As you probably know by now, Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford won the Heisman trophy Saturday night in one of closest races in recent memory. Bradford, who becomes the fifth Sooner in history to win the award, totaled 1,724 total points in the voting, edging out Colt McCoy’s 1,604 points and Tim Tebow’s 1,575 points. While all three candidates seemed more than deserving to win the award, what was most interesting about this year’s voting process was that it was actually Florida’s Tebow - not Bradford - who received the most first place votes.
As our good friend Chris Huston of Heismanpundit tells us, Tebow’s third place finish is the first by a leading first-place vote getter since Oklahoma’s Tommy McDonald in 1956. As always
Heismanpundit.com has the historic presentation covered from all angles, as Chris continues to recap Saturday night’s events and their implications for next year at his site.
While Bradford’s Heisman triumph was the college football story of the day it was by no means the only one, as the FCS, Division II, and Division III playoffs all rolled on, with the game of the day taking place in Cedar Falls, Iowa. After building a 20-7 lead in the fourth quarter the Northern Iowa Panthers looked poised to head to Chattanooga to face off against Montana in the FCS Title game,
but a late-game surge by Richmond quarterback Eric Ward and the Spider offense ultimately put Richmond on top 21-20.
While it may have been tough to top Friday night's Montana-James Madison finish the Spiders and Panthers did just that, with Ward’s touchdown pass to Joe Stewart with fourteen seconds left to go in the game completing Richmond’s comeback. It’s been an improbable run to the FCS Championship game for the Spiders, who weren’t on anyone’s radar to make the playoffs after starting the year at 4-3.
The stage is set for yet another Mt Union-Wisconsin Whitewater showdown in the Division III National Championship next week, as both the Purple Raiders and Warharks won their semifinal games to advance to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. For the Purple Raiders is was
all about senior running back Nate Kmic, who broke Danny Woodhead’s one year old NCAA rushing record with a 310-yard day against Wheaton College. Kmic, who we told you about last week, surpassed Woodhead’s mark by 24 yards in the win, boosting his career rushing total to 7,986 yards.
He currently holds the all-division NCAA mark for touchdowns and career points as well, with 129 scores and 774 total points in his illustrious career. Saturday’s game will mark the fourth straight meeting between Wisconsin Whitewater and Mt. Union for the Division III National Title, with the Purple Raiders looking to avenge last year’s upset loss.
In coaching news, Iowa State’s now-former headman Gene Chizek took the Auburn head coaching job, while Army, fresh off a seventh consecutive loss to Navy in the annual Army-Navy game, canned second year man Stan Brock. Yet with a defensive pedigree and a 5-19 career record as a head coach Chizek was not the answer Auburn fans were hoping for,
writes SI.com's Andy Staples. As far as Brock goes, his 0-2 record against Navy (losing the '07 and '08 games by a combined 78-3 margin) speaks for itself, but it was ultimatly his
incompatability with coaching option football that doomed him. Who is next for the Black Knights?
My guess is they take a long look at
Wake Forest offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke. And how about Ball State’s Brady Hoke? After leading the Cardinals to a 13-1 regular season he’ll be taking hs services to San Diego State. Hard to imagine that being a step up, but when you're
offered a raise of nearly three times what you're currently making in this economy I don't blame him. Look for Ball State offensive coordinator Stan Parish to replace him in Muncie.
Finally, I’d like to direct you’re attention to a fantastic article about
Navy senior quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada. Bill Wagner of the
Annapolis Capital says that a lingering hamstring injury nearly led the signal caller to quit the team with a month left to go in the season, but that Navy offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper talked him into sticking the year out. It proved to be the best advice Kaipo received all season, as the Hawaii native returned against Army last week to give Navy’s offense a much needed spark in the 34-0 win.
I bring all of this up because I actually had a fairly awkward elevator ride with Kaipo coming out of the Navy-Notre Dame game a month ago in which you could pretty much tell the usually incredibly upbeat Kaipo wasn’t himself. After the game a couple of the other Navy beat writers and I had a conversation about it, and we all pretty much concluded that we wouldn’t likely be seeing Kaipo on the field for the rest of the season. Just goes to show how a little determination can go a long way, and how a determined and motivated college athlete can prove a group nosy sportswriters (and I include myself here) wrong any day.
