The race for the Heisman Trophy heads into Saturday's ceremony as perhaps the tightest in the 67-year history of the award.
Five finalists were named yesterday to attend the awards ceremony in New York, and strong arguments can be made for each. Below, reporters from various Tribune Publishing newspapers make the cases for these players.
Brad Banks, Iowa
If Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz had a Heisman Trophy vote, it would go to Hawkeyes quarterback Brad Banks.
No surprise there. But there are a slew of other qualified candidates, so Ferentz urged voters to weigh the impact Banks made in his first year as a Division I-A starter. A year ago, Iowa won seven games. With Banks under center, the third-ranked Hawkeyes went 11-1, won a share of their first Big Ten title since 1990 and landed in the Orange Bowl.
"As far as selling Brad, I can't tell anyone how they should vote," Ferentz said. "But all I would ask is if anybody is voting, I would say look at his story."
Banks left his home in South Florida to play in the cornfields because Iowa was the only major college that promised him a shot at quarterback. Others pegged him as a wide receiver.
His first Division I-A start came in August. Every Saturday Banks seemed to improve, with the exception of an erratic second half in a 36-31 loss to intrastate rival Iowa State.
"To me, the best thing I can say is that he played his best in our biggest games," said Ferentz, noting Banks' clutch performances in breakthrough road wins at Penn State and Michigan, both of which wound up in New Year's Day bowls.
Statistics also help Banks' cause: He is the top-rated passer in Division I-A, and he threw only four interceptions, which makes his coaches adore him.
Banks' main obstacle may be the schedule. The Hawkeyes' last game was Nov. 16, and since then several of his rivals have had big performances on national television.
"I would sure hope that, to me, the date of our last game wouldn't factor into it," Ferentz said. -- Andrew Baganto, Chicago Tribune
Ken Dorsey, Miami
The Heisman Trophy isn't supposed to be about which player will make the best pro, or is it about who has put up the gaudiest statistics.
The award is supposed to go to "The Outstanding College Football Player of the United States," and because it doesn't have a timetable of how long that player needs to have been outstanding, it has become sports' foggiest-defined award.
If there was a career award for college football, this is it, and has been for years, which is why many across the country believe that Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey should win the honor, at least keeping the pedigree of the award's winners consistent.
Dorsey, who has thrown for a career-high 3,073 yards and 26 touchdowns this season, is perceived as the caretaker of the country's most talented team. But he's more than a caretaker. He's Miami's driving force, the irreplaceable part that has been the one constant in an offense that has seen 12 NFL players come and go over his career as a starter, which just so happens to include a 38-1 record.
"I know that there are guys who can be successful here, but I'd like to think it's hard to win the number of games we've won here without having the right guy," Dorsey said.
None of this year's other Heisman candidates has had careers that come even close to what Dorsey has accomplished throughout his three-plus seasons as Miami's starter.
If he wins his second national title in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3, it's going to be hard to argue that he's not one of college football's all-time greats at quarterback, alongside the 21 other quarterbacks who happened to have won the award. -- Omar Kelly, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Larry Johnson, Penn State
He has the size, skill, speed and stats. But that isn't why Larry Johnson should win the Heisman Trophy.
The Penn State running back should win it for his attitude.
"If they're going to hold [something] against me, then I'd rather not win it," Johnson said. "I can only try so hard. I can only give 100 percent. If they don't look at that, then don't give me the award."
He's so antithetical to college football, this ornery son of Penn State's defensive line coach. He waited dutifully -- if impatiently -- for his chance in coach Joe Paterno's upperclassmen hierarchy. Then, as a fifth-year senior, he chased his demons with the nation's finest rushing season and the best in Penn State history.
Johnson possesses the numbers: 2,015 yards rushing and 2,575 all-purpose yards, both Division I-A highs. His 8.03 yards-per-carry average is an NCAA record. Among the nine backs with 2,000-yard rushing seasons, he has the fewest carries (251).
And yet he fights the most negative perception among Heisman candidates: three "lousy" games against Iowa, Michigan and Ohio State. Never mind that he averaged 151 all-purpose yards in those three games. Or that he played against Michigan with a debilitating hamstring injury (but scored the first time he touched the ball).
