The Heisman Race is On

Tonight, the 78^th Annual Heisman Memorial Trophy for the 2012 NCAA Football season will be presented at the Best Buy Theater in Times Square, New York. While four finalists are usually showcased at the presentation, this season only has three finalists. They are quarterback Collin Klein, quarterback Johnny Manziel, and middle linebacker Manti Te’o.

The ESPN experts usually have some idea who the front-runner is for the award. This year seems to be wide-open though. Each of the three players deserves to win the Heisman, but unfortunately in this competition (and in sports) there can only be one winner. Here’s a quick break-down.

When all is said and done, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel should be the winner tonight. By Shutterbug459 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Collin Klein (Kansas State University):  The Senior quarterback for the Wildcats passed for 2,490 yards and 15 touchdowns while also rushing for 890 yards and 22 touchdowns.  He completed 66.2 percent of his passes during the year, only throwing seven interceptions. He is also second in Kansas State history in scoring with 336 points and third in career yards with 7,028. Klein has led the Wildcats to what is probably the best season in school history.

Manti Te’o (Notre Dame): The Senior Middle Linebacker for the Fighting Irish would be the second defensive player to ever win the award. He helped lead his team to an undefeated season (12-0) with 101 tackles and surpassed a school record with his seven interceptions. He ranks third in Notre Dame history with his career 427 tackles and he would become the eighth Notre Dame player to win the award.

Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M University): The quarterback for Texas A&M passed for 3,419 yards and 24 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,181 yards and 19 touchdowns. He is the first quarterback in SEC history (and the fifth player ever in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision) to have 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season. He completed 68.3 percent of his passes, only throwing eight interceptions. Oh and I also forgot to mention that Manziel or “Johnny Football” is only a freshman.

The Verdict: All three of these players had incredible seasons and all could easily win this award but only one can actually call themselves Heisman trophy winners. For most of the season, Collin Klein was the frontrunner, but once his team lost to Baylor, his chances dropped dramatically. Te’o and the Fighting Irish were the only undefeated team this year and him being a defensive player, and to make it this far in the Heisman chase is incredible. But the fact remains that a freshman in the SEC threw for over 3,000 years and 24 touchdowns while also rushing for over 1,000 yards and 19 touchdowns.

While Klein and Te’o are both great players, what Johnny Manziel has done is simply amazing and shouldn’t be overlooked just because he is a freshman. Manziel should win this year. When all is said and done, Johnny Football should be posing in New York tonight.