Heisman Project

I talked to a reliable contact on Sunday about my Heisman Project and he said something to the effect of "yeah, if you keep this up for 5 years, maybe" I could get a shot at a Heisman vote.  Pretty disheartening.  That said, we'll make a run at it, I really love the award and it's kind of a dream to be a Heisman voter.

The alternative is to start begging current Heisman voters to will or allocate their vote to me.  That will be a more behind-the-scenes route, if I choose it.  And of course it takes some convincing.  We shall see...

Keeping with the same Heisman thought, here's a question for you-

What do you do if you're USC next year, in terms of promoting a Heisman candidate?  The early-season "default candidate" strategy of putting Matt Leinart on every magazine cover worked like a charm, needing only a little extra promotion before the Notre Dame game.

But now Reggie Bush has emerged and Matt Leinart has won his Heisman trophy.  There has been only one repeat winner of the award, Ohio State's Archie Griffin, and he won one of those thanks to extremely early ballot mailings, a procedure they changed after USC's Anthony Davis went nuts against Notre Dame during the regular season but most ballots had already been mailed.

Does USC try and buck history and support a Leinart run at back-to-back Heisman trophies?  Or do they market a rising star in Bush, who happens to play tailback at USC, a position with the credentials of 4 Heisman trophies backing it up?

Personally, I would let Matt Leinart do his thing, and get some energy for Reggie Bush.  Try having some stories written about him before the year, make some election theme, "Bush in '05" or something revolving around his nickname "The President".  Bush is now a junior and should have a lot more credibility with Heisman voters with another year of experience under his belt.

Or does USC pack it in and hand the award to Adrian Peterson, who has the potential to run away with the award if Oklahoma has a great year and he goes over 2,000 yards?

And then there are dark horse candidates like Florida's Chris Leak, a guy with a big name, and playing in what should be a great offense and directing a team that may well go undefeated through the regular season.

Whatever the situation, this year is shaping up to be one of the better Heisman years ever, eclipsing last year's amazing and unprecedented field that was a solid two-deep in candidates.

It is heartening to know that HeismanPundit and HeismanProjection.com will be online tracking the award's ups and downs this year.  I'll be glued to both websites once the field starts to take shape.  You should be, too.