Heisman: RGIII, No Luck, Montee and his TDs

By Dan Rodgers

Tonight, less than an hour ago, was the Heisman Trophy ceremony. QB Robert Griffin III won the prestigious award, the first Baylor player in history.

Below is the list of the first, second, and third place finishers for the award and their season statistics:

1. Robert Griffin III, QB 9-3 Baylor 3,998 p-yards 72.4% 36 TD 6 INT - 644 ru-yards 9 TD
2. Andrew Luck, QB 11-1 Stanford 3,170 p-yards, 70.0% 35 TD 9 INT - 153 ru-yards 2 TD
3. Trent Richardson, RB 11-1 Alabama 1,583 ru-yards 20 TD - 27 rec 327 rec-yards 3 TD

It appears that RGIII has the best statistical season of the three top vote-getters. However, for much of the season, Luck was playing with a few walk-on receivers and his tight end. Trent Richard "led" his team to a more-than-likely berth in the BCS National Championship game and had over 160 total yards in the team's only loss: 9-6 OT to LSU (the kicker missed multiple FGs). Take a look at two other players I feel were deserving of consideration:

Russell Wilson, QB 11-2 Wisconsin 2879 p-yards 72.5% 31 TD 3 INT - 320 ru-yards 5 TD
Montee Ball, RB 11-2 Wisconsin 1759 ru-yards 32 TD - 20 rec 255 rec-yards 6 TD

Wilson had a comparable season to RGIII, and the only reason his passing yards are so long is because Wisconsin often pulled him from the game when they were killing their opponent. They also would be playing for the National Championship had they not lost on a hail mary in back-to-back games. Even more impressive is the job Ball did carrying to load when Wilson need a pick-me-up. It is even scarier to think of what Ball's totals would be like if he did split some carries with James White, who stole over 600 yards and 6 TDs.

I am probably not as educated as I should be in Heisman voting, how they choose the top candidates, etc. I would like to think that each player is evaluated similarly. I would have expected the fact that RGIII didn't lead his team to a conference championship to hinder his chances. Baylor was blown out twice and RGIII was completely outplayed in one of the games. I guess the voters didn't feel as if the other players had a good enough season statistically speaking, for that to come in to play.

Look out tomorrow for NFL picks...

Rodgers That

Week 13 Picks

By Dan Rodgers

OK, so I was hoping to get this out earlier but the Towson game was nuts. As a Jets fan, I thought I had seen all of the possible ways of losing, but my Towson Tigers showed me something new.

Anyway, I am actually supposed to be in Virginia right now because I'm going to the Jets @ Redskins game today. I couldn't find my wallet so I couldn't leave last night, but I finally found it so I'm going to spit out my picks and then hit the road for some tailgating and football.

Ten/Buf 2.5 It's games like this you think the Titans would be favored...
KC/Chi 7 This SHOULD be a slaughter, but we saw what happened with Pittsburgh
Oak/Mia 3 You might be thinking, "Why isn't Oakland favored?" You're about to find out why
Cin/Pit 6.5 Cincy didn't play that well last week against Cleveland and I think Pittsburgh will rebound from last week's game
NYJ 3/Was Huge letdown spot for the Jets, but if they want to make their late season playoff push, they will get the job done
Atl 3/Hou Good team playing with rookie QB, look for the defense to step up big: Houston SU
Car/TB 3 Freeman is better than Newton, even if he isn't playing that way
Den/Min 1 I can't wait to see how many people took Denver in my book
Ind/NE 20 I didn't think I would ever pick a team favored by this much, but Indy takes losing to a whole new level... (SURVIVOR 9-3)
Bal 6.5/Cle I can't believe I'm picking the Ravens, on the road, against a bad team
Dal 5/Ari For some reason, everyone loves Arizona here. This is a huge game for Dallas as they can pull ahead of the Giants by two games...
Stl/SF 13 This matchup isn't even fair
GB 7/NYG This is why the Cowboys can go ahead by two games... I can't believe this line is so low considering how good Green Bay looked against Detroit, how bad NY looked, and the extra time to prepare for the Pack
Det/NO 9 I can't pick against Brees when he is as on fire as he is, the defense better step up
SD 3/Jax New owner, new coach, the team should get up for this game on MNF: JAX SU

Week 1: 7-9 ATS 10-6 SU
Week 2: 10-6 ATS 13-3 SU
Week 3: 11-4-1 ATS 10-6 SU
Week 4: 9-7 ATS 13-3 SU
Week 5: 6-7 ATS 7-6 SU
Week 6: 10-3 ATS 10-3 SU
Week 7: 9-3-1 ATS 10-3 SU
Week 8: 7-6 ATS 9-4 SU
Week 9: 8-6 ATS 9-5 SU
Week 10: 9-7 ATS 9-7 SU
Week 11: 6-5-2 ATS 11-2 SU
Week 12: 8-7-1 ATS 12-4 SU
Total: 100-70-5 ATS 123-52 SU

You can tell that I didn't feel like actually picking a survivor, so I just went with New England...

As you can tell, the last time I had a solid week was back in Week 7. I have a good feeling about this week though.

Rodgers That