Big guy for the Big Award

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Linky-Dinky Do

 

Hand him the Heisman. Dammit, give it to him.

 

If journalists manage to screw this up – if they can honestly see what they saw Saturday night from Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and still hand the award to Mark Ingram or Toby Gerhart or C.J. Spiller or, goodness, Colt McCoy based on something as illusory and disconnected from individual greatness as poll rankings – well, it ought to give football fans a reason to distrust the media.

 

They would be, let's be blunt, blithering fools.

 

Suh was more than dominant in Nebraska's 13-12 loss to Texas – and 4.5 sacks, seven tackles for loss and 12 tackles is obscenely dominant. He was more than the best player in the game. He was more than the best player in college football.

 

He was one of the three best football players in America this year. Period.

 

Peyton Manning.

 

Drew Brees.

 

Ndamukong Suh.

 

That's it. That's the list. There's nobody better in America, right this second, as the hour creeps into Sunday morning.

 

Suh busted double teams. He made two tackles with a single, massive arm. He harassed McCoy on play after play. He peeled back to defend screens. He closed down quarterback draw holes. He did everything an NFL defensive tackle could ever hope to do – plus get two more sacks on top of that.

 

Again – who are we fooling by giving the award to somebody else? Does anyone really believe Ingram is indispensable to Alabama? McCoy, reduced to the Anthony Hopkins character in “Howard's End” by the end of Saturday night's game, had the inside track heading into the weekend, but shouldn't get it because of Hunter Lawrence's leg. He didn't play well. Played with nerves bordering on queasiness. Suh was just the opposite.

 

It's possible that Suh will win every major defensive award for which he's eligible – Outland, Lombardi, Lott, Nagurski, Bednarik – plus the Walter Camp Award on top of it. You're going to stick a player that good behind Toby Gerhart? Suh finished the year with 82 tackles, 12 sacks and 22 tackles for loss. Terrence Cody of Alabama, once considered Suh's peer at the position, had roughly one-third of that production. One-third!

 

If McCoy threw for three times more touchdowns and yards than Tim Tebow – you'd hand him the award. If Ingram rushed for 3,000 yards – he'd walk away with it. That's what Suh did in 2009. The statistics are there, and they fly off the charts. Any journalist or Heisman voter who hasn't yet picked a name must understand this.

 

More than that, it was how Suh's perfomance looked. The sacks weren't flukes. He played with strength, anger, patience and intelligence. He drew two chop block penalties and two more false starts. Texas was scared to death of the guy – and couldn't do a thing about it.

 

Suh's performance Saturday night was more than great. It was stirring, riveting, dramatic. The kind of game where, 20 years from now, in a household of Texas fans, a father answers his son, “well, the best I ever saw – and it wasn't even one of our guys...”

 

The Heisman is made for nights like this. The award means its most when it stands for true, prolific greatness. That's Suh.

 

Bo Pelini struggled to make the case for Suh Saturday night. That's his nature, and given how well he handled the postgame press conference otherwise, he deserves a pass for glossing over Suh's work.

 

But offensive coordinator Shawn Watson - who had plenty of time to watch Suh Saturday night, given that his offense heading back to the sidelines every few minutes, explained it perfectly.

 

"If Suh is not in New York, something's wrong," Watson said There's a conspiracy somewhere. That's the best college football player in the United States of America. I don't care what side of the ball they're on. He's the best. The best."

 

Get it? Got it? Good.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

He deserves an invite to New York, no doubt about it. The guy is one helluva a player and these type of players only come along every once and a while.