NEW YORK -- It was just two guys talking football and posing for pictures with a big bronze trophy.
The day before the Heisman Trophy presentation, Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon and Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper answered questions about their sensational seasons, their coaches, their chances to upset Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota and win college football's most famous individual award and who might win the national championship.
AMARI COOPER
Alabama wide receiver
WHY HE’LL WIN IT Just look at the third quarter of the Auburn game. Cooper was spectacular with two touchdown receptions that changed the momentum of the Iron Bowl. His 224 receiving yards tied his single-game school record, and he has 115 receptions for 1,656 yards and 14 touchdowns this season. Also, the best-player-on-the-best-team theory also applies.
WHY HE WON’T Cooper is a special talent, and in a different season, he’d have a shot from a position that rarely wins the award (Johnny Rodgers, Tim Brown and Desmond Howard make up the Heisman wide receiver clique). But quarterback Marcus Mariota has had an overwhelmingly good season, and quarterbacks have won the last four and seven of the last eight Heismans.
BEST HEISMAN FINISH FROM ALABAMA The last non-quarterback to win it was Crimson Tide running back Mark Ingram Jr. in 2009. He remains Alabama’s lone Heisman winner.
MELVIN GORDON
Wisconsin running back
WHY HE’LL WIN IT Only three running backs in the game’s history have rushed for more than Gordon’s 2,336 yards and two of them — Southern California’s Marcus Allen in 1981 and Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders in 1988 — won the Heisman. None of them were better for one game than Gordon against Nebraska this season, when he rushed for 408 yards.
WHY HE WON’T Gordon rushed Wisconsin into the Big Ten title game with five games of at least 200 rushing yards. But he ran into a brick wall upon arriving in Indianapolis, rushing for 76 yards in a 59-0 loss to Ohio State. The Heisman voting remained opened through the weekend, and Gordon likely lost votes after the Badgers’ performance.
BEST HEISMAN FINISH FROM WISCONSIN Gordon bids to become Wisconsin’s third Heisman winner following running backs Alan Ameche in 1954 and Ron Dayne in 1999.
MARCUS MARIOTA
Oregon quarterback
WHY HE’LL WIN IT Mariota has the numbers, like 38 touchdown passes and two interceptions. He plays for a conference champion, tossing five touchdown passes in the Pac-12 title game victory over Arizona. And unlike some previous winners — like Florida State’s Jameis Winston, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel and Auburn’s Cam Newton — there’s not a hint of scandal or embarrassment. Mariota is the total package.
WHY HE WON’T Heard of West Coast bias? How about Pacific Northwest Heisman bias. The only player from an Oregon or Washington school to win the Heisman was Oregon State quarterback Terry Baker in 1962.
BEST HEISMAN FINISH FROM OREGON Running back LaMichael James was third in 2010. From the Pacific Northwest, Washington’s best Heisman finish was fourth by defensive lineman Steve Emtman in 1991. Washington State’s Ryan Leaf finished third in 1997.
— Kansas City Star
Cooper passed on making a prediction about how the top-ranked Crimson Tide will do in the College Football Playoff against Ohio State. Gordon said Friday he's leaning toward Alabama.
So much for Big Ten solidarity.
That was about as close to a scandal as you will find at this year's Heisman Trophy ceremony, a welcome departure from recent years for many fans and voters.
"You hate to think the guy you're voting for might have done something awful in his personal life away from football," said Kyle Ringo, a Heisman voter who works for the Boulder Daily Camera in Colorado.
Whether character should count in Heisman voting has been a hot topic in three of the past four years. Not so much this time around as Mariota, Gordon and Cooper have steered clear of serious public missteps.
"I think character is really important in everything," Cooper said.
Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston won the Heisman in a landslide last season, a little more than a week after a Florida prosecutor decided not to charge him with sexual assault. Winston was accused of rape by female Florida State student.
This year Winston was cited for shoplifting in the offseason and suspended for a game in September for shouting an obscene internet meme in a campus cafeteria.
"Once those events happened, I decided to exclude him this year," said Gene Frenette of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.
Winston's numbers have fallen off in his sophomore season -- he has 17 interceptions in 13 games compared to 10 in 14 last year -- but he also has guided the Seminoles to another unbeaten regular season and a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals against Oregon.
"He's probably not here because of the off-the-field issues," Gordon said of Winston.
In 2012, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel came to the Heisman presentation with a preseason arrest on his record that nearly got him thrown off the team before he could become Johnny Football.
Two years before that, Auburn's Cam Newton was asked if he thought he would get to keep the Heisman at the news conference following his victory. The NCAA had investigated Newton's recruitment, found his father had tried to peddle his son's commitment for money, but cleared the quarterback of any wrongdoing.
"The lack of any off-the-field stuff did make it [voting] much easier, and I think better for college football in general," said voter Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News.
Mariota was not in New York on Friday afternoon because he was picking up another trophy. The junior was in Baltimore for the presentation of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Mariota also has won the Davey O'Brien (best quarterback) and two other player of the year awards (Maxwell and Walter Camp)
The last player to win the Heisman, Maxwell and Walter Camp in the same season was Newton in 2010. Before that you would have to go back to the late 1990s when Wisconsin running back Ron Dayne did it in 1999 and Texas running back Ricky Williams did it in 1998.
Cooper is the first wide receiver to be a finalist for the Heisman since Pittsburgh's Larry Fitzgerald in 2003. The last receiver to win was Desmond Howard in 1999.
"I can say it surprises me," Cooper said. "A lot of receivers have had a lot of success since then, like [Texas Tech's Michael] Crabtree. I think it all depends on what team you play for, your team's record. A lot of things go into that."
Wisconsin is always loaded at running back and frequently spreads around carries. This season, Gordon was the guy with 309 carries.
The junior, who has said he plans to enter the NFL Draft in April, said he prepared in the offseason for the increased workload and it paid off.
"Feeling a lot better than I thought I would," he said. "I got 21 carries in the South Carolina game last year and felt like I couldn't move for two weeks."
Actually, it was a career-high 25 in the bowl game against the Gamecocks, a total he has matched or surpassed eight times this season.
Sports on 12/13/2014