The college football regular season ended last Saturday with the Oklahoma Sooners and the Florida Gators both punching their tickets to the BCS championship game in January, and fittingly enough, both schools have candidates for the Heisman Trophy, college football’s top player.
Seemingly always among the top college football teams, the Oklahoma Sooners worked their way into the top spot in the AP and USA Today rankings in weeks five and six.
They then lost to the Texas Longhorns 45–35 in the Red River Rivalry game on October 11 and dropped in the rankings.
When the first BCS rankings of the year were released a week later, Oklahoma was once again ranked fourth.
The team would not lose another game and would slowly work its way back into the No. 1 spot just in time for the final rankings, which came out last Sunday, and QB Sam Bradford’s play is part of what Oklahoma is riding on for a national title.
Bradford’s numbers are nothing short of spectacular—through 13 games this season Oklahoma’s signal caller has a passer rating of 186.3, completing 68.3 percent of his passes for 4,464 yards, 48 TDs, and only six interceptions.
The Sooners rank third in the nation, in terms of total passing yards with 4,635, averaging 356.5 yards a game through the air.
Even in Oklahoma’s only loss this season, Bradford still had solid numbers despite throwing two INTs. He completed 28 of 39 passes (72 percent) for 387 yards and five TDs.
Despite defeating BCS No. 1 Alabama in the SEC championship game last weekend 31–20 and earning a trip to the title game, a one-point loss to Ole Miss in September nearly cost Florida a trip to the championship.
Fortunately, they have a QB behind center with a rating comparable to Oklahoma’s.
In 2008, Tebow had a passer rating of 176.74. Although the Florida signal caller only had 2,515 passing yards and 28 passing TDs to Bradford’s 4,464 and 48 respectively, Tebow has been a better all-around QB, complementing his passing statistics with 564 rushing yards and 12 TDs as opposed to Bradford with only 65 yards on the ground and five TDs.
But Texas won the next three games and finished third in the final BCS standings.
Like Oklahoma and Florida, the Longhorns have a strong pivot in McCoy, who had the highest completion percentage in NCAA football completing 77.6 percent of his passes.
His other numbers aren’t too shabby either, with 3,445 yards passing, 32 TDs, 7 INTs, 576 rushing yards, and 10 rushing TDs.
A sure-fire Heisman Trophy predictor has been the Scripps Howard/Rocky Mountain News Service’s Heisman poll which has correctly predicted 18 of the last 21 trophy winners.
Last week’s poll saw Bradford in the lead with four first-place votes while McCoy was second with two and Tebow third with one vote.
The final poll saw McCoy shoot up to No. 1, followed by Bradford and Tebow, with the Oklahoma QB ranked No. 1 in the Heisman poll the two previous weeks.
The Heisman trophy will be awarded this Saturday.
Seemingly always among the top college football teams, the Oklahoma Sooners worked their way into the top spot in the AP and USA Today rankings in weeks five and six.
They then lost to the Texas Longhorns 45–35 in the Red River Rivalry game on October 11 and dropped in the rankings.
When the first BCS rankings of the year were released a week later, Oklahoma was once again ranked fourth.
The team would not lose another game and would slowly work its way back into the No. 1 spot just in time for the final rankings, which came out last Sunday, and QB Sam Bradford’s play is part of what Oklahoma is riding on for a national title.
Bradford’s numbers are nothing short of spectacular—through 13 games this season Oklahoma’s signal caller has a passer rating of 186.3, completing 68.3 percent of his passes for 4,464 yards, 48 TDs, and only six interceptions.
The Sooners rank third in the nation, in terms of total passing yards with 4,635, averaging 356.5 yards a game through the air.
Even in Oklahoma’s only loss this season, Bradford still had solid numbers despite throwing two INTs. He completed 28 of 39 passes (72 percent) for 387 yards and five TDs.
Florida Gators
Playing for a national title is nothing new for the Florida Gators. They won it all in 2006, and winning a Heisman is nothing new for Gators QB Tim Tebow—he took the honor last year.
Still, Florida’s season hasn’t been all smooth sailing.Despite defeating BCS No. 1 Alabama in the SEC championship game last weekend 31–20 and earning a trip to the title game, a one-point loss to Ole Miss in September nearly cost Florida a trip to the championship.
Fortunately, they have a QB behind center with a rating comparable to Oklahoma’s.
In 2008, Tebow had a passer rating of 176.74. Although the Florida signal caller only had 2,515 passing yards and 28 passing TDs to Bradford’s 4,464 and 48 respectively, Tebow has been a better all-around QB, complementing his passing statistics with 564 rushing yards and 12 TDs as opposed to Bradford with only 65 yards on the ground and five TDs.
Texas Longhorns
Another potential Heisman candidate comes in the form of Texas Longhorns QB Colt McCoy.
The Longhorns also had a stint as the No. 1 team in the BCS after defeating Oklahoma in the aforementioned rivalry game. Texas stayed on top for three weeks before succumbing to Texas Tech in early November.But Texas won the next three games and finished third in the final BCS standings.
Like Oklahoma and Florida, the Longhorns have a strong pivot in McCoy, who had the highest completion percentage in NCAA football completing 77.6 percent of his passes.
His other numbers aren’t too shabby either, with 3,445 yards passing, 32 TDs, 7 INTs, 576 rushing yards, and 10 rushing TDs.
A sure-fire Heisman Trophy predictor has been the Scripps Howard/Rocky Mountain News Service’s Heisman poll which has correctly predicted 18 of the last 21 trophy winners.
Last week’s poll saw Bradford in the lead with four first-place votes while McCoy was second with two and Tebow third with one vote.
The final poll saw McCoy shoot up to No. 1, followed by Bradford and Tebow, with the Oklahoma QB ranked No. 1 in the Heisman poll the two previous weeks.
The Heisman trophy will be awarded this Saturday.
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