Right about now is when the Heisman talk really heats up. When the calendar flips to November, BCS talk starts to boil and pundits from coast to coast argue the merits of their candidate as the best player in the nation.
Perhaps in no other season has the race been as wide open as it is this year, which is a big, big surprise. Consider that two Heisman winners were back this year (Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford) and Texas' Colt McCoy was thought by many to have been jobbed of the trophy a year ago.
Conventional wisdom was that one of those three would win it.
If Bradford was not eliminated on opening night when he went down with an injury against BYU, he certainly was a few weeks later when got hurt on the first series of the Red River Rivalry and is now out for the season.
Both McCoy and Tebow have good seasons, just not the kind of seasons they've had in the past. Their numbers are down, but they are still considered frontrunners.
Others to throw their name into the mix include Alabama tailback Mark Ingram, Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate and a host of others like Houston QB Case Keenum and even Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh (pronounced just like it looks: Joe Smith).
But no one has really established himself as the favorite. So I will offer the following, which while it certainly won't swing your opinion, I hope at least gets another name into the conversation.
Here are the actual statistics of three quarterbacks, including their team's record:
Player A: 99-of-153 passing (65 percent) with four interceptions, 1,323 yards and 10 TDs. Also 551 yards rushing and another 8 scores. Team is unbeaten, 8-0 and ranked in the top 10
Player B: 166-of-263 passing (63 percent) with seven interceptions, 2,158 yards and 18 TDs. Also 148 yards rushing and 5 TDs. Team is 8-1 and ranked in the top 15.
Player C: 198-of-275 passing (72 percent) with eight interceptions, 1,977 yards and 15 TDs. Also 113 yards rushing and a TD. Team is unbeaten, 8-0 and ranked in the top 10.
Which player deserves the Heisman? Depends on how you look at it. If your equation is the best player on the best team, then it's going to be either A or C.
If it is based on the player with best stats on a really good team, then B at least has to get tossed into the equation.
Problem is everybody is talking about Player A (Tim Tebow) and Player C (Colt McCoy), but nobody is talking about Player B, Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark.
Save for one bad half (and for those who suffered through it, it was about as bad as bad gets) against Iowa, Clark has been outstanding all season. He threw for better than 2,500 yards a year ago, the third best total in school history. And with three regular season games, plus a bowl game, remaining, he has a shot at Kerry Collins' school record of 2,679.
You remember Kerry Collins right? The same guy who was fourth in the Heisman voting in 1994, the guy who may have won if not for splitting votes with backfield mate Ki-Jana Carter. Yeah, that's the guy who Clark is about to erase from the record books.
Clark is a decent game away from 5,000 career passing yards, amazing considering he is in his second season as a starter. It's even more amazing when you consider that he's done it with two virtually different receiving corps. A year ago he was the conductor of Penn State's new Spread-HD offense, slinging it to Derrick Williams, Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood. All of them now are gone and he hasn't missed a beat, now finding people like Derek Moye, Graham Zug and Chaz Powell.
Do I think Clark has a shot to win the Heisman? The second half of the Iowa game pretty much took him out of the running. But he should at least be in the discussion because no player on any team in the nation means as much to his team as Clark does to Penn State (remember a true freshman is Penn State's backup QB).
The senior gets another chance on a big stage Saturday when he leads the Nittany Lions against his home-state team, Ohio State, at what is sure to be a rowdy Beaver Stadium on Saturday afternoon. His counterpart will be Terrelle Pryor, one of the nation's biggest recruits two years ago, a Pa. native who spurned Happy Valley for Columbus.
If Clark has a good day, his name should at least be part of the conversation when it comes to who is the best player in college football.
n Sports editor Bill Bowman covers college football for The Daily Item. E-mail comments to bbowman@dailyitem.com.
