Last night Troy Smith got a taste of what Brady Quinn lived with every game. He had no deep threat, his O-Line could not block for him and his defense never gave him field position. He responded by throwing for 14 yards, 0 TDS, 2 T.O.s and running for -29. That makes Quinn's 148yd. 2 TD 2 T.O. effort against LSU almost "Ruthian". :?:
Follow up..... ATLANTA (January 8, 2007) — A record setting number of college football fans have cast their ballots, and for the third straight year their voice differs from the media experts. Notre Dame quarterback Bray Quinn was selected as the Cingular All-America Player of the Year, the only major college football award determined exclusively by the fans, after leading the Fighting Irish to 10 wins and a Bowl Championship Series berth in the Sugar Bowl. Quinn received 43% of the votes to win over Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith (27%), the Heisman Trophy winner, Rutgers running back Ray Rice (18%) and Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan (12%). Voting for the Cingular All-America Player of the Year was the highest total in the three year history of the award. For the third consecutive season, college football fans disagreed with the media that vote for the Heisman Trophy. Last year, Texas quarterback Vince Young was voted the Cingular All-America Player of the Year over Heisman Trophy winning running back Reggie Bush of Southern California, and in 2004 Texas running back Cedric Benson won over USC quarterback Matt Leinart. A two-time winner of the Cingular All-America Player of the Week during the regular season, Quinn ranked third in the nation in touchdown passes (37). The senior completed 289 of 467 pass attempts for 3,426 yards, averaging 263.5 yards per game and compiling a 146.7 pass efficiency rating. Each of the Cingular All-America Player of the Year nominees were selected by a panel of ESPN college football analysts. Fans had from December 7 through January 5 to vote by text message. The Cingular All-America Player of the Year is the final award in the Cingular All-America Player of the Week program. The 2006 Cingular All-America Player of the Week program spanned 12 weeks during college football’s regular season. Quinn and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy were the lone multiple winners.
Well I don't worry too much about what happens after the award is given. He won it fair and square, he had a great regular season. I would hope that the whole thing doesn't come down to how a guy plays in a bowl game, he isn't the first Heisman winner not to have a great bowl game. Reggie Bush was clearly outplayed by Vince Young in last years bowl game, Reggie made the critical fumble/lateral and wasn't even on the field for the most critical play of the game. As Forrest Gump would say, Sh&t Happens. Besides it's not like there was a player who finished behind Troy who had such a great bowl game that they should be feel cheated. The Ark kid didn't exactly light up Wisconsin, Brady had a good half, Steve Slaton had a good game but not dazzling. And if you are going to throw out JaMarcus Russell as the guy, then that's really bogus, he didn't have much success with either Fla or Auburn and his biggest game was against one of the worst defenses in the bowls. Terry
The self-appointed gods of college football ESPN told us following the Michigan game in Sept. that Brady Quinn has lost the Heisman because of his performance in that game 24/48 234 yds 3 TDs 3 ints. They spent the whole season telling us about how Troy Smith was the Heisman leader. These pimps and hucksters were incessant. And their hand selected winner 4/14 35 yds 0TDs 1 int. Total offense 6 yds
Was Smith's QB eff rating of 35 in the BCS championship game the lowest ever in any game played by a Heisman winning QB?
The thing that stuck out for me was that post game he went right to Chris Leake and gave him a hug and congratulations. He might have had a bad game but he showed he still had plenty of class.
Saw that and thought it was a great gesture. WRT Smith, Leak and the 2006 Heisman, one wonders how much the fact Smith benefitted from playing 5 years in the same system had in his winning the award over Leak who spent 4 seasons playing under two HCs and 3 different offensive coordinators.