Oregon's James Should Have Finished Second in Heisman Voting

It was no surprise to hear Cam Newton's name called when the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner was announced on December 11.

The outcome of the annual vote to honor college football's best player seemed to be pre-determined, perhaps weeks before the actual announcement was made.

A tad more surprising was the player who finished second in voting, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck.

No disrespect meant to Luck; he's a darn good quarterback. But I fail to understand why Heisman voters placed him ahead of Oregon running back LaMichael James.

Luck gave the Cardinal a second-place finisher in the Heisman voting for the second year in a row; running back Toby Gerhart finished second in 2009 to Alabama's Mark Ingram. The last school to boast Heisman runners-up in back-to-back seasons was Purdue in 1968 and 1969 with Leroy Keyes and Mike Phipps.

Luck is certainly a good quarterback, as Pac-10 fans have known for a while. He led the Cardinal to an 11-1 record in 2010, with a 166.7 efficiency rating, 3,051 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and just seven interceptions while completing a stunning 70.2 percent of his attempts.

But I have a hard time picking him ahead of James, who was the biggest-impact player on the nation's highest-scoring offense and a team that went 12-0 to reach the BCS National Championship game.

James was suspended for Oregon's season opener, so both he and Luck led their teams to the same number of wins in 2010, but James helped engineer a victory in the one game Luck's Cardinal lost - a 52-31 decision at Autzen Stadium in Eugene on October 2.

Luck threw for 341 yards that day, completing 29-of-46 passes for two touchdowns and two interceptions, and also running for 39 yards and another TD.

All James did was rush for 257 yards and three touchdowns in a victory.

He led the nation in rushing with 1,682 yards, an average of 152.9 per game, while setting a school record for rushing touchdowns in a season with 21.

Perhaps Heisman voters, in the end, decided that Luck was more instrumental to his team's success than James was to the Ducks' success. As in, without Luck, Stanford doesn't even get a sniff of the Orange Bowl, where the Cardinal are set to face ACC champion Virginia Tech on January 3.

It's an argument worth pondering. Without Luck, there's no way Stanford wins 11 games in 2010. But, as talented as Oregon is across the board offensively, I don't think the Ducks get through the season undefeated without James, either.

Newton ran away with the Heisman, and deservedly so, finishing with 2,283 points in the voting system. Luck was second with 1,079 points and James third with 916, including 22 first-place votes, 313 second-place votes and 224 third-place votes.

Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore was fourth with 635 points.

James was only the second Heisman Trophy finalist in the history of the Oregon football program; quarterback Joey Harrington was a finalist in 2001 and finished fourth in the voting.

He winds up as the highest finisher in Heisman Trophy voting in school history.

It's a well-deserved honor.

He just should have finished one spot higher.