We are now at (or, in some cases, past) the halfway mark in the 2015 college football season, so it is time to get serious about candidates for one of the most prestigious awards in all of sports: the Heisman Trophy. The Heisman has been awarded annually since 1935, when the first award granted by what is now known as The Heisman Memorial Trust was presented to Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago.
Nobody’s Heisman Favorite
Prior to engaging in this discussion about the most deserving recipient of the 2015 award, given his performance to this point in the season, let’s review the criteria for the award. They are amazingly non-specific and broad, and therefore open to interpretation. From the Heisman.com website itself, the definition is as follows:
“The Heisman Memorial Trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work.”
This is a wonderfully straightforward definition of the “best” player in college football, yet it does seem to have a few additional “unwritten” criteria that accompany these, given even a cursory review of recent past winners. Instead of “player”, we may want to say “quarterback”, or “running back”, or “jack-of-all-trades wide receiver/kick returner/cornerback who doubles as a kick returner” to be more precise. One of these definitions would have covered every winner of the award since helmets have had facemasks and were no longer made of leather.
Now that those niceties are out of the way, let’s get to a meaningful dissection of this season’s most prominent candidates, and their relative merit for the award.
The Candidates:
Leonard Fournette, RB, Louisiana State
LSU’s #7 leads the FBS in rushing with 1,352 yards through seven games, and he has scored 15 touchdowns already for the unbeaten Bayou Bengals. The last part of the previous sentence is important too; in recent years, team success has had a great impact on the award’s eventual winner. In 2009, Toby Gerhart of Stanford lost the award to Mark Ingram of Alabama, despite beating him for the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back, because Ingram’s Crimson Tide team was undefeated at the end of the regular season and Gerhart’s Cardinal had four losses. So, Fournette has individual AND team success on his side.
Trevone Boykin, QB, Texas Christian
Boykin has led the undefeated Horned Frogs (do you see a pattern here?) over mediocre opposition with style. He has passed for 2,539 yards and 25 touchdowns already this season. Boykin has also overcome a somewhat porous TCU defense in a couple of those games to avoid an upset which would endanger the Frogs hopes of securing a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Ohio State
Zeke Eliott’s unbeaten (sigh) and reigning national champion Buckeyes have occasionally forgotten that they possess one of the country’s top weapons in their own backfield. The drama has focused on OSU’s quarterback situation, but when in trouble, Urban Meyer has been able to count on #15 to bail him out, and keep that absurd winning streak alive. Eliott, like Fournette, has already topped 1,000 yards rushing this season, with 1,130 yards and 13 touchdowns through eight games.
This is a lot of set-up to get to the real point of this piece. So, without any further ado, let’s get to the unsung candidate referred to in the post’s title. You’ve already seen the main photo, so surely you have surmised that I’m writing about super-Sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey of the recently resurgent Stanford Cardinal. After a somewhat inexplicable offensive debacle at Ryan Field against an admittedly stout Northwestern defense, Stanford has roared to life on the offensive side of the football. McCaffrey has been the straw that stirs that particular drink, and he is currently the FBS leader in all-purpose yardage at 1,818 yards through seven games, or 259.7 yards-per-game. He does it all for his team: rushing, receiving, and returning—both kickoffs and punts. He does so tirelessly, and ever so efficiently. But, wait…
I’m not talking about him either. Take another look at this piece’s cover photo. Look closely. To be more specific, look over McCaffrey’s left shoulder (that’s the upper right hand corner of the photo). Yes, THAT man is the best college football player in the nation, whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. I am speaking of Stanford left guard Joshua Garnett. Stats will be harder to come by to accentuate his candidacy, so please allow me to state my case, and then let’s look at some moving pictures to drive the points home, shall we?
In this past weekend’s game alone, Garnett was a one-man wrecking crew. As a self-admitted Stanford homer, I have long been an ardent fan of the Stanford offensive line, also known as the “Tunnel Workers Union.” The TWU’s mantra is “There is no greater feeling than to be able to move a man from point A to point B against his will.” There is no greater embodiment of this philosophy in action than #51, Joshua Garnett, who stands 6’5” and weighs in at 321 pounds. And, despite his size, he also possesses the agility to do this to a very large defensive lineman. Be sure to watch what happens behind the streaking McCaffrey in the clip.
.@CMccaffrey5 can GO. ?? #GoStanford #BeatUW pic.twitter.com/1sdn0cennN
— Stanford Football (@StanfordFball) October 25, 2015
Do you still believe that this is an exercise in hyperbole? Would you argue that there is no way that an offensive lineman could possibly be the best college football player in America? If you are still not convinced, please allow me to present Exhibit B.
That poor defensive back was absolutely decimated on that play. It was reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote versus the anvil in the Saturday morning cartoons of my childhood. For a more contemporary analogy, one must think of <insert nihilistic video game footage set in a dystopian alternate reality here>. Seriously, full-grown human beings don’t just go flying like that at the hands of another human being in real life. Any man who can do that deserves to be known as the best player in the country. To accomplish it, one must have ridiculous power, coupled with above-average speed. To put it in terms that the average Stanford football fan can understand, Joshua Garnett is what you would get if David DeCastro and Toby Gerhart had a baby.
This led me to ponder a stat-based measure of Mr. Garnett’s greatness during the game:
And @IamJoshG just did it again, this time to a DB. What’s the school record for pancakes in a game? #GoStanford
— Donald King (@dbking65) October 25, 2015
I could use some help answering this question. Perhaps Stanford SID Alan George can help me out. Do you, Sir, know the answer to the question above? Please do shoot me an answer, if one is available.
I get it, though, the stats are still very hard to appreciate in this case, but the impact should be clear by now. If you are still not convinced, please ask those gents in white, purple, and gold what they think of Mr. Garnett. If their opinions do not matter to you, please consider what his teammate, Mr. McCaffrey has to say.
“It all starts with the guys up front”, McCaffrey said after the Washington win, as quoted by Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News here.
I can’t say it any better than that, CMac. I can’t do it any better at all. Other than to say this: Joshua Garnett for the 2015 Heisman Memorial Trophy.
Main Photo:
