Heisman Race: Week 13

What a freaking day in college football.

Here's what my Heisman ballot wouldve looked like (in Alpha Order because I'm not going to listen to opinions on my rankings) before today:

• Manziel
• Mariota
• McCarron
• Petty
• Winston

Putting Johnny on there kills me and not just because I'm not a huge fan of the kid's off the field behavior. I'll explain later.

If I had to cast my ballot today it would only have two names on it.

McCarron and Winston.

Why?

Because the other three had AWFUL days today.

We'll start with Manziel because I watched his game in it's entirety. It was awful. For starters, I would like to give credit where credit is due. The LSU defense played tremendously. And frankly, they had to. (Did y'all see how many penalties the LSU Offensive Line had? IT WAS A LOT. LSU had 111 yds in penalties vs. A&M's 50. 30 of which were on one play. Insanity. Which also baffles me to the amount of Aggie fans complaining about the refs but I digress.)

Manziel was awful. He completed 16 passes on 41 attempts. That's a meager 39%. He threw two interceptions, including one in the endzone. There were some passes that were on his receivers but a majority were just bad. And the thing I noticed in the first quarter was that his offensive line was handling LSU's defensive line much better than I anticipated. He did have spots of good play but overall it wasn't impressive.

Which brings me to why I haven't been impressed with him this season. Every Aggie I know has put this graphic up highlighting his numbers but left off the stat that makes him low on my imaginary Heisman ballot. Interceptions. Here they are by my top 5:

Manziel- 12 McCarron-5 Mariota-2 Petty-1  Winston- 7

Johnny Football? More like Johnny Turnover. (I so wish I could take credit for that but my friends are funny too. Thanks Chris.)

That's a lot of interceptions for somebody who is known for making phenomenal plays with his feet. 

"But Katelyn...he throws a lot of touchdowns." That's true. 
Johnny has thrown 32 touchdowns this season.

You know who else has thrown 32 touchdowns this season? Jameis Winston...and he's got 5 less interceptions. Yeahhh....


The other thing that stands out for me is the Ole Miss. Yes, a win is a win, and Manziel got out by the skin of his teeth. The thing that I remember about that game is how many times he put himself into bad situations. (Yes his defense is no help.) My friend Zach (HEY Z!) said something tonight at dinner about Manziel that I think was spot on. He plays high risk, high reward football. Yes, it has worked for him. But there are times it's dangerous and Ole Miss, a team A&M should have readily beat, showed weakness in that philosophy.

So Manziel played himself right off my ballot today.

Now Bryce Petty. Poor guy played my beloved Pokes today in my second hometown and it was ROUGH. I am SO proud of the defense we have fielded there in Stillwater. They've been told for a while they're the weak link in our team and they seem to have taken that to heart because they are playing out of their minds. Seriously, the are not only winning the turnover battle, but they are forcing most of the turnovers and it's beautiful. 

I was confident going into this game in spite of Bryce Petty's ability to take his team down the field in under a minute and score on average 61 points a game. So 1st and 10 on the 1 yd line had me yelling at our defense to show America what we were about. A forced and recovered fumble on 2nd down had me jumping. In the fourth quarter we actually recovered a Bryce Petty fumble from the 2 yd line. Baylor had a rough night.

And Petty had a very rough night. Our defense had Baylor's number all night. Petty looked flat and unimpressive. He was on an uphill battle anyways because so many people feel like Baylor has played a relatively unimpressive schedule and tonight might have just added more doubt.

I'm still impressed by the amount of times Petty has put the ball in the air and only has 1 interception. Holy cow. So had Baylor played this game closer, and our defense not been so lights out, I would still have Petty in consideration.

Finally, Mariota. I did not get to watch his game (no coverage in Houston.) So based off of what others are saying, he was quite unimpressive. He also lost to a fairly unimpressive Arizona team. 

And by lost, I mean got stomped.

Fact of the matter is, He didn't look great in the game against Stanford, and losing to Arizona today...He's out of my race. 

Now I still don't know what's going on with Winston and these rape allegations. Nobody really wants to give the Heisman to a guy who is going to possibly have it stripped later so...that's a sticky situation. 

Fact of the matter is, the kid's a freaking athlete. He's doing the dang thing down there in Tallahassee and his season is VERY impressive. And he's a freshman. (As much as Johnny was last year.) We shouldn't let what Johnny did as a freshman desensitize us to what Winston is doing as a freshman. It's impressive.

And Finally, McCarron. I think AJ is so underrated. He's the winningest quarterback in SEC history and the guy is on the verge of winning an unprecedented 3rd national championship. 

I think a lot of people take McCarron for granted. He has a talented supporting cast no doubt. But McCarron definitely stands out in the bunch for me. He's a supreme game manager. He's calm, and when he loses it, it's for good reason. Remember him getting into it with an Offensive lineman last year?

Guess who got their act together and started doing their job...

I almost feel like people are so used to McCarron and him winning that we forget how impressive it is. We expect it, so it no longer seems impressive. But HE IS impressive. I also think that people assume that any quarterback that Saban recruits could step into his shoes and replace him. I don't feel like that's the case by any means.

If I had to pick between the two today, well... I couldn't.

I might go McCarron because of the trouble Winston is facing and because he's been so good year in and year out. I might go Winston because I think he's a game changer and he consistently impresses me.

I might wish that the Heisman ceremony took place after the National Championship because I will probably get to see the two go head to head.

I also spent some time talking to a friend tonight about the surprise that not a single running back has come up in Heisman talks as of late. Just none of them have been consistently good enough. It's been a bizarre year, y'all.

December 14th is coming up quick and I'm interested to see who the voters make the finalists. Too bad Clowney hasn't been quite the terror he was expected to be this season.

xo

Sometimes updating is difficult...

It turns out writing a blog is really hard. Mainly because I watch SO many games all the time and I don't know how much y'all want to hear me ramble about a whole bunch of stuff. So I'll go over a few things and then we'll get into how I feel about certain classifications of "fans."

• The Texans are bad. Like...BAD. Except it doesn't make any sense. The defense is still very good. I don't like Case Keenum and I was probably 1 of 10 people not calling for Kubiak's head for the Schaub switch. I think in desperate situations where the inexperienced player isn't getting it done, YOU HAVEEEE to go to experience. Also our offensive line kills me. I notice them every play. I shouldn't. Stop it.
• Peyton Manning is a freak of nature. I mean that. Like...who seriously thought he would come back from that neck surgery? And now look at him.
• I laughed at the Patriots fans upset about the call (well, no call) at the end of the game last week. Do you not remember the blatant holding that wasn't called to win over New Orleans? I do. Karma.
• I'm listening to "Monster" (Eminem ft Rihanna...incredible song.) He just mentioned Russel Wilson. You've made it. 
• Oklahoma State plays Baylor this week. I could not be more hyped about it if I tried. If it's not orange, I haven't worn it this week.
• Also, I'm going to be cheering very loud for the LSU Tigers this weekend. GEAUXXXX. Bet on Mett? I am.
• Speaking of, how does AJ McCarron not get more Heisman hype. Dude's about to win his 3rd Natty. 
• And the prospect of Florida State and Alabama playing for the title has me 9 kinds of excited. That could be a great game.
• On the Winston rape charges: I'm one that believes that allegations made by a woman should always be taken serious. I air on the side of caution in this and I'm well aware his DNA has been linked. But I read in part of the police report she originally estimated him to be between 5'9-5'11. Maybe it's because I'm on the taller end of the spectrum in that range that I don't get it, but how are you so far off. Dude is 6'4. 
• Hockey is beautiful. And a mess. (If you have twitter I highly recommend following Roberto Luongo. Guy is hysterical.) The Avs look good (didn't see that one coming.) The Oilers don't look good. (How do you have that many number 1 picks and still struggle?)
• If I had to vote today Josh Harding would get the Masterton (Trophy for perservation, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey) and the Vezina (Top Goalie). He has looked truly phenomenal this season. You probably wouldn't even believe me if I told you last November he announced the world that he was diagnosed with MS. Tough as Hards is my new motto.
• The Sabres are awful. It's so disheartening sometimes. You have Ryan Miller making 42 saves behind you and you still lose 4-1. They did a major shake up at the top, but I'm still waiting them to truly just gut their payroll and rebuild. It's time for it. Stop just saying it.
• The Rockets look good! This season seems exciting. I'm not even going to pretend like I've been paying that close of attention to basketball season. For starters the CSN deal is a freaking KILLER. Can't watch any games! Also, f**k you, Les Alexander. I don't know that there's a pro team owner that I dislike more. Which is saying something because Bud Adams, may he rest in peace, MOVED a football team from my hometown to TENNESSEE. 
• I really, really, dislike Les Alexander.

Like ALOT.

I've commented on fans before and I need to take the time and patience to sit down and type out my thoughts. It's just hard cause it's personal for me.

I have some really amazingly talented friends.

Most of them make me twice as proud off of the field/ice/court as the do on it.

And it doesn't bother me when people say they suck. I just laugh. They sucked their way to this level and tricked every scout and higher up amongst organizations along the way. There's a reason you're not in the position and you watch from a chair and I guarantee that 99% of the people making these comments couldn't perform at this level or they would be. 

What kills me is when people chop their character or their work ethic.

Unless a player has PERSONALLY done something to offend you, stop. STOP. 

I can tell you I have NEVER had a player be rude to me when I approached them as a fan. But I also don't do it if they're eating, or if they're with their kids. 

Also, STOPPP insulting their work ethic. I have personally heard someone in the stands call somebody I knew a "lazy bum."

This person works hard than anyone I know. He is constantly trying to improve himself. 

I've also heard fans talk about a player be a "crybaby" and not coming back out to join the team after being pulled.

Those fans had no idea that said player was playing with an unannounced/undisclosed injury and didn't come back out immediately because they were receiving treatment from a trainer in an effort to get them ready for the next game.

I have watched friends go to practices sick, get IV fluids before, practice their ass off, get fluids after, and lay in bed the rest of the day. 

YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT GOES ON HALF THE TIME. Be upset about their play on the field, yes. But please, for the love of all sanity, stop insulting their character. 

Continue with the "you suck" chants all ya want. Sometimes this girl needs a laugh. (Saying a player is not playing well at the moment makes you sound much more informed that declaring they overall suck. As a personal disclaimer: there is one player I would yell a "you suck" at. I have yet to figure out how he has a job...)

xo