re: Darren McFadden and the 2006 Heisman

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1 Troy Smith* Ohio State SR QB 801 62 13 2540 203 Cmp, 311 Att, 2542 Yds, 30 TD, 6 Int
2 Darren McFadden* Arkansas SO RB 45 298 147 878 284 Att, 1647 Yds, 5.8 Avg, 14 TD
3 Brady Quinn* Notre Dame SR QB 13 276 191 782 289 Cmp, 467 Att, 3426 Yds, 37 TD, 7 Int
4 Steve Slaton* West Virginia SO RB 6 51 94 214 248 Att, 1744 Yds, 7.0 Avg, 16 TD

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ESPN campaigned hard for Troy Smith in 2006. It was completely one sided and ESPN acted like no one else on earth came close to deserving the Heisman. It was pretty terrible.

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ESPN has always marketed to Big 10 country pretty hard for college football, which makes sense- there's a lot more viewers in that part of the country. The South was considered more of a backwater, and both coasts were more into the pro leagues.
And to be fair, Ohio State and Michigan were considered 'safe' national teams, along with Oklahoma and Nebraska, Notre Dame, and USC. The only true national teams in the South were Fla State and Miami. Even Bama was more of a regional thing, ever since Bear left.

It took the SEC running a train on the BCS for over half a decade for that to change, but there are still those who resent it and want to go back to "the Heartland".

you see that with the coaches poll, Ohio State gets maybe 1 in 10 votes elsewhere for #1, but unanimous support within their own conference. Even the ACC picked LSU over Clemson.

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Wisconsin played Arkansas in their bowl game that year,

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I know.

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did you honestly think Casey Dick provided much of a passing threat?

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Not really. But Arky/sec fans were all about SEC speed.

And we had one of our weakest rbs, pj hill, who later was a Saint practice squad player.

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McFadden ran against stacked fronts and won more often than not.

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Lolwut. 19 rushes for 89 yards. We shut him down. Clearly you forgot my posts about how a lowly, slow, white big ten team shite him down. That he got his yards against a weak sec. ;)

Felix Jones had the good game. About 10 a carry.

But you win them for being a game manager as a QB and throwing for less than 3000 yards total? Get out of here.

D-Mac's first several games that year where after being injured with a gun shot to the foot in the off season if I am remembering that right. He got rolling and showed up when the Hogs needed him in the big games. He also split carries with Felix another 1000. D-Mac was easily the best player that year

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D-Mac's first several games that year where after being injured with a gun shot to the foot in the off season if I am remembering that right. 

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Kicking with sandals on


Almost ended his career.

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What crap.

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Read the next sentence after what you quoted. When there was a legitimate argument for 3-4 players the Heisman committee pretty much rotated between a handful of glamor teams, none of whom were in the SEC

Ingram was really the first SEC player to win it when you could have made a legitimate argument for 3-4 players. I was surprised to be honest, but it was a sign that times had changed.