Coming into the 2007 season most people couldn’t give you a legit Heisman list outside of Darren McFadden. Being a Florida fan I originally laughed at any Heisman list that included a sophomore, Tim Tebow, on that list. Well, so much for that laughing as Tim Tebow was the first sophomore to ever win the award. This season, I think the preseason Heisman watch lists are going to be settled in on a collect few instead of bouncing around through 10 different players.

Front Runner

1) Tim Tebow, Junior (Florida) - I realize the likelihood of a repeat is slim here. For starters, let’s not go betting that we will have a repeat of the 2007 season all over again. And by that, I’m not talking about Tim Tebows numbers, I’m talking about upset after upset, 2 loss national championship teams, and someone from a 4 loss team being invited to New York. All of these instances helped Tebow get to the Heisman Trophy in 2007, any other normal year in college football and Tebow is invited, but in a losing effort. Despite the unpredictable 2007 season, Tim Tebow still put up ungodly numbers, throwing for 32 TDs and rushing for 23, accounting for 4181 yards of Florida’s offense. I look for these numbers to drop in all categories.

Going into the 2008-2009 season, it has been rumored that Meyer is going to use a two-QB system to take some of the pressure off of Tim Tebow. I wouldn’t hold my breath on this, with USC transfer Emmanuel Moody coming in as the starting running back, things look to change with the ground game. Look for Tim Tebow to be used less in the running game, and for Chris Rainey, Deonte Thompson, and Moody to get the bulk of the carries while Percy Harvin stays away from running the ball as often as he did. The offense SHOULD be more dangerous in 2008 if offensive coordinator Dan Mullen can figure out how to use the talent around him.

Too close to call

2) Chris Wells, Junior (Ohio State) - Rushing for 1609 and 15 TDs in 2007, I look for Wells to improve upon his yardage output in 2008. With so many returning starters back for the Ohio State offense, there is no reason to go away from what was working in 2007. Also, consider that Chris Wells was only a sophomore in ‘07 and that there is no one else on the Ohio State roster that is going to challenge him for playing time. The big test for Wells will be the big game on September the 13th at Southern California, a big game will boost him into the top 2 spots on most voters list, a bad game, and obviously Wells is going to have to put impressive numbers in what most people now consider a relatively weak conference.

3) Chase Daniel, Senior (Missouri) - Chase Daniel made a late season run at Tim Tebow by leading Missouri to the Big 12 Championship and by throwing 33 TDs and just 11 INT and 4300 yards. At the end of the day, I believe the big factor in Daniel missing out on the Heisman Trophy was strength of schedule and a lack of big game television during the season. With the explosion of young WR Jeremy Maclin at his disposal and big time TE Chase Coffman, one should believe that Daniel should be able to continue putting up impressive numbers for the Tigers.

4) Graham Harrell, Senior (Texas Tech) - The fact that Harrell wasn’t involved in Heisman talks more throughout 2007 boggled my mind. If Darren McFadden can get to New York playing on a 4 loss regular season football team, than how exactly can Harrell not even be considered? I thought all season long he should have been invited over Kevin Smith who plays in a weaker conference, against lesser opponents, and overall, just lesser opponents. Harrell throw for 5705, 48 TDs, and JUST 14 INTs. Compare this to one of the Heisman invitees in Colt Brennan who threw for 4343, 38 TD and 17 INT against the worst schedule in the country (yes, I realize Brennan was injured for part of the year), and it should boggle your mind as well how in a ridiculous 2007 season, Harrell wasn’t invited involved in Heisman talks. This just goes to show the general stupidity of the average football fan and the media itself. With the 2008 season, Harrell should continue to rack up excellent numbers that lead the country, the big challenge for him getting to New York will be if Texas Tech can stand up, play defense, and win 10 games in the minimum.

Rest of the bunch

5) Percy Harvin, Junior (Florida)- Halfway through the 2007 season the Florida offense was turned into the Tim Tebow/Percy Harvin show. Harvin is arguably the most dangerous football player in the country with his ability to move around and play where on offense and do it well. As long as Dan Mullen (is it not obvious how much I hate Dan Mullen by now?) continues to forget about all those other 5 star receivers on the team, Harvin and Tebow may be competing with each other for the Heisman Trophy in 2008.

6) Pat White, Senior (West Virginia) - Originally I wrote that I chose Pat White over Slaton because of the rising play in tinybackup RB Noel Devine who saw his carries increase throughout the 2007 season as he shared time with Steve Slaton. What I didn’t know, was the Slaton entered his name into the NFL draft a few ours after I even hit submit for this story. So now it makes sense that more of the running and offensive load will go back into Pat Whites hands until the West Virginia staff finds a quality backup to Noel Devine.

7) Michael Crabtree, Sophomore (Texas Tech) - Crabtree exploded onto the college football scene in 2007 and did it with authority by grabbing 134 balls for 1962 yards and 22 TDs. Like the Tebow/Harvin argument, Crabtree and Harrell could find themselves in a battle against each other for visits to New York, as there is nothing outside of an injury that will keep this Texas Tech duo from continuing to break not just school records, but NCAA records as well.

8) Sam Bradford, Sophomore (Oklahoma) - I considered throwing Bradford up a bit higher, but at the end of the day I just don’t see another sophomore winning this award for some time. Bradford will have his say in this despite the loss of starting WR Kelly. Despite nursing an injury for part of the last game (or two?) of the season, Bradford put up impressive numbers on an offense that generally does a good job of balancing their offense, by putting up 3121 yards and 36 TDs. Let me not forget as I wrap this up, just 8 INTs for a red shirt freshman is extremely impressive.

At the end of the season, I believe that 2 of the top 4 will be in New York, and the cocky side of me says that i’ll be upset if 3 of the top 4 aren’t there. I don’t see Tebow repeating it, which only helps Percy Harvin in this argument.

There is reall just one player that I think will slip into the discussion during the season, Knowshon Moreno, RB for the Georgia Bulldogs. I feel dirty for not including Moreno in part of my list above despite the incredible numbers he put up as a redshirt freshman. But generally, most running backs tend to run into a wall after putting up the type of numbers he put up. Unlike Chris Wells above, Moreno plays in the toughest conference in the country and I believe from now until September that the bright defensive coordinators in the SEC will figure out a way to make life harder on him. And like Tebow who will get less touches, redshirt freshman Caleb King is going to see a quality amount of touches throughout the season. Thus, I am not confident that Moreno is going to build on the numbers he put up as a freshman.

As the season goes on, I will update this list with how I think the voters are seeing things.

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