Posts Tagged ‘Heisman Trophy’

Rants From the Houston Sports Peanut Gallery

November 13, 2011

The half mast flag is for the apparent slam dunk status of both these issues.

Case Keenum: The Invisible Man

I hate bringing up a subject that seems to delight all of my diehard tea sip friends out there, but  little has changed in the Heisman power structure  of things since I last wrote anything in Case Keenum’s behalf as a candidate. (By the way, I’m also a UT graduate at the doctoral level and I will always appreciate what UT did for me. They just never tried to convert me, nor could they ever have pried my heart away from UH.)

Back to football and the Heisman “Case for Keenum.”

UH Coach Kevin Sumlin did the classy, gentlemanly thing last  Thursday night in New Orleans by removing QB Keenum in the third quarter with the Cougars already well on their way to an eventual 73-17 thrashing of Tulane in the Superdome. In the end, Sumlin had to order the Cougars’ third string QB to take a knee three times to keep the very youngest bench players from scoring another. Had he left Keenum and the first team in for the last quarter and a half they rested, Case might have piled up over five hundred yards and something close to the nine TDs he bagged previously against Rice.

Then comes yesterday, Saturday, Oct. 12th and the fall of Stanford and Boise and their own Heisman hopefuls. And what do we get from the ESPN golden boy? Here’s what I remember in paraphrased ideational quotes from his sign-off commentary last night:

“With both QBs Andrew Luck of Stanford and Kellen Moore of Boise State looking not so great in losing causes yesterday (11/12/11), it may be time we start looking at QB Brandon Weeden of Oklahoma State as the new choice for the 2011 Heisman. Weeden threw for 423 yards and 5 TDs in the Cowboys’ 66-6 slaughter of Texas Tech at Lubbock on Saturday and I was totally impressed.” … Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN Commentator.

C’mon Kirk! At least, give Case Keenum a little visibility on the way to your apparent judgment that the Heisman should only go to a player from one of the BCS conference schools. Some of us with a dog in this fight wouldn’t trade Case Keenum for Brandon Weeden or any of the other QBs or RBs either, but we would, at least, take a fair look at them relative to Case on our way to a fair final  judgment of who deserves the Heisman above all others. In the end, I rally think that Case Keenum’s ability far transcends the strength of schedule rap against UH, but that’s not a winnable argument and I know it.

Hmmm. If I had a Heisman vote,  which I don’t, I wonder who I would pledge it to? 🙂

Houston: A Town Without NL Pity

Anybody heard anything yet from Houston Mayor Annise Parker in protest to the idea of the Astros being forced to move to the AL as a condition for approving the final sale of the club to new owner Jim Crane? How about Harris County Judge Ed Emmett? Does he have an axe to grind in favor of keeping Houston in the NL? How about any of the city council members or Harris County commissioners?  Or even corporate members in good standing with the Greater Houston Partnership? Isn’t there a single community leader now hooked into the local power structure who gives a rat’s ankle that our professional baseball club is about to be railroaded from our historical attachment to the National League to be placed in that other conference, the American League, the one that only plays a variant of the true game because of the “designated hitter” rule?

If it’s not too late, which it probably is, someone with clout from Houston needs to make it very clear to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig that Houston is a National League city, that its ties to the NL go back ninety years, at least, when Houston first connected to the National League as a farm club for the St. Louis Cardinals – and that all of that identity was formed firmly before Houston struck a new path of its own in 1962 as a now fifty year direct member of the National League family.

Now the speaking up will be left to the season ticket buyers, those of you who remain from the other group that already has decided to bail out on the Houston Astros, if they make this move. – Are the rest of you season ticket holders going to renew season ticket purchases for 2013  to see Houston play in the American League West – and by the “DH” format?

What’s it going to be, Houston? Are we going to stand up and fight to keep real baseball and our National League identity safe from the uncaring, but coldly calculating plans of the Commissioner? – Or are we going to just go belly up and take this apparently impending transfer of the Astros to the American League without a whimper?

Several people, including my adult son Neal, have told me that they are through with the Astros, if the AL move becomes a reality. “Dad,” Neal said to me last night, “why don’t we just move the whole family to St. Louis where we already have a lot of other baseball friends and the Cardinals? Even if we don’t move the family, I will now become a Cardinals fan, if the Astros move to the American League West.”

Some of our leading media people don’t like this “Houston-to-the-AL-West” idea either, but they are constrained by their professional duties from speaking out on the issue. Why the powerful sociopolitical and economic leaders don’t speak out is anybody’s guess. Maybe they just don’t care.

All I know is that we “little people/everyday fans”  have a choice to either speak up or shut up.

Some, I’m sure, will just ride the fence that they have now been confronted with another change in life they don’t like, but cannot control: “Maybe it will be like $3.50 per gallon gas. We didn’t like it, at first, but we got used to it  after we found a way to pay the extra bucks. Maybe the AL and the DH rules in baseball will be like high-priced gas too.. We’ll just get used to it.”

What will it be, Houston?

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Keenum Closing Case on Heisman Run

November 6, 2011

  Look. I get it. – I don’t like it, but I get it.

Andrew Luck of Stanford will most probably win the Heisman Trophy in December as the “individual who deserves designation as the most outstanding college football player in the United States” for this current 2011 season. Luck fits the physical prototype of size and ability that is most favored by the NFL,  he is currently having a very successful year quarterbacking prestigious and undefeated Stanford on the path for perhaps a place in the BCS championship game, and he’s doing it all in the face of top-flight competition as a longtime member of the highly regarded Pac 12 Conference.

If Luck wins, however, it will not be because he actually fulfilled the expressed intentionality of the Heisman award better than any other player in the United States or that no other player had a better statistical year on the collegiate Division 1 level. It will be because of his prior anointment by the media, the pro scouts, and NFL fans as the second coming of Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis Colt Consolation Prize for going 0-16 in 2011, and the next great Moses in some pro team’s future search for a Super Bowl title.

Fair enough, if that’s what the Heisman is now about, but that’s not what their formal language for describing the purpose of the trophy says it’s about. It says exactly what we quoted above. Repeat: The Heisman Trophy is intended for the “individual who deserves designation as the most outstanding college football player in the United States.” It doesn’t say anything about giving it to the player who comes from a prestigious school whose Greek God body and ability reminds everyone of the next great NFL QB.

A few years ago, the Heisman went to a fellow named Earl Campbell from UT and deservedly so. Earl didn’t win simply because he was from UT or the best pro prospect that practically everyone had ever seen. He won because he was best college football player in America by his on-the-field collegiate accomplishments.

On the heels of Campbell came another Texas Heisman winner, Andre Ware of UH, who also won for his collegiate accomplishments. Ware’s runner-up candidate was a young fellow named Emmett Smith from Florida, whose collegiate accomplishments were not nearly as strong as Ware’s, but whose professional upside was considerably greater, to put it mildly. Ware didn’t make it in the pros, but Smith, as we all know, went on to a NFL Hall of Fame career with the Dallas Cowboys.

My point is simple: Based upon the stated purpose of the Heisman Trophy award, Earl Campbell and Andre Ware both deserved to win the Heisman for their collegiate accomplishments. Now we have a situation this year in which the man who best deserves the award for his record-shattering collegiate accomplishments will likely not win because of the anointment of Andrew Luck as the top pick in the NFL draft – and not because his actual accomplishments on the field relative to those of Case Keenum of UH were even close to comparable.

I don’t expect all of you to agree with me, but there can be no argument with the results achieved by Case Keenum on the field. After last night’s 56-13 win over Alabama-Birmingham, Case Keenum now holds five major career offensive marks – and these are records that Andrew Luck does not even come close to matching. Forget that UH does not play the toughest schedule on the block. UH (we) would do so if the BCS hot-shot schools didn’t mostly see us as one of those “everything to lose and nothing to gain” scheduling choices. Thank goodness that schools like UCLA have the guts to give the Cougars a fair shot in combat, but that’s beside the point in this Heisman matter. The Heisman qualifier does not say anything about ruling players out who have achieved in the face of “lesser regarded” by reputation competition.

Case Keenum Finds Peace on Each Record Night.

Here’s the quick breakdown on Case Keenum’s career marks, with each record showing the name and numbers for the previous holder:

Case Keenum’s NCAA Football Records:

(1) Career Touchdown Passes: 141 (Graham Harrell, Texas Tech – 134)

(2) Total Yards Gained: 18,101 (Timmy Chang, Hawaii – 16,910)

(3) Career Touchdowns, Passing & Running: 163 (Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan – 150)

(4) 300+ Yard Games: 34 (Timmy Chang, Hawaii – 33)

(5) Passing Yards: 17,212 (Timmy Chang, Hawaii – 17,072)

If the New York Athletic Club decides to turn the tide and choose the candidate whose accomplishments best fit the requirements of the Heisman, they could do the trophy great honor by picking Case Keenum of the University of Houston. Case is a fine upstanding young man who should also enjoy a nice career in the NFL after this season, no matter what happens from here. Keenum’s head and value system are also on straight. He is a devout Christian gentleman who married his high school sweetheart this past summer. When you see this young couple together, they seem to have the word “always” written in the blue skies over their shoulders. I wouldn’t see there ever being a need to request a return of the Heisman from Case Keenum for any reason.

I’ll admit to some bias in my support of Case Keenum for the Heisman, but I really do think he objectively deserves it based upon his many great accomplishments. Andrew Luck is a good man too – and he will represent the Heisman honorably too, if he is chosen – and – as politics go, I think he will be the pick.

If Luck is chosen, however, I hope the selection committee will also change the language of their award requirements to match their real reasons for making a selection. If the Heisman is really about picking the next number 1 NFL draft choice, just say so – because there’s no way that either the productivity or character of Andrew Luck deserves the Heisman Trophy over Case Keenum.

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