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| RussellMania was in full force in Sept and Mid - Oct, no reason it can't pick up again |
Late April- as the winter snow was melting, and the Rose Bowl hangover succumbing, the Badger faithful got wind of a possible transfer at the quarterback position. Many fans, including myself, were skeptical at first, wondering if a one and down quarterback was the right move for our beloved Badgers. Three months later, Wilson was scurrying into the end zone for a 46 yard touchdown against UNLV. It was official, RussellMania was here and the NC and Heisman hype started in full force.
Up until last Saturday, Russell Wilson was delivering a nearly perfect season. However, due to the heart breaking loss in East Lansing, Badger fans saw their National Championship dreams squashed along with Russell’s Heisman bid. Listening to Scott Van Pelt today, they did not even mention Russell’s name when discussing the race. In Adam Rittenberg’s analysis this week, he stated how another Heisman hopeful saw their dream’s squandered at the hands of the Spartans.
I don’t think this is the case at all. Yeah, Russell has some work to do and it might take a bad game by Luck or Richardson, but I would not say it “Removes him from the Heisman Race.” The major reason why the media states this claim is because Wisconsin now has a 1 in the L column, yet this means nothing! The reason people think that this is because the last two Heisman winners, Cam Newton and Mark Ingraham, had undefeated seasons.
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| Bradford was the last one loss QB to win the Heisman |
Looking back, 8 out of the last 13 Heisman winners suffered a loss during the regular season. The most recent Heisman winner to take the stage with a loss was Sam Bradford in 2008. However, look back a year earlier when Timmy was dubbed Heisman, he had three losses in the regular season! One loss, let alone a loss that came down to a hailmary, should not knock a candidate out of the running.
Although he had his mistakes, Russell fought to the very end through the adversity against MSU. He single handedly brought us back into that game. Without him, there was no historic hailmary pass, just a double digit loss handed out by the Spartans. After using his feet to bring us within seven, he went a perfect 4 -4 on the last drive including a pass to Ball to tie the game up. Even the college game day crew tweeted “That was a Heisman-esque drive.” If the hailmary never happened and Russell had led us to victory in OT, I believe the media would be saying the exact same thing.
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| Can Luck keep up his momentum in SoCal? |
Looking at the body of work for the season, Russell’s numbers are up there with the other candidates. When you look at total yards (rushing and passing), only Tajh Boyd has more with a combined 2,544 yards (Thanks in part to Sammy Watkins). Russell, Kellen and Luck are all within a 30 yard range of each other slightly under 2,000. The same goes for touchdowns, Tajh has the lead with 28 but Kellen, Russell and Luck are close behind with 24, 20 and 22 respectively. Lastly, Russell is only a point behind RG 3 in QB passer rating. Russell will most certainly claim the lead in that category this weekend once the Bears visit the Cowboys in Stillwater.
The most important stat for my case is 8/15. There has only been eight weeks of college football with seven remaining. After last weekend, I think it is safe to say anything can happen. If Russell has a phenomenal night this weekend at OSU, who knows how the race could shake up. Luck could stumble this week at USC and Richardson could have an off night when LSU comes to town Nov 5th. Also, looming down the road is a potential rematch with MSU where Russell can find redemption and steal the show. Either way, I will assure you Russell will be dressed to the nines on December 10th.
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| As you can see, you do not need to go undefeated to win the Heisman. |
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