1997 Heisman race

#26
#26
Was rewatching the 97 ut-bama game and they put up a Heisman race graphic during the broadcast. Thing that struck me is that Woodson was not in there in late October. If it's about the best player that season then his name should have been included by the tsio. It was an attempt to build drama that backfired on what would have been yet another southern QB winning the award
 
#29
#29
illinoisvolfan1 said:
Beat Florida. He would have won.

The truth hurts.
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I was at the Florida game that season. Peyton played an exceptional game and almost led us back from a 30+ point deficit. Conservative coaching and Fulmer's fear of Spurrier lost us that game. Michigan didn't play a single team that season that was even in the same stratosphere as Florida. Your argument is far too simplistic.
 
#30
#30
I totally shut down on the heisman after 97. I don’t care about it as a metric of a programs success and I don’t care about who wins it. It certainly used to mean something and was historically significant, but even Majors got screwed by it.

The opposite of love isn’t hate- it’s indifference. I had a very pure emotional response to Peyton’s losing. I just don’t care about the Heisman at all. It is a meaningless award.
 
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#34
#34
Brian Griese saying Woodson was the best player is a joke...HIS OWN FATHER, Bob Griese, said on national television while the idiot Keith Jackson was touting Woodson that:

"There is something terribly wrong in college football if Peyton Manning doesn't win the Heisman..."


And there certainly was as those IDIOTS voted for Woodson over Peyton.

One thing that people forget is that Champ Bailey from UGA had numbers that year that were very similar to Woodson's--except for the total number of TDs....Bailey had just 1 INT returned for a TD....Woodson had 0...

But Woodson had that ONE big play against OSU--a 77 yd punt return for a TD that was all over ESPN for weeks that sealed the deal for him....especially with homers like Keith Jackson lobbying hard for him....

you can check out the numbers for yourself at sports-reference.com...

But I remember it because I was 32 and listening to Keith Jackson do all that he could do to prevent Peyton from winning the Heisman.

It was a load of crap then, and it's still a load of crap today.

I have never watched another Heisman presentation ceremony since 1997--and won't!

Majors was screwed over....and Manning was screwed over...it's just as simple as that!
 
#35
#35
Wii60 said:
I totally shut down on the heisman after 97. I don’t care about it as a metric of a programs success and I don’t care about who wins it. It certainly used to mean something and was historically significant, but even Majors got screwed by it.

The opposite of love isn’t hate- it’s indifference. I had a very pure emotional response to Peyton’s losing. I just don’t care about the Heisman at all. It is a meaningless award.
Click to expand...

Well said....I agree 100%!

People forget that those same homers who denied Peyton the "Hypes-man" led the crusade touting Ryan Leaf as the safe No. 1 draft pick that year--and actually believed that he would be a better NFL QB than Peyton all the way up until the NFL draft.

And just one more thing--there was some SERIOUS anti-SEC bias in the voting because Danny Wuerffel had won the Heisman the prior year, too!
 
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#37
#37
No denying that Woodson was a great player, but it was a hype train that I had never seen before. If you were going to give it to the only defensive player in the history of the award, then he should be the one of the greatest to ever play the game, and he was very good that year, but would not call him the best. He wasn’t even the best defensive back in his conference that year, that was Mike Doss. Most versatile in college football, nope that was Champ Bailey. I do think, the media used the Florida game as an argument against Manning, but also he had been the front runner since the day he announced he was returning, so they created someone else to compete with him, little did anyone expect it to work so well. There have been numerous players since Woodson to have had similar seasons that have never even been mentioned for the award.
 
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