C.J. Spiller Makes A Strong Case In His Quest For A Heisman

C.J. Spiller made his case for the most prestigious individual award in college football in Clemson's heartbreaking defeat to ACC rival Georgia Tech Saturday night.

The senior running back for Clemson put an exclamation point at the end of his ACC career, carrying the ball 20 times for 233 yards and four touchdowns. He had one reception for five yards to go along with three kick returns for 63 yards.

Spiller has put together a great year, basically carrying Clemson to the ACC title game. He has rushed for 1,141 yards this year on 201 attempts and added 11 rushing touchdowns. He added 445 yards on 33 pass receptions and added four touchdowns for his team. He also had two pass attempts, one being a 17 yard touchdown against North Carolina State.

Compared to his Heisman competition (many believe it will be Toby Gerhart and Mark Ingram) these stats are good, but nothing that jumps out at voters.

Where Spiller sets himself apart, is his work on special teams as a return man this year. He set a new FBS record for career kickoff return touchdowns, with seven, adding four kickoff returns that went the distance this year. He accumulated 210 yards on 13 punt returns (a 16.2 yard average) and gained 708 yards on 21 kick returns (a 33.7 yard average).

Spiller is also a great all-purpose threat which has helped Clemson through his four years. He ranks second in the FBS for the 2009 season with 2,508 all-purpose yards. He also was responsible for 122 points this year for his Tigers.

Many can say that his schedule was easy compared to his competition, but Clemson was one of only three teams in the nation to face three top-15 teams (Miami and Washington are the others). In fact, Spiller had his three best all-purpose games against those teams: Georgia Tech (234 all-purpose yards in the regular season match up), TCU (227 all-purpose yards), and then eighth ranked Miami (310 all-purpose yards, tied for most in the nation for a single game, against a Miami defense ranked in the top 25 in the nation). 

Spiller was the only player this year to score a touchdown in five different ways: rushing, passing, receiving, kickoff returns and a punt return. He recorded three ways in one game (passing, receiving, and rushing) against North Carolina State.

What he lacks in the Heisman department, would be a team title, losing the ACC Title game last night in heartbreaking fashion, while Mark Ingram's Alabama Crimson Tide was able to avenge last year's lost to Florida and win the SEC Championship.

In the past 20 years, Tim Brown (a wide receiver) and Charles Woodson (a cornerback) are the only winners that did not play the running back or quarterback position. This favoritism the voters show to running backs and quarterbacks ensures the Heisman Trophy will go to Mark Ingram this year.

The runner up to Ingram will most likely be fan favorite Toby Gerhart, who led Stanford to wins against USC, Notre Dame, UCLA, and Oregon. His stellar year included 311 rushes for 1,736 yards and 26 touchdowns. He falls short due to his lack of versatility receiving, only catching 10 passes for 149 yards. His 203 yard, three touchdown performance against Notre Dame effectively cast his name on everyone's Heisman ballots, and officially ended the Weis tenure at Notre Dame.

Colt McCoy seemed to be the favorite going into his Big 12 Championship match-up against conference rival Nebraska. He didn't throw for a touchdown and threw three interceptions, thus knocking himself out of consideration for the most part.

However, the continued dominance of Nebraska senior defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh helped his case and could persuade Heisman voters to side with a defensive player this year.

Needless to say, it seems as if come Saturday, Spiller will be on the outside looking in. Like his Clemson Tigers, Spiller seems to have come up just short in the eyes of the men who make the annual decision to crown the nation's most outstanding college football player.

Spiller heads into his final game as a Clemson Tiger hot off the heels of his four touchdown performance against Georgia Tech, yet he will finish his career with less hardware than he would like.