2. The competitiveness and acknowledgment of coaches.
Don’t get me wrong, coaches have always held a high profile position. However, it seems that the game is producing better coaches with each passing year, and those coaches are gaining an increase in recognition.
Urban Meyer has cemented his name into the historical greatness of college football coaches by winning his second national title.
Nick Saban’s process has revived a team from the mediocrity of college football to a team that once again has hope and determination to be more than just average.
Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson is at work himself, waking what could be a sleeping giant.
In addition, no team can afford to overlook the effectiveness Houston Nutt has had at taking a team from 0-8 in conference play to a real contender in just his first season in Oxford.
Pete Carroll continues to bring one of the best teams to play, year-in and year-out.
Mack Brown has solidified his spot by continued success at Texas, and a record that does not lie. The man has never won fewer than nine games in a single season since taking over the reins in Austin.
As a whole, there are currently 12 head coaches with national championship rings to sport. Moreover, many current head coaches have won titles as assistants, and a few coaches have even led their team to undefeated seasons. When you add it all up, that makes for a competitive field.
1. The return of two Heisman Memorial Trophy winners.
Who can tell me the last time there were two Heisman Trophy winners playing in the same season? Anyone?
Unless my calculations are incorrect, there have never been two in the game at the same time.
Tim Tebow won the award as a sophomore, becoming the first to ever accomplish that feat. Sam Bradford also won the award as a sophomore. Both will be forgoing the NFL draft to make this the first occurrence in the history of the game.
All previous winners were either a junior or a senior, thus eliminating the possibility of playing the next season with a previous winner.
I believe this is a very significant occurrence and something we may become more accustomed to if the impact of younger players leads to the commencement of winning the award as a sophomore and electing to remain in college until graduation.
Will one of these two win the Heisman again? Their chances are both good.
One thing is for sure, though. Tebow and Bradford will both fight to lead their teams to play in Pasadena in January 2010.
A rematch, perhaps? One could only hope to see these two meet again somewhere before it is all said and done.
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