On December 10, 2016, a university athlete will be crowned as the next winner of the Heisman Trophy, the prize awarded the most outstanding soccer player. While he is likely to go to one of these five players, he must go to someone who has not been invited, the Florida State University wide receiver, Travis Rudolph.
It's not that the finalists do not deserve the jackpot. Louisville University quarterback Lamar Jackson threw for 30 touchdowns and ran for another 21 while passing for 3,990 yards and ran for 1,538 yards. Critics argue that he only completed 57.6 percent of his passes, and had horrible games against the University of Houston and the University of Kentucky.
Deshaun Watson, the quarterback at Clemson University, beat Jackson in a face-to-face confrontation. He has taken his team to the college football Playoff. He threw for 3,914 yards and 37 touchdowns, while running for another 5 touchdowns (and 529 yards). But struggles against weak competition make this finalist repetition less than a sure bet.
Jabrill Peppers, the University of Michigan linebacker, is an intriguing choice, with more than 71 tacks, 15 stops for a loss, while accumulating some touchdowns on offense, with more than 750 yards. Hitting a fan of Ohio State University will not help your case, as well as the anemic loss that Michigan had for Iowa.
Or it could be Baker Mayfield, the QB of Oklahoma who completed an impressive 70% of his passes, threw 38 touchdowns and accumulated 3,669 yards. He will have to wait for Heisman voters not to see the game the Sooners played against Houston and Ohio State University.
Receiver Rudolph had a pretty decent junior season. He hooked 53 receptions for 807 yards, with seven touchdowns. That's not so bad for a receiver, right?
I know what you're thinking, Rudolph is the best university receiver in Division I of the NCAA, but may not be the best athlete, in fact, he may not be the best athlete on the football team at Florida State University, since Seminole Dalvin Cook, a runner, had a stellar season with 1,620 rushing yards , 426 receiving yards and 19 total touchdowns against better competition than many other runners.Although Cook was rejected at the end, Kirk Herbstreit and Mel Kiper Jr. see him as a top runner.
But I do not think the prize should be about the best statistics, in fact, Rudolph made one of the best plays of the college football seasons.
You see, while Rudolph and his teammates visited a school in Tallahassee, the Seminol e WR noted that Bo Paske, 11, has autism, sitting alone. According to Huffington Post, Rudolph joined the boy when his bewildered mother took the photo of the two chatting animatedly, making her cry. And yes, Rudolph is black, while Paske is white.
The story went viral. In a sport where bad news leads and few good actions receive coverage, Rudolph's gesture was huge for the NCAA. He did not stop there, as Paske and his family had the opportunity to watch a key game at the beginning of the season in which FSU faced a duel in Mississippi in Orlando, Florida, and a shirt with his name, and appeared on the national television. Now all the children in the school think that Paske is great for being a celebrity.
This was not Rudolph's first act of kindness, as he received the team's "Community Service Award" in the spring of 2016.
Rudolph probably will not win. But the Heisman Trophy, created by the Downtown Athletic Club, is supposed to go to the "outstanding college football player whose best performance shows the pursuit of excellence with integrity". Since, maybe Rudolph should be in Times Square in Manhattan this weekend.
John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Ga. He can be reached at jtures @ lagrange .edu.
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