After Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston were welcomed into the fraternity, you can rest assured the Heisman Trust was thrilled to welcome Marcus Mariota – or, as John Feinstein called him, Beaver Cleaver.
“Beyond thrilled,” FOX Sports college football analyst Charles Davis confirmed on The John Feinstein Show. “This was the biggest lock – and the beauty was (any of) the three finalists could have walked away (with the trophy) and everyone would have slept very well. Very well.”
Indeed, Mariota won the Heisman in a landslide over Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon and Alabama’s Amari Cooper, who finished second and third, respectively. In fact, Mariota received the second-highest percentage of points (90.92) in Heisman history, behind only Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith (91.63) in 2006.
“All three of those guys fit what the Heisman Trophy was looking for,” Davis said of this year’s finalists. “But what I don’t want people to take away from this is, ‘Oh, they were just looking for Beaver Cleaver.’ We’re talking about three really deserving guys.”
Davis was admittedly surprised that Winston finished as high as he did – sixth – but we have to remember that he’s never lost a game in college as a starting quarterback.
“That has to count for something,” Davis said. “If you’re just counting on the football, he gave us flashes and plays this year that you would go, ‘Yeah, he’s still the Heisman Trophy winner.’”
Winston, however, did not put up the same numbers as last year. He threw for almost 500 fewer yards, threw 16 fewer touchdowns (40 to 24) and had nearly twice as many picks (10 to 17).
Those numbers hurt Winston in Heisman voting, and they could affect his draft stock. Assuming Winston goes pro, where might he get selected?
“There will be someone that will pull the trigger on him – I would think – earlier than what people will predict going into the draft,” Davis said. “Someone’s going to like him and take him.”
Davis wouldn’t be at all surprised if Winston went in the top 10, which is where Mariota figures to get drafted – despite concerns that he is a system quarterback.
“The kid’s got a tremendous work ethic,” Davis said of Mariota. “That’s not the issue. What people are saying is the way Oregon runs their offense, you don’t see the same coverages (in the NFL). You don’t see people defend you the way they do in the NFL. He has a lot of very open receivers, so he’s not throwing very many contested passes. All that would be accurate.
“But nowadays, you have to make a projection with quarterbacks that’s not like we used to make,” Davis continued. “Because (when) we used to project quarterbacks (based on how) we saw them play in college, it was similar to what they were going to see in the pros, but the pros would be more sophisticated and better. In other words, (the) same kind of style of offense. Well, we haven’t had that for a while now.
“I know the pro scouts railed about it. But as we’ve discussed on this show, the pro offense and the college offenses are closer together now than they’ve ever been, and they do more college things in the pro level. In fact, a lot of the college stuff is filtering up to the pro level, whereas before it was always the pro stuff filtering down.
“So wherever he goes, the smart people will have him to do many things similar to what he did in college. But he’s good enough, smart enough, athletic enough – and has a work ethic – that he’ll make the changes he needs to make. He’ll make those pro plays or those NFL-style things that they’re looking for.
“We know it’s crapshoot with quarterbacks. We know its a 50/50 proposition in a sense. I’m betting Mariota can make the adjustment.”
