Quickly rising up to ride the coat-tails of last season was the pre-season Heisman talk along with the NFL Lockout and all the top college players who decided to opt out of the draft and return for a senior season. List after list has been populated with contenders for the Heisman Trophy. While many familiar names are surfacing, most everyone has already crowned Andrew Luck as the next Heisman winner. Yet, pre-season talk is often all about hype. Then there are a few instances where one of the favorites has taken the prize before the dark horse came in and pulled the rug out from under the rest of the field. Aside from the field of contenders, I am more interested in looking inward to the Oklahoma Sooners. Not only has the 2010 season thrust both Ryan Broyles and Landry Jones into the national spotlight but it has also cemented them in the Heisman talk. Oklahoma is no stranger to having more than one player getting an invite to the Heisman Trophy Presentation Ceremony and this year could mark another instance of that. This may be an unfair question to ask Sooner fans but for the sake of conversation, who would you rather see win the Heisman: Broyles or Jones?
Clay Horning of the Norman Transcript may be a fan of both Ryan and Landry but has decided that Broyles is the right candidate for the bill. While many people think Jones is one heck of a candidate (yes because of the weapons at his disposal) Horning is downplaying his candidacy. Even though he had this to say:
Jones broke many bad habits a year ago. He finally played well, with consistency, away from home. Though he did not quit throwing silly interceptions here and there — a trend that even continued at the Red-White Game — he very much quit letting early mistakes define the rest of his Saturday.
He came back with this shot
The problems is Jones is not OU’s best player. Ryan Broyles is OU’s best player.
On the flip side of the coin, former Oklahoma QB Jason White has been reported by Tulsa World as talking about the debate as well. After being asked what he thought of Landry's candidacy he had this to say:
Landry came a long way last year. To be in that talk, I don't doubt it at all. It takes a lot to get there. I think Landry's got the tools to do it. He's got the team to do it. It's just a matter of everything falling into place and his working hard.
Now that we look at who actually has voting ,since I highly doubt any of us here do, we find both Horning and White account for one vote a piece. It would appear that Horning would give his early vote to Broyles while White will give his early vote to Jones. The playing field has been evened with one vote a piece but the wheel continues to spin. Round and round it goes, where it lands nobody knows.