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Heisman Down To The Wire

The Associated Press

Tim Tebow talks to reporters after winning the Maxwell Award during The Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards ceremony in Lake Buena Vista.

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By JOEY JOHNSTON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2008

LAKE BUENA VISTA - Any other year, Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell would be headed to New York for Saturday night's Heisman Trophy presentation. After all, Harrell passed for a 71.5 completion percentage, 4,747 yards, 41 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. The Red Raiders were 11-1.

This isn't any other year.

Players such as Harrell and Iowa running back Shonn Greene (1,729 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns) didn't make the cut.

The three finalists are quarterbacks - Oklahoma sophomore Sam Bradford, Texas junior Colt McCoy and Florida junior Tim Tebow, the 2007 Heisman winner who could join Ohio State's Archie Griffin (1974-75) as the only two-time recipient.

"It's an amazing year for talent," Harrell said. "I'd have to go with one of the Big 12 quarterbacks because I'm true to my conference. But Tebow is a great player and he deserves recognition. I wouldn't know what to do."

By all accounts, it could be the closest Heisman vote in history, perhaps a tighter margin than 1985, when Auburn running back Bo Jackson edged Iowa quarterback Chuck Long by 45 votes.

Exit polls are everywhere.

The Daily Oklahoman, using the Heisman voting system (three points for a first-place vote, two points for second and one point for third), polled 100 official voters. Bradford was the winner.

"All three of those players are deserving, and a valid argument can be made on behalf of each one," Rivals.com writer Olin Buchanan, a Heisman voter, told the Oklahoman. "Do you want to drive a Ferrari, Maserati or Lamborghini?"

Meanwhile, the Gainesville Sun polled 98 official voters - and it was a dead heat between Bradford and Tebow. In the longest-running Heisman newspaper poll - the 22nd annual for the Rocky Mountain News, which has had the correct winner 18 times - McCoy prevailed by a narrow margin against Bradford.

"If I had a vote, it would be an hour-long process to figure it out," Bradford said. "I don't know how the voters are going to do it. I wouldn't know what to do."

Tebow, as a former Heisman winner, does have a vote. He wouldn't disclose his choice.

"It was kind of a difficult situation, yeah," Tebow said. "Early on, I went back and forth on what to do, but lately I've been relaxed about it."

Griffin, now president of the Ohio State University Alumni Association, also wouldn't disclose his vote. But he voted Dec. 5, choosing not to wait for the SEC or Big 12 title games, because he said it wasn't fair to players (namely McCoy) who didn't have the opportunity to play an additional nationally televised game.

"I'm surprised I'm still the only person to win two," Griffin said. "I expect it to happen. And I expect it to happen sometime soon."

Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353.

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