Andrew Luck Deserves the Heisman Trophy

There are five superb college football players headed to New York for this Saturday’s 77th Heisman Trophy award ceremony: Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Montee Ball, Trent Richardson and Tyrann Mathieu.

The Heisman Trophy’s website sets forth the mission statement of the Heisman Trust, which “annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work. The Heisman Trophy Trust ensures the continuation and integrity of this award.” 

Under those stated criteria, Stanford’s Andrew Luck should win the Heisman. 

This article won’t compare Luck to the other highly worthy finalists. Everyone’s been there, done that. No, the point here is that given the mission statement of the Heisman Trust, Luck is the most deserving candidate. 

Let’s focus for a moment on integrity, found in the Heisman Trust's mission statement.

Quick—name the FBS programs that have never been sanctioned for NCAA violations.

According to USA Today, there are only four such programs:

Northwestern.

Boston College.

Penn State (well, maybe never sanctioned, but perhaps the nation’s most scandal-stained program right now).

Stanford. 

Of these never-sanctioned programs, only Stanford has a Heisman hopeful visiting New York this weekend. That would be QB Andrew Luck, making his second straight appearance as a Heisman finalist. He was the 2010 runner-up. 

(Of the 25 CFB players who have been Heisman finalists more than once, only nine, including Colt McCoy and Darren McFadden, failed to win the award.)

Luck’s numerical statistics—the 70 percent completion percentage, the 8.5 yards per attempt, the 35 touchdowns—are terrifically impressive, especially considering he spent November without starting TE Zach Ertz and with starting WRs who were a former walk-on possession receiver (Griff Whalen) and a true freshman (Ty Montgomery). 

Luck’s intangibles—his play-calling, audibilizing and field instincts—are unmatched in CFB. Every NFL GM knows that. 

This is not the next Andre Ware, Gino Torretta, Danny Wuerffel, Jason White, Charlie Ward or Eric Crouch. All signs point to Luck becoming a superstar QB in the NFL. 

But let’s get back to the Heisman Trust’s sacred words: excellence, great ability, integrity, diligence, perseverance, hard work.

Luck, the presumptive top pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, was valedictorian of his high school. He is majoring in architectural design at Stanford, where his classmates rank among the nation’s most gifted and accomplished college students. He made the Pac-12 All-Academic team with a 3.48 GPA.

And that's all while leading the Cardinal, a downtrodden 1-11 team in 2006, to their first back-to-back BCS bowl berths (something only 18 programs have accomplished) and their first three-year bowl streak in almost 80 years.

If all that doesn’t embody the hallowed Heisman ideals, nothing does.

If the Heisman voters faithfully abide by the guiding principles of the Heisman Trust, Andrew Luck should be the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner.