Mark Ingram Won the Heisman but What About the Clarett, the Crysman, and Other Obscure Awards?

There may be some questions surrounding when the votes go in, if the vote was closer than it should have been and perhaps if the order for the runner ups was correct. I don’t think, however, that there should be any question about this year’s Heisman Winner, Mark Ingram.

Ingram—the third straight sophomore to win the award after the first 72 awards excluded underclassmen—was Nick Saban’s most dependable weapon and carried the Tide's offense at critical times throughout the season.

His stats are not the most prolific ever and perhaps not even the best across the board this year but when his team needed it and when it mattered this guy just flat out would not be denied.

Ingram compiled 1864 yards of offense and led the nation with 29 runs of over 15 yards. Yet the most impressive stats are what he did against Alabama’s five ranked opponents.

In those games, he averaged over 200 yards from scrimmage with over 60 percent of it coming AFTER contact! He also averaged 6.5 yards per carry and had 27 runs for 10 yards or more.

Finally, Ingram defines dependability, in 429 opportunities he has fumbled just one time.

So despite the temptation to see Tebow off with a final accolade or to make amends with Colt McCoy for two past runner-up finishes the voters got it right.

Congratulations Mr. Ingram, you are a fine representative for your school and for college football. Just make sure the Heisman jinx doesn’t follow you to Pasadena!

Now that we have that behind us, who won some of the other prestigious Awards this year? Continue on to the next slide to find out.

The Clarett - Awarded for the Biggest "Waste of God Given Talent"

In college football, no name is more synonymous with cashing in the golden ticket for utter stupidity than Maurice Clarett. (Pictured)

At one time, Clarett was one of the most exciting players in college football and helped the Ohio State Buckeyes win their only BCS National Championship in 2002.

Through a series of missteps (and misdeeds) Maurice wound up in prison and his potential as an athlete is all but shot.

Not wishing his fate on anyone but there seems to be a handful of kids each year that would prefer to follow in Clarett's footsteps so they now have their own award.

For the nominees see this article:

Janzen Jackson, LaGarrett Blount, and Brandon Spikes—three of the front runners earlier in the season—are all reinstated from their lengthy suspensions (hey Spikes sat out TWICE as long as his disciplinarian coach initially intended) and will likely still have their opportunities to play at the next level so they didn’t quite make the cut.

So without further ado, the winner is: Nu’Keese Richardson

Richardson was one of the three highly regarded freshmen from Lane Kiffin’s Tennessee Volunteer squad arrested by the Knoxville Police Department on multiple counts of Attempted Robbery as well as various other charges.

This episode is rumored to be the inspiration for a new TV mini-series, the Dumb and the Brainless.

According to witnesses Richardson and his accomplices—which does not include Janzen Jackson who was allegedly not on look out duty—robbed several broke college students at semi-automatic ‘pellet’ gun-point outside of a Knoxville convenience store.

The robbery netted the trio a partially eaten hamburger—the victims could not afford the cheese up-charge—a handful of criminal charges and a pink slip from their future.

Richardson may get a second chance down the road but he seems to be well on his way to following the path blazed by this award's name sake.

In retrospect, Lane Kiffin should have let him answer the phone when Urban Meyer called during a recruiting visit. Maybe EVERYTHING would have turned out differently!

The Crysman - Awarded to the Most Tear Wrenching Player of the Year

Was there any doubt about this one?

Tiberius the Terrible, Tim the Great, JesusBow, or whatever he was being called prior to the SEC championship may still be how he is viewed by many but the all-creation sensation—Tim Tebow—has not gotten much press since we last saw him in tears on the Georgia Dome sideline in Atlanta.

For many college football fans—not dressed in Blue and Orange—that’s just fine.

It’s not that anyone dislikes Tebow, it’s just that we had all grown tired of the endless TimFest on ESPN and other sporting news outlets.

But let's face it, Tebow was a great college quarterback and he is an equally good person, so he probably does not deserve the ridicule but for that one fleeting moment he WAS the Crysman!

*Thanks to Black Shoe Diaries for providing the art work and inspiration for this trophy!

The FailsMan - Awarded to the Player Who Just Didn't Live Up to the Hype

Every year there is a player that comes out of high school as the ‘can’t miss’ second-coming of the most phenomenal player that ever walked the planet and boy is he going to be great. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don’t.

There were a few nominees for Failed Phenoms this year.

Willy Korn – QB, Clemson University: Korn was one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks coming out of high school in 2006 and folks in Clemson were convinced he was the future of the program.

In three years he has managed to earn limited playing time and has only attempted 66 passes. He may yet get the chance to lead the Tigers but the Clemson faithful are far less optimistic than they were in the past.

Mitch Mustain – QB, USC: Mustain was initially recruited to play at Arkansas when Houston Nutt was in Fayetteville. After receiving limited playing time he became disenchanted with Nutt and a nasty breakup—followed by a transfer to USC—ensued.

Mustain was mildly successful under the tutelage of then offensive coordinator Gus Malzhan at Arkansas but since his transfer he has been unable to move up the depth chart.

Terrell Pryor – QB, Ohio State: Pryor was the No. 1 recruit in the country two years ago and many expected him to set the Ohio State Buckeyes back on a course for BCS Championship glory.

Results have been mixed but he did guide the Buckeyes to another B10 Title and BCS (Rose) Bowl berth. There is still time for him to reach his full potential but for this year he has a special connection to the FailsMan Trophy.

And the winner is: Isiah 'Juice' Williams

With several impressive performances and fairly good statistics in his first two years the Juice was primed and ready to squeeze into the Heisman race and to lead the Illini to a long awaited Big Ten Title.

It was not to be as Williams and Illinois got pulped into a dismal 3-9 record and Juice never looked more watered down.

*Thanks to Black Shoe Diaries for providing the art work and name for this trophy!

The Dopy Coach Award - Awarded for Uncanning Ability to Screw it Up

Sometimes Coaches just have Homer Simpson moments, sometimes it seems like a whole season. This year has been an interesting year for certain coaches.

In consecutive weeks LSU's Les Miles, Auburn's Gene Chizik and Texas' Mack Brown seemed to forget that Football is a game with a running clock and a time limit.

Each coach allowed precious seconds to burn off of the clock near the end of their respective rivalry games. Due to their errors each coach watched the last second tick off with their team behind.

Fortunately for Mack Brown the Big 12 officials have been taking classes taught by the SEC in poor officiating and they gave Texas a second back to kick a chip shot field goal and retain a spot in the BCS Championship game.

On the other hand Les Miles' call to get back two seconds—the time that had elapsed AFTER Terrance Tolliver was down—went unheard and the Tigers still have their third loss.

Any of these three would be fine candidates for the D'oh award but this time it's going for career achievement.

The winner is:

Lane Kiffin, the much maligned and often unrefined rookie head coach that can't seem to stop tripping on his own shoelaces.

With at least a half dozen recruiting violations under his belt, the new mouth of the South is currently being investigated by the NCAA for potentially encouraging scantily clad co-eds to 'lure' recruits to Tennessee, among other charges.

Kiffin wanted to bring attention to the program, well D'oh!!

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