Heisman Trophy - College Football's Player of the Year Award - Week Seven
College football fans who closely follow the game know that any moment can bring unexpected thrills or disappointments. As weeks of practice, training, and game-day contact begin to take their toll, anything can, and does happen. Injuries or mistakes can rob a player of dreams and opportunities. Heisman hopefuls are certainly not immune from season-ending injuries. This week saw many of this year’s weekly favorites continue their outstanding play, some fall from contention, and one’s season come to an abrupt end. A quick replay of these games will shed some light on which players remain Heisman favorites, and which players have seen their dreams slip through their fingers like a dropped pass. The list of Heisman hopefuls continues to include Ohio State’s Troy Smith, Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn, West Virginia’s Steve Slaton, Northern Illinois’ Garrett Wolfe, Michigan’s Michael Hart, Rutger’s Ray Rice, and Tennessee’s Eric Ainge. Sadly absent from further consideration are Michigan’s Mario Manningham who recently underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson who broke his collarbone against Iowa State. Ohio State and Troy Smith continued their winning ways on Saturday versus Michigan State. Troy completed 15 of 22 for 234 yards passing and two touchdowns. With the first BCS rankings announced, the pressure to remain on top is now firmly on Ohio State’s and Troy Smith’s shoulders. If they can live up to the challenge Troy will be the favorite to win the Heisman later this year. 163 yards rushing won’t win any single-game records, but it will keep West Virginia’s Steve Slaton in the hunt for this year’s Heisman. West Virginia’s current rankings will keep national attention on him as well. Will Steve continue his solid play against Connecticut this weekend? It will be fun watching him try. Every player has good games and bad games, although Heisman winners tend to have only isolated disappointing moments. Northern Illinois’ Garrett Wolfe finds himself in the unfortunate position of needing to recover from an outing that saw only 25 yards rushing on 18 carries. Garrett still leads the nation in rushing so he has plenty of time and talent to put this game behind him. All those pulling for the underdog will certainly be hoping to see him do that. Michigan’s Michael Hart continues to play consistent football. With Super Mario no longer in action, the spotlight is back on Mike, and Chad Henne. At this point Mike will need to elevate his game to catch Troy Smith and Steve Slaton. Although it is a bit too early to focus on November 18th’s showdown in Columbus against Ohio State, Mike may need to have a career day against the Buckeyes with a Michigan win to eventually see his name etched across the Heisman Memorial Trophy. Rutgers’ and their star running back Ray Rice’s Cinderella season continues. With a #19 ranking in both the AP and USA Today polls, and a 6-0 record, Rutgers is getting plenty of free press these days. Although Ray did not put in an exceptional game against Navy, it was not bad enough to take him out of the running for the Heisman. To be a serious contender though, he will have to take it to the next level this week against Pittsburgh. Seemingly from nowhere Tennessee’s Eric Ainge has propelled himself into the race for the Heisman. Now his exceptional and efficient play has everyone talking about a possible trip to New York. He will have an opportunity this weekend to post more big numbers against Alabama. He will also have to recover from the stigma of early season obscurity to surpass the other Heisman candidates. An off week gave Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn a chance to rest and prepare for their next outing against UCLA. Brady has certainly had the luck of the Irish this year. He has performed inconsistently at times, with flashes of brilliance that have obscured his spotty play. Only time will tell if Brady can put together a late season run to overtake the current Heisman favorite Ohio State’s Troy Smith. Many sportswriters, fans, and players felt Adrian Peterson was a close second to Troy Smith in this year’s race for the Heisman. Now that Adrian is no longer in the hunt, we will have to sit back to see who emerges as the next best contender. It is always sad to see a great athlete affected by an untimely injury. As fans we will miss out on the great moments that could have been, and wish both Adrian Peterson and Mario Manningham speedy recoveries. We look forward to many more great plays from both of them whenever and wherever they return to action. Paul Wilson cofounder of www.trivianthology.com a Kick The Ball, Ltd company is dedicated to publishing fun and challenging trivia game books for sports fans of all ages. TriviAnthology can also be found at www.TriviaGameBooks.com Sign up to receive a FREE 30-question College Football Trivia Game Book to play on your own, with friends or with family. |
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