Last week, it looked as if Andrew Luck was going to spring way, WAY up in the Heisman Trophy race. LaMichael James was struggling to get going and the Oregon Ducks were trailing the Arizona Wildcats at halftime. Cam Newton's Auburn Tigers trailed the Alabama Crimson Tide 24-0 in the Iron Bowl. The two biggest contenders for college football's greatest individual prize seemed to have their teams in position to fall...and they didn't. Alas.
Still, Andrew got some luck. Kellen Moore played his heart out against the Nevada Wolfpack, including what should have been one of the greatest plays in college football history with a Hail Mary with two seconds left to Titus Young. And then...well, you know.
There's definitely a lot of reasons to like Luck. His statistics are impeccable. He finished the season 5th in completion percentage, tied for 14th in yards per attempt, tied for 9th in touchdowns, 7th in passer rating, and his situational stats are incredible too (6th best passer rating in the first quarter, 7th best passer rating in the third down, over 200 passer rating in the red zone).
He has been able to deliver every throw he's needed to. Luck has proven he can make plays with his feet, showing he can run the ball and take out defenders on the way. He's also laid the wood a few times on defense, although I'm sure a lot of NFL draft scouts have to be wincing every time Luck does anything similar to laying Shareece Wright out.
Andrew Luck: Heisman Trophy Candidate (via StanfordFball)
Here are the updated Heisman odds from BoDog.
Cameron Newton 1/3
LaMichael James 3/2
Andrew Luck 7/4
Cardinal head coach Jim Harbaugh is pretty clear who he thinks should capture the prize.
So Luck is clearly in the top three, although he's way behind the lead man. How is Luck going to manage to position himself closer to the race so that he can get into the discussion next week? A few things will have to happen. This is the stream to discuss it!