Southern California’s Reggie Bush in 2005 and Ohio State’s Troy Smith in ’06 won in two of the biggest landslides in the award’s 73-year history. And it was no shock last year when Florida quarterback Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to win the big bronze statue.
He’s looking to make it two in a row tonight, but this time if his name - or that of Texas’ Colt McCoy or Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford - is called, he won’t have to pretend to be surprised.
“I think this year, no one really knows,” Bradford said. “It’s going to be a close race.”
Bradford, who leads the nation in passer rating (186.3) and touchdown passes (48), is the slight favorite going into the festivities at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square, according to StiffArmTrophy.com, which polls some of the 925 Heisman voters and has successfully predicted the last six winners.
Most of those have been pretty easy, though the site also boasts of getting within 2.9 percentage points of the winning vote, on average.
As of Friday, the site had Bradford projected to receive 1,687 points, McCoy 1,516 and Tebow 1,446.
The vote hasn’t been that close between the top two since Oklahoma QB Jason White beat out Pittsburgh wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald in 2003 by 128 points.
The closest margin in points came in 1985, when Auburn running back Bo Jackson beat out Iowa quarterback Chuck Long by 46 points.
If the three quarterbacks who are the finalists this season were jumpy about the outcome, they weren’t letting on about 29 hours before the announcement was to be made.
Bradford, McCoy and Tebow - in that order - took turns fielding a few questions from reporters packed in a hotel room.
The consensus: They’re all honored to be here. None would be here without his teammates. And they’ve all enjoyed getting to spend some time with each other the last couple of days. The three were also at the college football awards show in Orlando before heading North.
Topics discussed included music - “We’re all country music fans,” Tebow said.
Not discussed, according to McCoy and Bradford, was the Big 12 Conference tiebreaker that helped put Oklahoma in the national title game against Florida instead of Texas.
The Longhorns beat the Sooners in October 45-35 in Dallas, but when the two teams both finished 11-1 along with Texas Tech, the South Division’s slot in the Big 12 championship game went to Oklahoma because it had the best Bowl Championship Series rating. The Sooners beat Tech and Tech beat Texas, making head-to-head results moot.
The Sooners went on to win the Big 12 title and secure a spot in the national championship game, which still has Texas fans steaming.
Bradford said he sympathized with McCoy’s Longhorns.
“I feel for him. Obviously, they have a great argument for being in the championship game,” Bradford said.
McCoy, who set a major college record by completing 77.6 percent of his passes this season, said the Longhorns have put the BCS mess behind them, thanks to coach Mack Brown. His message to the Longhorns: “Let’s play the best game we’ve played all year” in the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State.
The impending meeting between Bradford’s Sooners and Tebow’s Gators on Jan. 8 in Miami was also not a topic of conversation.
“Definitely pleasure, no business at all,” Bradford said.
Or business as usual for Tebow.
He can become the only the second two-time winner of the Heisman Trophy, joining Ohio State running back Archie Griffin, who did it in 1974-75.
Tebow has spoken to Griffin a couple of times about handling the Heisman spotlight but said he hasn’t mulled over what it would mean to become a member of college football’s most exclusive club.
“That’s not even something I think about,” he said.
Tebow, a 240-pound junior who has thrown 28 TD passes and only two interceptions, also tried to pass along some advice to his fellow finalists about the Heisman experience.
“Just enjoy it, relax and have fun,” was Tebow’s suggestion, McCoy said. “What’s going to happen is going to happen.”
And for a change, we’re not sure what’s going to happen with the Heisman Trophy.
