Case Keenum vs. C.J. Spiller: Who Gets the Last Seat at the Heisman Ceremony?

We can guess that the three selections for the Heisman ceremony will probably be Tim Tebow, Mark Ingram and Jimmy Clausen. Tebow has the hype, Ingram the numbers and Clausen the media-friendly program.

But suppose for a moment that only two of these players make it; that someone wises up on Tebow plateauing in his senior year, or Mark Ingram's production severely regresses, or people realize that Jimmy Clausen can't throw accurately under pressure.

That leaves the third seat open, and I know two players who deserve third-seat consideration.

Here's an argument for both. We'll decide at the end who wins the head-to-head.

C.J. Spiller, RB, Clemson

Clemson's C.J. Spiller is the current ACC leader in all-purpose yards, and is second in the nation in all-purpose yards.

He is the only other player besides Reggie Bush to reach 2500 yards rushing, 1500 yards in kickoff returns, 1000 yards receiving and 5000 yards in punt returns, and has tied the national record of kickoff returns for touchdowns with six. He has 19 career touchdowns of 50 yards or more.

After a lackluster junior year, Spiller is on pace to equal his stellar freshman season, in which he rushed for 938 yards and 10 touchdowns. If he can continue the output, he's got himself on pace to become only the fifth player in NCAA history to compile 7,000 yards of statistical production.

That's his body of work so far. But what has he done in 2009?

Well, he's fifth in the ACC with 574 yards rushing at five-per-carry and four touchdowns. Tack on 267 receiving yards and two touchdowns, including a 63-yard touchdown catch to keep the Tigers in the game at Georgia Tech and 104 yards and a receiving touchdown in Clemson's crucial upset of the Miami Hurricanes in Land Shark Stadium.

He was clocked at 28 m.p.h. on a kickoff returned for a touchdown in Clemson's win over Maryland. He took another kickoff back while compiling 310 all-purpose yards in the Miami upset. He battled through a nagging foot injury to compile 191 all-purpose yards, including a 60-yard fly route that put Clemson on the goal line , in their 14-10 loss to TCU. He averages 38.75 yards per return, putting him at second in the country.

As a punt returner, Spiller averages 30 yards per return against programs crazy enough to punt to him. He took a punt back against Boston College to put Clemson on the board in their 25-7 win and compiled 119 yards of return yardage total the rest of the game. He has only been punted to once since. He is as dangerous in space as any returner in the country.

Best of all, he's got his team in position to compete for an ACC Atlantic Division title and a shot at the conference championship for the first time since Florida State and Miami joined the conference. And he's done all this with only 13 career starts in the backfield—he's split duties with James Davis, Andre Ellington and Jamie Harper.

Name someone—anyone—else that plays for the Clemson Tigers. He is the face of Clemson football, through the depths of the Bowden administration, the coaching change and the resurgence under Dabo Swinney.

If Tim Tebow is being considered for his entire body of work, including breaking the SEC rushing touchdowns record and the total touchdowns for an SEC player, it's only fair that Spiller gets a place at the table. And there's no way Mark Ingram is any more of a dynamic back then Spiller; he's just on a more recognizable team.

This Clemson back can match Tebow and Ingram output-for-output and will share a place in NCAA history with Reggie Bush, a Heisman winner himself. In a down year for the Heisman race, it would be great to see a winner who isn't necessarily on the sexiest or winningest team in the country. You know, a player who actually means the most to his team.

Case Keenum, QB, Houston

If you want to talk pure stats, junior QB Case Keenum beats everybody in the country.

His 3,256 yards passing is a full 600 yards better than the closest competitor, Tyler Sheehan of Bowling Green, and Keenum has 10 more touchdowns than Sheehan.

His 25:5 TD-Int ratio gives him a 159 QB rating, fourth in the country, and that's with 20 more attempts per game (42.5 overall) than the leader, Boise State's Kellen Moore.

His 71.4 completion percentage is third in the country, and he's a yard per attempt better than the leader, Nick Foles of Arizona.

He's compiled 10,572 passing yards in his three-year career. He was first nationally in total offense and second in passing yards in 2008, so his body of work stands up against the other candidates in the country.

He plays in an offshoot of Mike Leach's Air-raid system, one that utilizes motion to read whether a defense is in man or zone.

The 5,020 yards, 44 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions he threw for in 2008 surpassed the 4,420 yards put up by Andre Ware Houston's Heisman winner in 1989 in the Run 'n' Shoot offense.

And he's due to break all of those records over again this year. He threw for 559 yards and five touchdowns in Houston's close win over Southern Miss this year, including the game-winning 44-yard touchdown to break a 43-43 tie with 11 seconds to go.

He's thrown for at least 360 yards in seven of the last eight games, including the 366-yard, three-touchdown performance against Oklahoma State to put Houston into the national spotlight, and the 435-yard, two-touchdown (one rushing) performance that led Houston over its system's progenitor, Mike Leach and Texas Tech.

And Keenum is about more than stats, too. One of Keenum's teammates on his leadership: "I think more than just him playing and his level of play, I think he creates an attitude for our whole team that if we're behind we're going to win the game."

This year, he's been recognized as a Davey O'Brien Award semifinalist and a two-time Conference USA Player of the Week winner.

So he has the driven mentality of Tebow, the gaudy stats of Sam Bradford, the upset win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater, the historical example of Andre Ware, the upward momentum, the play in big games.

The knock on him is that he is a system quarterback, but that usually comes from NFL scouts. And anyway, isn't Tebow? Isn't Jimmy Clausen, or Mark Ingram when Alabama runs the Wildcat? Since when did being part of a system preclude someone's statistical relevance?

Keenum is deadly accurate in a sophisticated system most quarterbacks don't have the brains or stamina for. Underrate him at your peril.

When Case Keenum throws for 400 yards and four touchdowns, and the Conference USA champ murders its SEC opponent in the Liberty Bowl, the Heisman committee will have to wonder why they didn't allow Keenum to represent himself amongst the most dynamic players in the country.

It's not too late; and if they forget to do it this year, Keenum's only a junior.

Decision

I'd go with Spiller, for two reasons.

Keenum is a junior and will probably not leave early for the draft, since NFL scouts passed on Graham Harrell, Keenum's closest likeness. So we have another year to laud him, and see him score bigger upsets when the Cougars go on the road at UCLA and Texas Tech, and face Mississippi State and Navy at home in 2010. If Keenum keeps up the production next year, there's no question he'll be in the running with four years of 3800+yards passing to his credit.

And mostly, Spiller has had to do more with less opportunities. Teams kick away from him, Clemson's offensive line has been hit or miss, and he isn't even the starter at running back. He's not a 25-30 carry guy, but is deadly when deployed at the right times.

If Clemson can battle back, upset Georgia Tech in the rematch in the ACC championship, and head for a BCS bowl, Spiller's actually got a good chance in a down year to take home the stiff-armed man and win one for the middle-tier programs nationwide.