Heisman Heist: Harrell Snubbed out of Heisman Ceremony

When college football fans across the country tune into ESPN at 8 p.m.(EST) on Saturday night to watch the 2008 Heisman Trophy presentation—they will be treated to a presentation filled with a lot of things. First, they will get a look inside the dazzling facility that is the Sports Museum of America, which recently opened in May of 2008.They will hear about the history of the Heisman—which happens to be the most prestigious individual award in college football. They’ll learn of past winners of the award, such as Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders, Brigham Young’s Ty Detmer, or Nebraska’s fleet-footed Eric Crouch. Fans will also be treated with highlights of the 2008 Heisman finalists.


They’ll watch the highlights of the calm hand of Sam Bradford guiding his team to five straight performances in which the Sooners put up 60 points or more—a feat no other team in the history of college football has accomplished.

Fans will watch the punishing hits and superhuman strength of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow in leading his Gators to a SEC title and another BCS National Championship game berth. Tebow’s face will of course look strikingly familiar because he won the award last season. That and the fact that ESPN has a love affair with Tim Tebow—constantly playing his highlights and the pieces about Tebow traveling to the Philippines to complete missionary work.

Fans will also get a good look at the golden boy that is Colt McCoy, gunslinger extraordinaire for the Texas Longhorns. McCoy’s uncanny accuracy on his passes(over 77 percent) this season might be the best in the history of college football, unless he tops the mark next season of course.

Fans will get to hear about Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, and Tim Tebow, but the one player they won’t be hearing about is Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell. Harrell, for some odd reason wasn’t invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony—despite posting numbers that are comparable to the other three finalists. This year Harrell was an air-assaulting assassin with the pigskin, commanding the nation’s top ranked aerial assault. The Red Raiders’ tormented defenses all season long with their passing attack this season, piling up over 417 yards per game through the air. Harrell’s numbers are difficult to put up in EA Sports NCAA Football ’09, let alone real life!


Let’s put it this way, in the 2008 season, Harrell was ranked in the top ten in the nation in five major offensive categories: 2nd in total passing yards(4,747), 2nd in passing yards per game(395.5), 9th in passing efficiency(163.0), 2nd in total offense(390.8), and 4th in points responsible for(23.83). He also managed to complete a staggering 71.4 percent of his passes despite leading the nation in passing attempts with 568. Now compare that with Tebow’s completion percentage of 64.9 percent of his passes with 268 pass attempts and it seems even better. Then you look at McCoy’s ridiculous completion percentage(77.3) with nearly 200 pass attempts less than Harrell(375) and you see yet again, how impressive Harrell’s completion percentage was. Finally, take a look at Sam Bradford’s 68.3 completion percentage with only 442 pass attempts. All three of those stats prove to us one thing—Graham Harrell’s completion percentage with over 550 pass attempts is out of this world!

Did I mention that Harrell also passed for more yards this season than any of the three finalists? Oh yeah and I guess that whole game-winning touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree never happened in the Texas game either! Who will ever forget that beautifully lofted “back-shoulder fade” he threw to stun the top-ranked Longhorns before a nationally televised audience? Last, but not least, this is the same Graham Harrell who played with two shattered fingers in his non-throwing hand against Baylor and lifted his team to a 35-28 comeback victory. The Red Raiders were trailing by 14, but Harrell drove the offense down the field multiple times to put up 21 straight points—in doing so ensuring the Red Raiders’ of their first 11 win season since 1973.


I’m not trying to belittle the accomplishments of the Heisman finalists—Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow, and Colt McCoy, are all very deserving of being finalists for the award. They all posted astronomical numbers on the gridiron this season and led their teams to dazzling campaigns. I’m just saying that Graham Harrell deserves to be invited to New York with them. I realize his chances of winning the award were pretty slim because the Heisman committee decided to choose the finalists due to a “natural breaking point” in the votes. Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach was furious about the snub and justifiably so. Leach said Wednesday that "if Graham is not invited to the Heisman, they ought to quit giving out the award. It is a shameless example of politics ruling over performance."

Leach has every right to be mad because his quarterback had one of the best seasons in college football history and apparently the Heisman committee was too blind to see that. Just remember that when you’re watching the ceremony on Saturday night and you feel like there’s something missing—because Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell is it.