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Heisman Update — October 14

Update as of Week Seven

1. Matt Ryan, Boston College.

This weekend Matt Ryan and the Boston College Eagles beat the Irish of Notre Dame in impressive fashion, moving him up to number one on my Heisman list. Ryan threw for two touchdowns and 291 yards, and only one pick, helping his Heisman resume.

2. Andre Woodson, Kentucky.

Just yesterday the Kentucky Wildcats knocked off number LSU in triple overtime, behind their quarterback Andre Woodson. Woodson threw for three touchdowns and 250 yards, with two interceptions. The edge I give Andre is that he’s beat two good teams at the time, Louisville and now LSU.

3. Mike Hart, Michigan.

 

Mike Hart went down at the end of the first half, but his teammates said he would be okay, which means I give him the number three slot. In the first half alone he ran for two touchdowns and 102 yards on 21 carries leading the Wolverines past Purdue 48-21. If he’s okay as his teammates said look for his Heisman status to continue to rise.

 

4. Sam Bradford, Oklahoma.

 

Give the kid some love, the freshman, yesterday he lead the Sooners to an impressive win over Missouri 41-31, behind his strong play. He threw for two touchdowns, 266 yards and no picks, in their stomp of Missouri.

 

5. Tim Tebow, Florida.

 

Despite their two loses, Tebow has been good for the entire year, leading the Gators to some impressive victories. He was off this weekend, but it will take a great rest of the year to put him in front of Andre Woodson or Matt Ryan.

The College Sports Reporter Rankings

Top 25 After Week Seven of the College Football Season

1. Ohio State
2. Boston College
3. Oklahoma
4. LSU
5. USC
6. California
7. Oregon
8. West Virginia
9. South Carolina
10. South Florida
11. Virginia Tech
12. Kentucky
13. Arizona State
14. Florida
15. Georgia
16. Missouri
17. Kansas
18. Texas
19. Michigan
20. Texas Tech
21. Penn State
22. Wisconsin
23. Cincinnati
24. Hawaii
25. Illinois

Rankings by The College Sports Reporter

Heisman Update

Update as of Week Seven

1. Matt Ryan, Boston College.

This weekend Matt Ryan and the Boston College Eagles beat the Irish of Notre Dame in impressive fashion, moving him up to number one on my Heisman list. Ryan threw for two touchdowns and 291 yards, and only one pick, helping his Heisman resume.

2. Andre Woodson, Kentucky.

Just yesterday the Kentucky Wildcats knocked off number LSU in triple overtime, behind their quarterback Andre Woodson. Woodson threw for three touchdowns and 250 yards, with two interceptions. The edge I give Andre is that he’s beat two good teams at the time, Louisville and now LSU.

3. Mike Hart, Michigan.

 

Mike Hart went down at the end of the first half, but his teammates said he would be okay, which means I give him the number three slot. In the first half alone he ran for two touchdowns and 102 yards on 21 carries leading the Wolverines past Purdue 48-21. If he’s okay as his teammates said look for his Heisman status to continue to rise.

 

4. Sam Bradford, Oklahoma.

 

Give the kid some love, the freshman, yesterday he lead the Sooners to an impressive win over Missouri 41-31, behind his strong play. He threw for two touchdowns, 266 yards and no picks, in their stomp of Missouri.

 

5. Tim Tebow, Florida.

 

Despite their two loses, Tebow has been good for the entire year, leading the Gators to some impressive victories. He was off this weekend, but it will take a great rest of the year to put him in front of Andre Woodson or Matt Ryan.

 

College Football — Weekly Winners and Losers

Winners:

• Ohio State should move up to number one in both polls and start the BCS standings at number one — a good weekend to win.
• Boston College should climb into the number two slot in both polls and start the BCS standing at number two, after their win over the Irish.
• Kentucky should climb juristically in the polls, after their win over the previously number one Tigers. If they can keep winning on Andre Woodson’s shoulders, they may be on their way to a BCS bid.
• Oklahoma will probably go into the number three slot in the polls, along with the BCS; it may tough to keep out of the title game.

Losers:

• LSU lost in the misery of a triple-overtime defeat. We’ll see what they are really made of next weekend against Auburn. This lost will hurt them now, but I don’t see it impacting their title hopes with so many one loss teams.
• California lost this weekend at the wrong time, 31-28 to Oregon State. They missed a big opportunity to jump into the number slot in the polls and the BCS, but a win over Oregon or USC should help their resume in the coming weeks.
• Missouri could have possibly been a top five team, with a win over Oklahoma, but that wasn’t meant to be. If they can get to the Big 12 championship this loss won’t have much of an impact on them.
• Illinois lost in a game that nobody deserved to win, but a win over Michigan next week or Ohio State may get them to a good bowl game. They have the coach to do that in, Ron Zook, if he can get them turned around Michigan better be ready.

South Florida — As Good as They’re Ranked?

 South Florida is ranked fifth in the country, according to the AP 25 poll, without multiple quality wins, unlike many other top ten teams. They beat West Virginia, which is definitely a quality win in my book, but let’s not forget who other teams in the top ten have beaten. Oklahoma, for example, beat Texas last week in impressive fashion too, also USC who lost last week to Stanford on a last second pass, but also has already beaten Nebraska on the road in a tough in environment. Also Oregon who is ranked ninth in the coach’s poll, which plays a part in determining the BCS standings, barely lost to Cal at home on a fumble in the end zone ruining their upset hopes. The coaches obviously realize along with me that they aren’t as good as they are said to be, ranking them seventh behind USC and Oklahoma. South Florida is ranked seventy-eighth in the country in total yards per game ninth out of the top ten teams only in front of South Carolina. Again they are ninth out of the top ten teams in points per game only behind South Carolina, again. They are also ranked sixty-eighth in the country in third down conversion percentage only 39 percent. The only thing they have working for them in my opinion is that they eighty-fifth in the country in yards penalized in front of most of the top ten teams. Finally, they don’t have any where close to as much star power as any of the top ten teams, if you look at any of those teams one can easily name a clear star, but for South Florida it takes some time to do this. I guess it would be Matt Grothie, but would you really put him up with the Matt Ryan’s and DeSean Jackson’s of the other top ten teams I don’t think so. In my poll I think that they should be ranked tenth and that may even be a little high.  

Matt Ryan’s Rising Draft Status, Brohm’s Falling

Across the country every college football fan knows who Brian Brohm of Louisville is, but who they should know is Matt Ryan of Boston College. Ryan, is 6-5, 218 and has a cannon for an arm. Brohm on the other hand, is 6-4, 228, a little bigger than Ryan, may be more accurate, but that hasn’t helped his team this season. He is 173 completions against 254 attempts with twenty touchdowns and four picks, good numbers. These numbers sound like numbers for an undefeated team, wrong they already have three loses in six games, a five-hundred team. Other numbers for Brohm are he has thrown for 2,415 yards second best in the country also his quarterback rating is 167 and has been sacked all of seven times own pace for the third most in his career. Finally, his numbers against the weaker teams are good and his numbers are only as good as, Ryan’s, against middle of the road teams like North Carolina State and Kentucky, where Louisville lost.

Ryan, on the other hand, has thrown the ball for 1,857 yards with fifteen touchdowns and only five picks, good numbers as well. His quarterback rating is 139, a little lower than Brohm’s, but has only been sacked five times courtesy to a strong Boston College line. Ryan’s great game against Georgia Tech in which he threw for, four touchdowns and over 400 yards was a big help to his draft and, Heisman, resume. Finally, Ryan has been a clutch performer for the whole year so far, coming through for his team when they needed him the most, like leading them to three early conference wins.

In my mind there are two main factors that set these two apart. The first is that the Atlantic Coast Conference is far better defensively than the Big East, and that Matt Ryan is yet to lose this year. Ryan will to put to his hardest task yet this season, against a rallying Notre Dame team this weekend. If Boston College is to lose to Notre Dame, then Brian Brohm’s draft status will go back up in my book. Also if Brian Brohm was undefeated, which I known should not be put against him but it will be; he would be the better quarterback with out a doubt. But one can tell from the past, that NFL teams are looking for quarterbacks that know how to win. For example, Vince Young was the first quarterback taken in 2005 and his team, Texas, won the title over Leinart’s team, USC, last year. Last year Jamarcus Russell was the first quarterback taken and that may have been because of two late in the season Notre Dame loses. I just don’t think someone can put Matt Ryan below Brian Brohm on their Big Board right now because of Ryan’s record being so much better than Brohm’s.      

Top Five: Game Breakers

Game breakers: a term that many fans associate with the other term of explosiveness.

In my mind there is a clear number one game breaker in the country, that being DeSean Jackson, of California, and four others that we’ll look at. With out a doubt DeSean Jackson puts the most fear in any opponent’s eyes. He does this with four, three speed and ridiculous moves to get to the plane where he can not and will not be caught; as he showed last year as a sophomore, and certain times of this year as a junior, like the Tennessee and Oregon games. In the Tennessee game he brought back a punt seventy-seven yards to the house with ease. Then two weeks ago in the Oregon game he broke out again with eleven catches for 161 yards and two touchdowns. So far this year he has an average of 11.1 yards per catch and three touchdowns, in a season where he has been nursing a sprained thumb.

The next four game breakers all are quite close to each other in talent, but at all close to DeSean Jackson. At number two I have Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech, a freshman leading the nation in multiple categories. So far this year he has seventy catches for 1,074 yards leading the nation in both categories. He also has an average of 15.3 yards per catch and seventeen touchdowns easily leading the nation in that category as well. Next in line I would put Rashard Mendenahall, a junior at Illinois University. This kid plays running-back with an abundant amount of talent, which shows in his numbers. This year he has carried the ball 114 times for 772 yards placing him fifth in the country. He also has an average of 6.8 yard per carry and twelve total touchdowns, ten of which are rushing. Fourth in line I put Tim Tebow, a sophomore of the University of Florida. He might be the best all-around player in the country, but his team has lost twice unlike any of my top three guys. His numbers are great though, with 1,455 passing yards along with five-hundred rushing yards make him a threat in multiple ways against a good defense, like LSU in which he had a good game, but they still lost. Some other numbers on Tebow are that he has an average of 4.8 yard per carry and twenty- two total touchdowns the most out of anyone on my list. Rounding out my top five is a man by the name of Pat White, junior from West Virginia. Again he might have more talent than some of the others on the list, but his team has also lost. Things he does have working for him is his blinding 4.3 speed when he hits the edge and a guy by the name of Steve Slaton making him look good, when they run Rich Rodriguez’s option offense. His numbers consist of 865 passing yards, along with 411 rushing yards, good for a quarterback of his caliber. Also he has an average six yard per carry, quite high for a quarterback and 14 total touchdowns pretty good when you have Steve Slaton right next to you most of the time. Some other names that just missed my list are Darren McFadden and Felix Jones of Arkansas and Steve Slaton of West Virginia University.