

 

Now reverse the question: Would N. Suh do just as well on another team? More than likely yes.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

The Heisman trophy has become a joke. It rarely goes to the best player in college football. Instead it usually goes to the the player with the gaudiest statistics.

 

Put Sam Bradford at Iowa State, Tim Tebow at Duke, Colt McCoy at Syracuse and ask yourself this question: If these guys were on those teams, without the awesome supporting cast they have on their respective teams, would they do as well as they did last season? No chance in hell.

 

Now reverse the question: Would N. Suh do just as well on another team? More than likely yes.

I absolutely agree. The Heisman is more of a popularity contest than anything else. If Suh were to win the Heisman, the Heisman Curse would doom his NFL career.

[knapplc]

Gerald McCoy may be the best defensive tackle in the Big 12, so Suh for Heisman is quite a stretch.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with the Heisman being a joke, anyway. Jen's comment about Bradford at Iowa State, etc, is dead on.

[Fuzzy]

ive always figured the Heisman was a Offensive Player Reward, not really one for a defensive player or special teams. Am i wrong?

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

ive always figured the Heisman was a Offensive Player Reward, not really one for a defensive player or special teams. Am i wrong?

That's what it has amounted to despite the fact it's labeled as the award for the Best College Football Player.

[Hunter94]

glamor positions have always been rewarded with recognition, running backs and qbs will always get the first call for the trophy, linemen are blue collar guys, working down in the trenches in the shadows..just the way it is.

[HuskerJen]

Gerald McCoy may be the best defensive tackle in the Big 12, so Suh for Heisman is quite a stretch.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with the Heisman being a joke, anyway. Jen's comment about Bradford at Iowa State, etc, is dead on.

 

Sorry knapplc, I just get so fed up with the constant perpetuation of the "Gerald McCoy is the best" myth.

 

McCoy had about half the stats last season that Suh had and no TD's. McCoy has two things going for him right now: 1) he was ranked as the #1 DT coming out of high school and 2) he plays for OU. So other than baseless hype, yes McCoy is the "best" DT in CFB.

 

/End of rant.

[EbylHusker]

Well, let's start with remembering the playing field isn't level. In choosing a best overall player, you're essentially comparing apples to oranges to carrots to as many other forms of fruits and vegetables you need to cover all the positions in football. That right there fouls the whole thing up no matter what. So we have to begin within the context of a flawed system, but that's fine, as rarely do you get to work within anything else.

 

As unfair as it might be, statistics provide partially solid footing where there really is no other footing at all.

 

You can make the case that Joe Bob Jones who plays for (insert craptastic 1-A school here) is the best player this season because, even though his stats were worse, he still did well despite "substandard" support. You can point out instances where Joe Bob showed great escape skills, great accuracy, great vision, and so on. But you can also make the case that Hans Felderschneis is the best player because he ran for 2000 yards in a single season, even though his team won the NC and went undefeated. Running 2k yards in a single season is amazing regardless of who you played, people would say. And you can show instances where he showed great talent against highly ranked opponents with good defenses.

 

In the end, my point is you can go round and round about this type of thing, but it will always come back to a basis in statistics with the even more subjective considerations branching out from there. And while the statistics basis provides at least some way (even if it's somewhat unfair) to compare within a position, it doesn't do much for comparing between positions. And there's no way to solve that other than doing away with the best overall player deal and just making it best in each position. And where's the fun in that?

 

It's subjective, hyped, biased, and probably just about everything else you can come up with. But it's still entertaining and they do have some real debates about players between positions from time to time, which is usually pretty interesting. But statistics still matter and are really the only true footing you can find in that mess, even though it keeps the bias towards those already on better teams.

[VA Husker Fan]

ive always figured the Heisman was a Offensive Player Reward, not really one for a defensive player or special teams. Am i wrong?

That's what it has amounted to despite the fact it's labeled as the award for the Best College Football Player.

It's actually labeled as the award for "Most Outstanding College Football Player", which is not necessarily the same as best, if you take the definition literally. And if it wasn't meant to be literal, they would probably just say "best". It's hard for a lineman to stand out in football the way a back does. I'd be very happy to see Suh win the Outland Trophy.

 

I like that term (Outstanding, or even Best) better than "Most Valuable Player", because it's not clear what valuable means. Was Tommie Frazier not that valuable because Brook Berringer probably could've taken the 95 team to a championship as well? Or do you say that Troy Davis wasn't that valuable because his team didn't win many games even with him in the lineup?

 

Anyway, in a down year Suh might have a chance, but with 2 Heisman winners returning, and a 3rd who got plenty of votes last year also coming back, and 2 of those guys coming from Suh's conference/region, there's little chance Suh is going to get that many votes.

[EbylHusker]

Yeah, I should say that I don't think Suh will win the Heisman, either (so as to not look like I'm trying to hijack the thread into a "validity of the Heisman" debate). There, now I'm on topic.

[Alamo City Husker]

The Heisman trophy has become a joke. It rarely goes to the best player in college football. Instead it usually goes to the the player with the gaudiest statistics.

 

Put Sam Bradford at Iowa State, Tim Tebow at Duke, Colt McCoy at Syracuse and ask yourself this question: If these guys were on those teams, without the awesome supporting cast they have on their respective teams, would they do as well as they did last season? No chance in hell.

 

Now reverse the question: Would N. Suh do just as well on another team? More than likely yes.

For once I agree with Jen !

[Apathy]

Gerald McCoy may be the best defensive tackle in the Big 12, so Suh for Heisman is quite a stretch.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with the Heisman being a joke, anyway. Jen's comment about Bradford at Iowa State, etc, is dead on.

 

Sorry knapplc, I just get so fed up with the constant perpetuation of the "Gerald McCoy is the best" myth.

 

McCoy had about half the stats last season that Suh had and no TD's. McCoy has two things going for him right now: 1) he was ranked as the #1 DT coming out of high school and 2) he plays for OU. So other than baseless hype, yes McCoy is the "best" DT in CFB.

 

/End of rant.

 

Ah Huskerjen beat me too it and I totally agree with her on this. A while back they were talking about the best Defensive players in the Nation and Gerald McCoy was #1 and Suh was like what #5 or #7 I can't remember. Suh stats were twice as much as McCoy and he also had 2 interceptions for TD's where McCoy had zero and Suh also caught a TD pass against Kansas and McCoy had none. Suh had more tackles than McCoy and I think he had more sacks too.

 

The only reason why I think that McCoy is ranked at #1 instead of Suh is because Suh is a Senior and only peaked out during his Junior year where McCoy peaked out as a Sophmore and still has two more years to shine.

[I See Red People]

[Touchdown Tommie]

I lost all respect for the Heisman when Tommie did not win it and since then the "winners" have been questionable at that. The media has made a mockery of the award. They say the best player in college football, but if you have more than 1 loss you do not have a chance to win the trophy.