As most of us know, the most prestigious award in college football, the Heisman Trophy, will be handed out on Saturday. It is still unclear of the exact rules for voting for this awards since some vote for it like a most valuable player award, others only vote for players on good teams, while other actually vote on it based on who they think the best player in the country. I fall into the last category, I’ll look at a candidate and add or subtract in a few factors based on who they played. I was asked by Big Head of Mizzourah to take part in a Heisman Vote, and my vote is at the end of this article.

Colt Brennan - If Colt put up the stats he did last season, I think he would be a shoe-in for the 2007 Heisman award. Colt has a lot going for him, he recently broke Ty Detmer’s record for career touchdown passes, he led Hawaii to their first ever BCS Bowl game, and finished the season undefeated. In all, Brennan owns 20 NCAA records. But since Hawaii did not play a difficult schedule, many think his stats are a bit over-inflated. Inflated or not, 4100 yards passing, 38 touchdowns, and a 71% completion percentage is eye popping.

Also Colt missed the better parts of two games this season and most of his games hardly anyone got to see because Hawaii plays so late at night. Right or wrong, he has been labeled a system quarterback, but really who isn’t? He has mastered his system and can execute it to near perfection. That’s what you want in a quarterback, also isn’t it impressive that teams know Hawaii is going to pass down after down, yet he still is able to get the stats he does?

Darren McFadden - McFadden is no stranger to this race, he finished as the runner up last season to Troy Smith. He is trying not to become the first person ever to be runner up two years in a row. McFadden is so effective that the Razorbacks named an offensive formation just for him. His stats are not eye popping, 1725 yards and 15 touchdowns, but if you dig deeper you will see how impressive they are.

First off, Arkansas played in the toughest conference in college football and the Razorbacks were not a great team this year. At the end of the season McFadden found himself lining up at quarterback. Unlike Tim Tebow, the defenses knew McFadden was going to run and he had over 525 yards rushing in his last two games against South Carolina and LSU using this formation. Working against McFadden is the fact that he was held under 100 yards 3 times this season, he is on a 4 loss team, and many say he got his yards because he had such a good backfield mate in Felix Jones.

Tim Tebow - Tim Tebow is an excellent dual threat quarterback from the University of Florida…who didn’t know that? Tebow recently became the first quarterback in NCAA history to run for over 20 touchdowns and throw for over 20 touchdowns in one season. Although only a sophomore, he is poised beyond his years. The #1 arguement for Tebow right now is that stat I mentioned and his 3100 yards with a 66% completion percentage. He did that playing (like McFadden) in the toughest conference in America.

The two knocks on Tebow are the fact that he is only a sophomore (they don’t usually win this award), and Florida has three losses. Tebow does have over 800 yards rushing but when you look at where he carried the ball 194 times, doing the math that is a little over 4 ypc. Yes, I know sacks are counted in, but that does not change that number too much.

Before I get to my vote, here is how I think it will play out Saturday night. Colt will finish third because no one respects Hawaii, that is at least until they pull an upset of Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. McFadden will finish second and Tebow will be the first sophomore in decades to win this award, mainly because of the 20-20 stat he has going for him. BUT, Tebow won the Maxwell award, and 7 of the last 8 to win that award did not win the Heisman. While the Walter Camp Award (which McFadden won) has been a Heisman winner the past 3 years and 4 of the last 8.

My vote is as follows: 3) Brennan, 2) Tebow, and 1) McFadden. It was really hard for me to distinguish between the three because for each I can give a legitimate reason why they should win it all. When it came down to choosing, I had to penalize Brennan for the lack of quality for his opponents. I thought if either of the two above him played the schedule he did, their stats would be out of this world. I picked McFadden over Tebow because I think he was impressive with a lot more stacked against him. They both were go to guys on their teams, while both had talented supporting cast, but I think the fact that since McFadden did it while only being one-dimensional was much more impressive to me. He did not have that thread of passing that Tebow did, and still was able to put up huge games when teams would stack the box against him.

So there you have it, my reasoning behind my picks. Now I ask the readers of In The Bleachers to leave me their ballot, and reasoning if you so choose, in the comment section.