Seeing Andre Williams win the Doak Walker the other night reminded me of why I love Boston College and its athletes. Andre was everything that you would want in a college student/athlete. He presented himself with great class, insight, intelligence and humility. Having been named to every All America team out there, along with the Doak, the trip to New York tomorrow night for the Heisman and rushing for over 2000 yards, he has had a season that no one could have possibly dreamed of, particularly given the predicament BC football found itself in when last season ended.
But can Andre actually win the Heisman?
Put down your Maroon and Gold goggles just for a moment and look at this realistically. There is every chance that Jameis Winston will not only win the award but potentially by the largest margin in Heisman history. I will go so far as to say if the police incident didn't come into play, he would set that margin record. You would have to go back to 1969 and Steve Owens at Oklahoma whose Sooners went 6-4 (.600) to find someone with a comparable team record (BC is 7-5 .583) who actually won the award.
In general, the award has now not become about the best player, but the best player on one of, if not the best team. Now that's not to say that you need to be #1, but once again, every player back to Owens, played on a nationally ranked team.
Williams also suffers from underclassman-itis. The last senior to win the Heisman was Troy Smith from Ohio State in 2006, who coincidentally played on the #1 team in the country.
So much like the 2013 season, where I didn't expect anything and have been pleasantly surprised, I don't really expect AW to walk off with the hardware. I am just happy to have him there and figure this will potentially be the single greatest advertisement for Boston College athletics in general and football in specific that I can recall.
Now the question...where will he finish in the voting?
I have seen dozens of prediction sites and know that in many, Andre is #2 in the voting but while I think he deserves to be that high and while this year is really unlike many if any we have seen in terms of how the pre-season and early season front runners struggled down the stretch, will it equate to a silver medal.
Heisman Pundit runs an annual straw poll on this and if you believe their history, has accurately predicted the top 6 finishers for the Heisman, in order, three years in a row, and has been within one spot of complete accuracy every year since 2007.
For those of you who took a trip over, you will notice that AW is not in the top 6! He actually ties for 8th behind Derek Carr at Fresno State and Marcus Mariotta at Oregon, who aren't even going to New York.
So what do you think, where does Andre finish?
Go Andre! Go Eagles!!