Alabama's First Ever Heisman Winner...RB Mark Ingram

Mark Ingram is the third consecutive sophomore to win the award, and he becomes Alabama’s first Heisman Trophy winner in the closest Heisman race ever. Was it close because there were  a handful of great resumes like last year’s race between Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow? The answer is a resounding no. There wasn’t a really dominant player this season, in terms of a Heisman winner. There were four good resumes, but each had flaws.

Stanford’s Toby Gerhart had a bunch of TD’s and rushing yards, but played a relatively weak schedule with few strong defenses.

Texas’ Colt McCoy completed 70% of his passes and threw for over 3,500 yards, but threw 12 interceptions on the season, he struggled vs Oklahoma, and vs. Nebraska in the Big-12 championship game.

Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh had an outstanding season, but at the defensive tackle position, he had a tough battle to fight. Alex Karras’s 1957 season at Iowa earned him 2nd in the voting, the highest position by a DT ever. The only DT to finish in the top 5 in the past 20 years was Steve Emtman, when he finished 4th in 1991.

Alabama’s Mark Ingram had a strong year but finished behind Dion Lewis of Pitt and Gerhart in rushing yards and trailed Gerhart by 11 TD.

This year had the making of a great Heisman race with the return of last year’s top three candidates, combined with one of the best defensive players in the nation, Suh, and a plethora of running backs. Bradford got injured in his first game, Tebow had his worst season, and McCoy played well, but not great.

What pushed Ingram ahead of Gerhart, McCoy and Suh? If you look at Alabama’s biggest, as well as nationally covered, games of the year against Virginia Tech, LSU and Florida, he dominated. In the SEC Championship Game, he gained 189 yards and scored 3 TD. Against LSU he gained 174 yard and vs. Va Tech he scored 2 TD with 185 yards. Alabama gets more exposure than Stanford and it doesn’t hurt that Ingram’s performance against Florida pushed Bama into the national title game.

In terms of votes, Ingram received the fewest amount of votes by a winner since Nebraska QB Eric Crouch in 2001. Ingram had a great season, but is easily the weakest winner since Crouch.

What’s not good news for Ingram and Alabama is that Heisman winners’ teams have lost the last three, and five of the last six national championship games.

Would McCoy rather have a Heisman Trophy or a national championship? I’m not sure, but Texas-Alabama should make for a solid BCS title game.