The Heisman: Could Mark Ingram Win Back to Back Trophies?

2010 began brilliantly for the Alabama Crimson Tide. The team capped off an undefeated SEC Championship-winning regular season by defeating the Texas Longhorns in Pasadena for the BCS National Championship. Furthermore, the icing was put on the cake when Sophomore sensation running back Mark Ingram was rewarded for his efforts in New York by being awarded the prestigious Heisman trophy.

Progressing into the 2010 season Ingram looks to improve upon his 2009 statistics of 271 rushes for 1,658 yards. Ingram produced a yards per carry average of 6.1 and scored 17 rushing touchdowns. With an extra year of development you would expect Ingram to produce even loftier, Heisman-worthy numbers.

However, that may not be the case.

Interestingly, despite such an impressive season, Ingram may see less carries than he did in 2009 for a variety of reasons. During his recruiting cycles Coach Saban looks to stockpile talent at all the skill positions and despite already possessing a three-headed attack of Ingram, Trent Richardson and Roy Upchurch, Saban looks to add Freshman Eddie Lacey to an already potent ground attack.

Naturally, in an effort to both please all the players and further confuse opposition defenses, Coach Saban will look to divide carries between the running backs which while increasing big play opportunities for Ingram, will certainly lead to a drop in his overall numbers.

Furthermore, with the emergence of the passing game lead by stars Greg McElroy and Julio Jones, Saban may look to call more pass plays to an offense that he himself acknowledges as "improved".

While this could reap great benefits for the Alabama offense as a whole, it will dilute the number of snaps the run game and Ingram in particular receives.

Although Ingram's former Heisman competitors Toby Gerhart, Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy have graduated and moved on to the NFL, a new wave of Heisman Hopefuls stand in Ingram's way and with a gluttony of Quarterbacks including Terrelle Pryor, Ryan Mallet, Jake Locker and even Jacory Harris standing in his way i'm hard pressed to believe Ingram win a second consecutive Heisman.

Collectively, the competition for Ingram seems too fierce, especially if his own production drops, which seems likely. However, with a reasonably favourable schedule, Alabama could be set to run the table and again go undefeated.

If this occurs and recent history has taught us anything, on the heels of another undefeated season Mark Ingram could well be in the talk for another prestigious Heisman.