Makin a case for LJ to be the Panthers #1 pick...

Saw this in the local Philly paper the other day, thought yall might find some of this stuff interesting...

Dick Jerardi | Despite Nit picking, Johnson man for Heisman
By Dick Jeerardi
jerardd@phillynews.com

THE BALLOT SIMPLY asks each voter to "designate" his top three choices "to receive the Heisman Memorial Trophy awarded to the outstanding college football player of the United States for 2002."

That is the guideline. Interpretation is left up to the voters.

I am going to fill out my ballot Monday. The finalists will be

announced late next week. The Heisman will be awarded Dec. 14 at the Yale Club in midtown Manhattan.

All voters bring inherent bias to the process. We all see some players more than others. Some players we never see, except on highlight shows.

I saw Penn State tailback Larry Johnson play 12 times this year. He was a very good player for the first half of the season. He was as good a player as I have ever seen in college football during the second half of the season.

Johnson's Heisman case is powerful. One can also make strong cases for Iowa quarterback Brad Banks, Southern California quarterback Carson Palmer, Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey and Miami tailback Willis McGahee.

While acknowledging that my familiarity with his season could make one question my objectivity, I think Johnson has the best case. His numbers are overwhelming.

With 2,015 rushing yards, he became just the ninth Division I-A player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. LJ leads the country in all-purpose yards (2,575). While rushing for all those yards, he also managed to set school season records for catches by a running back (39) and reception yards (341). He ran for 20 touchdowns and caught three TD passes. He ran back kickoffs for much of the season. He laid out more than a few blitzers with devastating blocks. He even blocked a few punts in previous seasons.

The case against Johnson is that he didn't put up big rushing numbers in Penn State's three losses - to Iowa, Michigan and Ohio State. It's a canard that was stated as fact by ESPN's Trev Alberts and has taken on a life of its own.

If you analyze those games in their proper context, you will find that Johnson put up very good numbers.

Penn State trailed Iowa by 23-0 early and abandoned the running game. Johnson averaged 3.8 yards per carry against the nation's No. 2 rush defense, a defense that allowed opponents to rush for just 2.2 yards per carry. His 68 rushing yards were the second most given up by Iowa all year. Also, he caught six passes for 93 yards. He scored two touchdowns. He was a huge factor in a Penn State comeback that forced the game into overtime against a terrific team.

He missed the first two series against Michigan with a hamstring injury. His first carry resulted in a 17-yard TD. He averaged 4.6 yards per carry. He caught five passes for 46 yards.

Penn State only had the ball for 22 ½ minutes against Ohio State. Johnson scored the game's only offensive TD. He averaged 4.2 yards per carry against the nation's No. 4 rush defense that allowed just 2.7 yards per carry. He caught six passes for 32 yards. He accounted for 98 of his team's 179 total yards against a team that will play for the national championship in the Fiesta Bowl.

In all 12 games, Johnson's per- carry average was higher than the opponents typically gave up. In most cases, it was far higher.

One buffoon who covers college football for a prominent Web site said LJ's 2,000-yard season deserves an asterisk because the others did in it 11 games. Actually, Nebraska's Mike Rozier did it in 12, but that's not even the point.

Johnson's 251 carries are by far the fewest of the 2,000-yard runners. USC's Marcus Allen, for instance, needed 403 carries to get his 2,342 yards in 1981.

The critical number here is 8.03. That's LJ's yards per carry, an NCAA record. It is the football equivalent of the batting average. It is the best measuring stick.

Critics will say Johnson's best games were against Penn State's weakest opponents. No kidding. You don't think Barry Sanders, Rozier and Ricky Williams ran it up against the sad sacks of the old Big 8 and the present Big 12? They put up the numbers and were rewarded for it. Why should Johnson be different?

Johnson played only two second-half series against Northwestern and one against Wisconsin. He got no carries in the second half against Michigan State. His numbers obviously could have gone exponentially higher if coach Joe Paterno had so chosen.

He had rushing games of 257, 279 (twice) and 327 yards. All were against Big Ten teams.

LJ put up all these numbers behind an offensive line without a single first- or second-team Big Ten player and against a schedule that is ranked 13th toughest.

If you really wanted to, you could make a case against all the candidates, but the cases against are really silly. This award is supposed to be a body of work over an entire season. Johnson's body of work, it seems to me, is simply superior.

If you saw Johnson play, you probably need no convincing. By the end of the year, he was an unstoppable force. He carried tacklers. He ran over tacklers. He ran around tacklers. He ran away from tacklers. He was fast, elusive, strong and durable.

"I hope everyone takes a real good look at Larry for the Heisman Trophy," Paterno said. "He's been one of the most amazing football players and has had one of the most amazing seasons of anybody I've ever been around and that goes back to Lenny Moore, Lydell Mitchell, Franco Harris, Curt Warner.

"He's an amazing football player. People don't realize how many passes he's caught. He's one of the best punt blockers we've had here. Larry Johnson is one of the greatest football players I've ever been around, if not the greatest."

Who knows how the votes will fall? That there are three QBs and just two running backs that appear to be in the mix might help Johnson. That Dorsey and McGahee play for the same team might also help Johnson in the same way that it helped Colorado's Rashaan Salaam in 1994, when he beat out Penn State teammates Ki-Jana Carter and Kerry Collins. That Johnson's numbers really are kind of awesome should help him most of all.

 

That's who I want.

 

Two words, and I quote:

 

Re: Re: Makin a case for LJ to be the Panthers #1 pick...

 

Re: Re: Makin a case for LJ to be the Panthers #1 pick...

 

Re: Re: Makin a case for LJ to be the Panthers #1 pick...

 

ki-jana, curtis, blair, DJ Dozier...and it dont stop

 

Re: Re: Makin a case for LJ to be the Panthers #1 pick...

Tell me again how the fuck Weinke won this award?

 

Re: Re: Re: Makin a case for LJ to be the Panthers #1 pick...

he played on a really talented team in a really talentless league.

 

weinke won the same way dorsey will.