Will AJ McCarron Win The Heisman by Default?
By: Larry Burton
For most of the year, AJ McCarron was only in Heisman talk because sportswriters and broadcasters have simply been trying to be polite and be respectful to a quarterback who may well be on his way to winning a third straight national championship, something that has never been done before.
First everyone was on the Marcus Mariota, the quarterback of Oregon. Even after he tanked against Stanford, people still considered him a top 4 until he stunk another game up against Arizona this past weekend.
Then despite having lost to McCarron and doing a worse job overall in the game against Alabama, Johnny Manziel became the front runner, but after a flub fest game against LSU this past Saturday, he was taken out of the front running position.
The next few people in line were Baylor’s quarterback Bryce Petty, who laid a major egg in a very public way against Oklahoma State and Jameis Winston, a redshirt Freshman quarterback from Florida State.
So now at least McCarron has made it into the conversation of being one the top few. The last view voters will have of him will be the much ballyhooed “Iron Bowl” where McCarron and Alabama will take on what should be a top 5 rated Auburn team and their swiss cheese defense.
If McCarron dominates that game and puts up great numbers with no interceptions or miscues, then he should be a clear top two with Fla. State’s Winston leading all the talk the media can muster.
But what if the District Attorney in Tallahassee chooses to charge Winston with sexual assault, rape or some other felony? Would that put McCarron in the driver’s seat by default?
One would have to wonder if Alabama fatigue is one of the factors that have hurt AJ. Is it the fact that he plays on a team full of stars that causes the media to under value McCarron and his accomplishments? Could Saban’s shadow be so long that it eclipses McCarron’s leadership?
And if McCarron does in fact win the award because all the other front runners were tripped up by either bad games or bad circumstances, does that make his win any less special?
Of course not. It only proves that others go up and down, exhibit good character and bad, that McCarron is the very definition of consistency, good character, leadership and winning ways and that in the end those are the things that matter of being “Today’s Highlight Clip”.
Larry is an award winning writer whose work has appeared in almost every college football venue. Now he primarily writes for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter
