Hyphen should trump commas for Heisman

Is there time for one final flavor of the week in the Heisman Trophy voting?

There likely is not, because many of the voters have made their decisions and some have already turned in their choices. But perhaps there should be, considering one of the three most significant games of the college football season remains to be played before the deadline — and there are some individuals in it with spectacular resumes that could be improved.

What if Aaron Murray or Jarvis Jones has a monster outing for Georgia to beat Alabama in the SEC championship game Saturday to propel the Bulldogs into the national championship game? Or, is AJ McCarron’s one stinker against Texas A&M unforgivable, even if the ‘Bama quarterback shines in a win against UGA? Too bad that a guy with a 24-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio got saddled with an Un-Heisman Moment.

They might find their way onto a few ballots, and so might Kansas State’s Collin Klein, who was once considered the front-runner (then again, who wasn’t at one time or another?).

But the experts tell us it’s all over before the conference championship games. Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M — which isn’t even going to a BCS bowl game — is going to win it. Most credible projections have the Aggies’ freshman quarterback taking it over Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, decisively. One of the cool things about the Heisman is if you win you get a vote; if it were projected to be closer, maybe the four living Notre Dame winners could make a difference, since Texas A&M has just one.

The numbers over the years prove that Heisman voting tends to be regional. So I decided to call an old friend from my Florida days, Robbie Andreu, the longtime Gators beat writer for the Gainesville Sun, going back to the Spurrier days.

He voted for Johnny Football, but said it was close.

"Te’o is so good for Notre Dame. It’s a real close call. You know that he’s a really great player, and a great kid. He just doesn’t have numbers, and Manziel’s numbers were impossible to ignore. Even with that it was almost a coin flip. I have all the respect in the world for Manti Te’o."

I believe this because I know what kind of guy Andreu is; and also because he pronounced the name Manti Te’o correctly … which is still a problem for many national broadcasters.

Robbie agrees his Heisman chances would have been better with some short-yardage fullback.

"I think anytime you add worth and are more versatile, it gets noticed," he said. "If they had done that and Manti has three or four touchdowns I think it makes him No. 1."

You know who gets Hawaii sportscasting legend Jim Leahey’s first-place vote; he didn’t want to disclose the name yet, but described him as a "defensive star for an undefeated team."

Jim adds that, "In six or seven years as a voter, I’ve never had a winner."

I hope that streak ends now and Te’o wins. Because he’s from Hawaii? No, although he represents our state extremely well.

Because he deserves it, for all the reasons we’ve talked about time and again.

Those numbers with commas, like Manziel’s passing and rushing yards, are eye-catching. But the ones with the hyphen — the 12-0 Te’o led his team to — should weigh more.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.