Heisman Campaign on Behalf of Penix was Admirable, But a Waste
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Yogi Roth, Pac-12 Networks college football analyst, made an impassioned plea for Michael Penix Jr. to become a serious Heisman Trophy candidate.
So did Tony Castricone, voice of the University of Washington football team, stumping aggressively for multiple days on social media.
Beat writers such as Mike Vorel of the Seattle Times dug deep for reasons the Husky quarterback, who leads the nation in passing in two categories, should be brought to the New York City ceremony as a finalist.
Which was all well and good for these dedicated and impassioned observers of the local ball team except for one big reason — wasted breath.
The Heisman doesn't always go to the best player in college football or else former Husky defensive tackle Steve Emtman would have been the 1991 winner, not Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard. Emtman, not Howard, was the NFL's No. 1 overall draft pick that year. And Big Steve played for an unbeaten team that shared the national championship that season in the two major polls.
Quick, tell us who Gino Torretto, Charlie Ward, Danny Wuerfel, Chris Weinke, Jameis Winston and Tim Tebow were?
They're all quarterbacks from different Florida college football teams over the past three decades who backed into the award and got their hands on the hardware with the trademark guy doing the Heisman pose and, who after winning, were hardly elite football players, slinking into different levels of obscurity.
While the Pac-12 and its earlier conference iterations have stocked NFL teams with plenty of talent, it rarely has a Heisman winner — eight exactly over the 86 years the trophy has been handed out.
Quarterback Marcus Mariota of Oregon was the last winner from the conference in 2014.
WSU quarterback Gardner Minshew was the last Pac-12 player from any of its schools to finish in the top 10 in voting and draw any concentrated consideration, coming in fifth in the balloting in 2018.
In the first 11 years the trophy was handed out, from 1935 to 1945, from the height of the depression to the height of World War II, the then Pacific Coast Conference had exactly two players in contention for the award.
Stanford quarterback Frankie Albert was twice among the top 10 vote-getters back then, California running back Vic Bottari just once.
Over 86 years, the Pac-12 has had 86 guys finish in the top 10 voting results, with plenty of years where they had no one considered for the Heisman..
So this is nothing new for a conference that often plays games well out of the general public view, relegated to late-night Friday or Saturday night telecasts.
The award typically goes to the best running back or quarterback supposedly from coast to coast, rather than the best overall player at any position. Rushers have supplied 45 winners and the signal-callers another 36, or all but five of all of the Heisman winners.
The top college football talent, according to the annual Heisman voting returns, resides on the East Coast, and more specifically in the Southeast.
Emtman, who should have won it all in 1991 while playing for an unbeaten and co-national championship team and dominating anyone who came within 10 yards of him, is the only Husky player who has ever been invited to New York for the trophy presentation.
At least Emtman got to see the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, maybe eat a good meal or two. Otherwise, it was an uneventful trip.
So while stumping on behalf of Penix, clearly an elite college football talent as well as a personable kid who would entertain everyone like no other with a fun-loving acceptance speech, is definitively a noble cause, it is a wasted effort.
No matter how many yards or touchdowns he's thrown, Penix is not going to Gotham and not getting a chance hold up the college game's top individual bauble.
Yes, he should.
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