It wasn't only several second place votes that separated Stanford's Toby Gerhart and Mark Ingram, but also 11 touchdowns and 200 total yards in favor of Gerhart. The question is no longer why didn't Gerhart win, Because that is slowly becoming unanswerable. But rather why did Ingram win? And there is only one answer, he plays for Alabama. Say we swapped the two players, put Ingram on Stanford and Gerhart on Bama. Same stats, results, and team BCS positions. Gerhart wins in a heartbeat, and I guarantee you that not one Heisman voter would deny that, and that is the problem with the system. The Heisman Trophy is supposed to be handed out to the player who has the best season, regardless of where his team stands at the end of the year.
If Alabama gets defeated by Florida in the SEC Championship, Ingram probably wouldn't of finished top two, and Tebow would have most likely slid into a top spot in the voting, but Gerhart would have won. It is not Gerhart's fault that Stanford didn't have a good a year as Bama, but in the Pac 10 you can certainly not down play the numbers he put up. He did everything he could to help the Cardinal win this season, and played a lot of good defenses, where he played his best. This wasn't a case like Colt Brennan a few years back where it could be argued that he played in a very easy WCC and wasn't challenged all season. Gerhart was challenged, and when he was he came through. Rushing for 26 touchdowns and 1,7000 yards is no joke anywhere, especially in the Pacific 10 Conference.
What I am doing, is not downplaying what Mark Ingram did this year, but simply showing the flaws in the Heisman system. There is no doubt that Toby Gerhart should have won the award with flying colors. No doubt. But hey, congratulations to Ingram, he utilized a bunch of specialists who thought he was "2nd place" and is the one taking home the hardware, touche NCAA.
JD
To Jesse Dougherty
ReplyDeleteGreat article on the heisman winner for this year. Although I would like to argue one of the facts that were presented. Its obvious that Toby Gerhart was a well deserving candidate for the Heisman. He had statistically dominated Mark Ingram in every category such as attempts and fumbles.Toby Gerhart had 311 carries compared to Ingram's 249. Not to take anything away from Gerhart but considering yards per carry If you were to put Gerhart on Alabama's team (as you suggested) He would not get the amount of carries as he did at stanford.Plus the Pac Ten is not the SEC and thats especially true for defense.
Ingram had to share the load this year with 5 star true freshman Trent Richardson. The two quickly became the best one-two combo in the SEC.
Toby Gerhart deserved the heisman and so did Mark Ingram. That is why it was the closest race in history. Alabama has put themselves in the National Championship which seemed to be the Tie Breaker.
CD