Let's dispense with a narrative already making the rounds: this was NOT some sort of bad Heisman pick and Jeanty wasn't "robbed." This is one of those years I've talked about previously where I can say, "Look, I think Herschel Walker should have won in 1980, but George Rogers was NOT a bad choice." Bo Jackson barely beat out Chuck Long in 1985 - and I think Bo deserved it - but Long would not have been a bad choice. And while it's not popular, same with Woodson over Manning in 1997.
This is not Gino Torretta or Ty Detmer or Eric Crouch or Jason White winning over clearly better players (Garrison Hearst, Rocket Ismail, Rex Grossman, Larry Fitzgerald) because they played for national title contenders (3 of them) or ran up eye-popping numbers on substandard competition but had that one super performance (Detmer vs Miami, 1990), when he was 38 of 54 for 406 yards) that elevated his team enough to win it. (I know some folks would say Marshall Faulk over Torretta - and he was a better player, no doubt - but given their teams played each other, Torretta's won a blowout, and Faulk's team was 5-5-1, it's defensible in terms of the Heisman Trophy; Troy Davis of Iowa State rushed for 2185 yards and was the runner-up in 1996, but his team was 2-9).
