2009 Heisman Trophy Finalists.

This year five players are up for the Heisman trophy. All are great players and are deserving of the award. If you follow football you will know that the best player may not always win it. Look at 1998 when Peyton Manning lost to Charles Woodson. He was a great player but nowhere near as good as Manning or as valuable to his team.

The 2009 Heisman Trophy finalists include running back Mark Ingram of Alabama, running back Toby Gerhart from Stanford; quarterback Tim Tebow from Florida, Colt McCoy from Texas, and defensive tackle Suh Ndmukong from Nebraska. They each had awesome seasons and three of them had undefeated seasons until the final week of the season. Here is some info on the five finalists.

Mark Ingram is a sophomore from the University of Alabama. The team is undefeated and will play Texas for the National Championship. He rushed for 1,542 yards with 6.2 yards per carry average and scored 15 touchdowns. He protected the ball very well during the year and kept the fumbles really low. He also caught 30 passes for 322 yards with three touchdowns receiving. He was feared that many teams got to the point of focusing on Ingram and forcing first year starting quarterback Greg McElroy win the game for the tide. McElroy came along as the season progresses which allowed Ingram to continue putting up very good numbers. He also played in the toughest conference in the country in the SEC. He will be the first Heisman Trophy winner from Alabama if he wins.

Toby Gerhart is a senior from Stanford University. He had a really good season. He ran for 1,736 yards with a 5.6 yard average and scored ten touchdowns. He added 149 receiving yards. Those numbers are really good, but his team only went 8-4 and really only played a couple good teams. He also did not give the spark to his team that Ingram did. While he is a great running back and has a future in the NFL, he is the second best running back at this years Heisman awards presentation.

Colt McCoy is a senior from Texas. His team is undefeated and will play Alabama for the National Championship. He was a four year starter at quarterback for Texas after a red shirt year. He had a really good year. He passed for 3,512 yards with 27 touchdowns and 12 interceptions completing 70.5 percent of his passes. He added 348 yards on the ground and three touchdowns. With his horrible play against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship he really can't make a great case for winning. He threw three interceptions in that game and really has not performed well in the big games.

Tim Tebow is a Senior Florida. He has played since his freshman year and has started the last three years. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 as the first sophomore to win the award. He also added quite a few other awards that year as well as a National Championship. I also like that he is deeply religious and keeps God at the center of his life. He thanks God in most interviews and also puts scripture on his eye black. I believe he is the most talented athlete in college football, but he did not have a good of a season as prior years and that should cost him the Heisman. I have been surprised by voters before though. He is a great running and passing quarterback. There is debate, but I do believe he will have a future in the NFL. I am not sure if he will be a starter for some time, but he is as good as any back up quarterback in the league. I must add that he has impeccable taste in women with some photos of him and his girlfriend. She has huge breasts and a natural attractive beauty about her.

Ndamukong Suh is the party crasher as the senior defensive tackle from Nebraska. On a side note why do some ethnic groups hang names like this on their kids? Is there an award for the weirdest name you can think of? As far as the Heisman Trophy goes there are many who thinks he should win it. He did dominate some games, but not the way other players like Ingram and Tebow did. He did greatly help Nebraska in almost defeating Texas with 4.5 sacks. That is one game though. For the season he had 82 tackles including 50 solo stops. He also had 12 sacks, one interception, and a forced fumble and blocked three kicks. He is considered by some to be the best prospect in the 2010 draft. This could be the case as Peyton Manning did not win the award back in 1998. I think he has a great football future ahead of him but he did not have the impact for his team that other players have had.

I think all five of these players will end up drafted in the NFL(less Ingram since he is a sophomore). I think Gerhart will probably be the last taken of the group though will Suh will probably be the first taken. I don't have a vote so my opinion is irrelevant, but here are my thoughts. I think Ingram should win it. I am a huge Crimson Tide fan, but that is not why. It is the way he dominated games and was a complete back both running and passing the ball. He also displayed power and speed running. I firmly believe in Bear Bryant's thought that players go to Alabama to "win a National Championship" and not the Heisman. I am partially worried it might be bad omen if Ingram wins as I would rather get a Crimson Tide National Championship than a Heisman trophy. If he wins the Heisman then that can only help recruiting. The Tide dynasty may be back for years to come. Here is my order of how I think they stack up in voting. First place would be Ingram followed by Tebow. Next would be McCoy followed by Suh and Gerhart would round things out due to the lack of competition in that conference.

Sources

http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=5&SPID=22&DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=204791510

http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com/

http://www.rolltide.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/alab-m-footbl-sched.html

http://www.gostanford.com/sports/m-footbl/stan-m-footbl-body.html

http://www.gatorzone.com/football/

ESPN

Various games during the season that I watched.