re: Do you take the hesiman seriously, if so why?

Sure. Every year it's awarded to a player that had a phenomenal season.

It is an College football individual award I don't see why this would be a relevant question on a College Football forum. It is like asking if the Ray Guy or the Thorpe should be taken seriously. What is the point of an objective question in this situation? It is what it is, people will vote for it, discuss it, analyze it, even argue about it, but its just a nice award to honor an individual in a team sport (or 3 or 5 depending on the people invited to NYC).

Now concerning AJ. I think the nature of our team and the style of ball that we play can make people scoff but AJ is a serious contender. He is a smart, heady, athletically gifted QB. He has good size, underrated mobility and the arm strength/touch to make every throw he required to in our playbook and offense.

If we are simply going to say though that raw yardage production mainly passing yardage is the be all and end all is dumb.

Right now if everything plays out the way it should in College football I think Mariota is the Heisman winner. If Oregon Football is undefeated after Conference Championship game weekend. While people point to raw yardage I think other stats should be used to build the case for a QB's Heisman campaign. Mainly things that show how they contribute to the offense. Football is a team sport I don't care if you took the most individually gifted QB to ever put on the pads they did not catch their own passes, they didn't protect their own blindside, they didn't take their own handoffs, etc. Football being a team sport means you have to imo analyze how that individual contributes to that team, its offensive production. And the nature of the QB position also means that individual is often in a position of leadership and the role of the QB is to manage the game for the offense hence the term field general.

You simply can't hand the award to the guy with most passing yards especially in the age of the diversity in offensive strategy and styles in major college football. While the term product of the system was a majorly flawed concept often used to slander the playing ability of QBs there were some true things in it. If a guy is throwing every down and his team is playing in situations where they are having to throw the ball the entire game including potentially overtime because of the nature of their team. Where as a QB playing on a juggernaut team running a West Coast or Eardhart Patriots system is relying on spreading the ball around among players (instead of areas of the field ie with the "spread" offenses)

So with so many endless variations in offensive style, overall team strategies, the defenses they have or haven't played, potential injuries, the amount they play because the game is no longer in doubt. It can be difficult to decide then which QB is having a better year. Here is something I have noticed recently. Don't get me wrong certain players are tremendously talented but we as fans ultimately have trouble distinguishing between Talent and overall how good of a player a person is. And when it comes to QBs that often comes down to the mistakes they make or don't make.

Manziel, Mettenberger, Murray and Boyd have this season even just 2/3 of the way through the regular season as experienced QBs who have played a lot of games all four have made devasting mistakes that have directly led to these individual players losing the game for their teams. If we are going to give people credit for making plays then we need to fairly make sure they take minuses for mistakes.

Mariota Winston and McCarron have all three so far into this season led their teams to undefeated records. That means all three have not made a mistake that has cost their teams a game. In fact Mariota has yet to throw an interception. Based on the fact that Winston is the youngest and least experienced I think it is rational to assume that he is the one least likely to finish out the year without said mistakes.

All that said if the season ended today and to scale up the way the season is now but instead how it may look in late December my theorhetical but doesn't count Heisman ballot would look something like this:

1st - Mariota
2nd - McCarron
3rd - Winston
4th - Baylor QB

I don't think McCarron is your winner unless something major happens. That is some key injuries to other candidates. But the way he had been disrespected and often plain out derided in the media at large I will be content with McCarron simply being a finalist and at the ceremony.

While Manziel is a dynamic playmaker and we've all seen Mettenberger's rocket arm the fact they both made key mistakes in losses that had both their teams out of contention for championships before Halloween should leave some of of discount to their heisman campaigns.

With the experience both of them have you can no longer ignore their ball security issues especially when you are talking about National awards for playing QB or national awards for being a Valuable player.

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Now concerning AJ. I think the nature of our team and the style of ball that we play can make people scoff but AJ is a serious contender.

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FWIW, if Alabama wins out then my non-existent vote would go to AJ over you-know-who. I know the award isn't for a career, but if I had a vote I'd say "screw that, 3 championships - give it to him".

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Guys like that are very rare and deserve the credit....even though he's a douche.

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I think he should just go ahead and change his name to "Johnny Manziel, even though he's a douche". He seems destined to have that qualifier follow him.

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I think he should just go ahead and change his name to "Johnny Manziel, even though he's a douche". He seems destined to have that qualifier follow him.

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You guys were in the Big 12 in the time but Saban spent the first year of his tenure at Alabama preaching the differences between identity and image you guys really should check some of those rants out. With Manziel's PR "issues" it would actually be hilarious in hindsight.

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You guys were in the Big 12 in the time but Saban spent the first year of his tenure at Alabama preaching the differences between identity and image you guys really should check some of those rants out.

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In other years Aggies would almost certainly agree with his rant. And we'd be right! But this guy... what can you say? This guy is special. I'm going to enjoy every minute of these last 4 games, because we're never going to see another like him.

(Unless he comes back. I've contacted Marie Laveau about this - she's working on it.)

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I'm not reading all that, but I do take the other awards seriously, but think the Heisman is a joke. They at least say what they are: best QB, best CB, best WR etc..
The Heisman is basically an award for best best QB on a top team, not best player.

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In regards to what you said We said practically the same thing said that is is no more or less "serious" than the other awards in college football and all have flaws because like I said are all individual awards in a highly compartmentalized team game.

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no more or less "serious" than the other awards in college football

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Yea, I agree with this, just give more credance to the other awards because they do say what they really are for.

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(and not be drafted by Tampa)

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This is how screwed up this situation has me (and I suspect most Aggies who've given it any thought): With all the excellent QB's coming out this year JM may go late in the first round, which means he might actually land on a decent team. If he comes back to A&M when the defense will presumably be at least passable, and then goes out he'd likely go to a lousy team early in the first round. So it comes down to 1) one-more-year-of-JFF then a really lousy NFL team, or 2) bolt this year, leave A&M w/o JFF, and go to a semi-decent NFL team. It's a quandary for me, as I want him to succeed. (Mostly I'd like him to succeed with the Cowboys.)

I do agree, though, that Marie should make damn sure he doesn't get drafted by Tampa.