N.C. State has had only five players who were Heisman Trophy level players. One of them is Russell Wilson.
You had to be impressed by the Wolfpack Saturday. State pushed its record to 4-0 with a 45-28 victory at Georgia Tech, the defending ACC champions, with a complete win that showed how much progress the Wolfpack has made. That victory win sets up a huge game Saturday in Raleigh as Virginia Tech arrives.
State’s defense was terrific, at least until the fourth quarter. The Wolfpack could do what North Carolina couldn’t, and that is jam the lanes against Tech’s option and keep the Jackets from streaking downfield.
It seems like Wilson has been around so long it’s easy to take him for granted. But his numbers, and poise on the field, are extraordinary. Wilson blistered Tech with 368 yards, three touchdowns passing and one rushing.
You had to be impressed when he watched. There were so many plays that stood out to me, but one was a simple throw on third down in the fourth quarter as State drove for a decisive score. State called a quick throw to the sideline to a receiver, who had a blocker downfield. Wilson delivered a calm, crisp pass that caught the receiver in stride, and the Pack earned a first down.
Josh Nesbitt, meanwhile, had a similar throw on Tech’s next possession, and missed.
N.C. State has never had a player finish higher than sixth in the Heisman voting:
@ In 1961, quarterback Roman Gabriel finished ninth . Ernie Davis of Syracuse won the award.
@ In 1978 running back Ted Brown was sixth (Billy Sims of Oklahoma won).
@ In 1998, receiver Torry Holt was eighth (Ricky Williams, Texas)
@ In 2003, quarterback Philip Rivers was seventh (Jason White, Oklahoma).
White is playing at a level equal or better than those, and that’s saying a great because those five are all-time stars.
ESPN’s most recent Heisman Watch voting among its experts did not mention Wilson in the top 12. There are some great players in there – Denard Robinson, Andrew Luck, Mark Ingram – but White is worthy of voting.
Truthfully, he’s more than that. He is playing at a level worthy of the award. And if State keeps winning, you’ll hear his name more as the fall unfolds.
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Who is White? Isn't his name Wilson?
ReplyDeleteProofreading gets you somewhere...or gets you on blogspot.
Ah, thank you for catching that. I changed that to Wilson - sorry I missed it. Thanks for reading, and we appreciate the feedback. Feel free to send us any thoughts at sports@capitalmedianc.com if you have ideas on how we could make the website better.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to think about someone in the area being worthy of Heisman attention but it's too early to get very excited about it.
ReplyDeleteEven if after a couple more games, Wilson is still doing very well, it's hard to imagine Wilson finishing higher than Philip Rivers.
Heisman to me means coming up big in big games. Desmond did it for Michigan, Ward and Weinke did it for FSU, White for Oklahoma, etc etc etc. So far this year I have seen Pryor put up a good but not great performance against then highly regarded Miami(who now have shown their true colors against ACC rival FSU and may not actually be that good), Robinson go sour against instate rival MSU, Ingram miss 2 games and lose all his luster against some hard fighting cocks, Andrew Luck - although putting up some decent numbers - could not give his program a W against in-conference rival Oregon, Ryan Mallet the same against Bama, Cam Newton is the only one of the above who clearly showed up for his team's biggest game of the season against the same hard fighting cocks that put ingram to shame. And with these names I think Russell Wilson can be mentioned for the heisman, but that is it - just mentioned at this point. If the season ended now I gotta think the race would come down to the 2 big guys behind the center - Pryor and Newton. Their is a long way to go in the season yet. Any of the above mentioned guys could step up and by the end of the season make whats happened up till now very hard to remember. Heck, Kenard was everyone's heisman only a week ago and after one not so great game(threw for 215 and rushed for 86), he's almost gone from the heisman talks! So who can say anyone is a favorite with as fickle minds as ours making the decision while there are still games remaining?
ReplyDeleteOr did I mean Denard??? Boy did we forget this guy quick!
ReplyDelete