In the hours leading up to last weekend’s SEC championship game, from the streets of Atlanta to the rows of press boxes atop Mercedes-Benz Stadium, there were two main topics of conversation. First, who will win the game – Georgia or Alabama – and how will the outcome affect College football tournament?
And second, is anyone in this game – or damn it, anyone in any of the weekend’s championship games – who will eventually step up and take control of what was once a rotation. if not lackluster and therefore the 2021 Heisman Trophy race forgotten? Between Dawgs and Tide, the SEC game has three candidates who will be candidates whose names can be scrawled across a huge pile of undecided ballots still in the hands of a very large group of voters. major voters weary for college football’s most coveted individual award.
“Bryce Young, Will Anderson, Jordan Davis, all of these guys can still win this, but they need to do something to spark the imagination tonight,” said one man looking out over the SEC playing field as the game drew to a close. someone who knows a little something about the Heisman Trophy, which will be presented Saturday night (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). Tebow’s heart own one. “I don’t know if I really believe that guys have to have a ‘Heisman moment’ to win, it’s a play everyone talks about all the time. I don’t know if I’ve ever had one. But if there’s ever been a race and a night that needs someone to step up and have a Heisman moment, that’s it.”
Less than an hour later, everyone on the sidelines of Alabama believed they had just seen one. Early in the second half, Tide took a 10-7 lead when they faced second and 10 at the 27-yard Georgia line. Young took the opportunity and scooted all the way back to midfield when he was shoved out of his collapsing bag and decided to run away. He cut left to rush past Davis. He’s barely able to beat a thwart in the linebacker Travon Walker. Then, as well as more than 70,000 attendees expected the midfielder to surrender into the hands of another defender, Nakobe Dean, instead, he broke into the 1987 wishbone option mode and threw the ball out hard to his right and into the runner’s waiting hands. Brian Robinson, who cut upfield. Dissatisfied with that nation’s admiration, Young continued to run ahead, leading Robinson’s dash and hurling a dive ball at the UGA’s third-placer, Spin Walker.
Reached 13 yards, first down Alabama at Georgia 14.
“That’s it! That’s it! Heisman moment, y’all!” Screams came from the Alabama bench, a young teammate waving a towel among a group of other Tide members.
Two plays later, Young stood tall in the pocket in second place, waiting…waiting…directing his offensive behavior with his hands like a conductor, and then throwing the 13th long darts. yards into double coverage for a forward touch John Metchie. Now a corrected scream came from the same area of the Bama bench. “Wait, wait, wait! No, that’s it! Heisman moment, guys!”
In fact, Young had an evening full of Heisman moments as he tore through the Georgia defense we’ve all hailed as superb to the tune of 461 yards of individual fouls (421 passes, 40 jabs) . He also made four touchdowns, including an 11-yard zig-zaggy on a broken pass late in the first half that, yes, looked like a Heisman moment.
Then again, perhaps Young’s Heisman moment occurred, as he coldly led Alabama from behind to force overtime in the oven of Jordan-Hare Stadium with a goal-scoring pass. fast, score in the corner before Tide wins in Auburn during overtime. Or remember a month ago, that 58-yard TD pass with LSU in a tight one point game? Then again, his Alabama record goes 559 yards to win the 42-35 shootout Arkansas Iron Bowl last week. There’s definitely a Heisman moment in there somewhere, right?
“I don’t know about Heisman moments,” the 20-year-old said as he led the SEC’s title game. “I like the moments that keep the offense moving forward. If someone has a favorite target among them that they really like, that’s great.”
So is he?
“Oh yeah. But in real time, I don’t think we even realized. We’re ready for the next play. When we break it later, in position or wherever. come on, you hope you” have done everything so well that watching the movie you can say, ‘Okay, that was a special moment.’
With that in mind, on the Saturday night after winning the SEC title, the question had to be asked. Special moments in the cinema room. Like pitch and block there?
“That one,” Young says with a smile, about feelings openly as Californians even care. “Yes, I’d like to revisit that one.”
Everyone outside of Athens, Georgia, will. Good thing. Because the Robinson pitch is guaranteed to be replayed during Saturday night’s ceremony. And if Young wins, as he expected, that play will also be on display wherever he goes for the rest of his life, from the 2023 NFL draft a year and a half since. now until his College Football Hall of Fame inductee years from now.
Just ask Orange Newton about his monster truck driving through LSU in 2010. Or Reggie Bush about him breaking Fresno State’s collective ankle in 2005. Or Sam Bradford about his flipping over Oklahoma State in 2008. Or Desmond Howard about the only moment Heisman paid homage to Heisman himself.
“That’s right, man, if the world decides that a certain moment is your Heisman moment, then you better be comfortable with it, because it’s like a family. It will be with you until the end. life”, Howard warned, 1991 Heisman Winner in Michigan. Howard’s Moment come in Game Against Ohio State, as he returned the 93-yard hit for a touchdown, then struck a stiff back in the backcourt as legendary broadcaster Keith Jackson shouted, “Hi, Heisman!”
“For me, reliving that never gets old. I still have the chills,” Howard said. “I think for some other guys, maybe their Heisman moment becomes like that crazy family member you have to live with. You love them, but if you’re honest, you’ll grow up too. sick with them.”
Doug Flutie has long been tired of talking about his Hail Flutie pass to Gerard Phelan when Boston College dizzy Miami on November 23, 1984. Flutie said it, he was playing a broken record. He’ll even remind you that most of Heisman’s ballot was cast the week before that ball was thrown. It’s like a subtle eye roll one might catch if they really paid attention when their favorite school-age rock star hit that point in concert when it was time to perform a song. that everyone there heard, that tune. a #1 hit several decades and several thousand live performances ago. (Pat Benatar, I’m totally talking about “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” Yeah, I saw you.)
But like those performers, college football’s eternal greats are never one-off feats. It’s just that we as a society like to rate things. What is Steven Spielberg’s best movie? What is the best side dish for the holidays? We are always obsessed with pinpointing an image or a moment or anything that can instantly tell a person’s greatness. We watched “Starry Night” and knew it was Van Gogh. We heard the line say “Nuh-nuh-nunh-nuuuuuh,” and knew it was Beethoven. Then we see some guy running into his own manager, shaking the football, groping himself, spinning around as if his hair were on fire just to recover and throw a touch pass. 1 Alabama, and we know it’s Johnny Manziel.
“Man, I would never see that play and not laugh,” Louisville midfielder Lamar Jackson admit about he passed a Syracuse defender on September 9, 2016. Jackson’s leap past an embarrassing defensive linebacker and the resulting tiptoe might in fact not have been as important to his Heisman campaign as his take off. unloading State of Florida next weekend or even his superhuman effort to lose Deshaun Watson and Clemson three weeks later. But without that moment in Carrier Dome, we probably wouldn’t have noticed the others the way we did. “The best part of that play isn’t that it’s a Heisman moment or anything. It’s that no one can bring it to me or show it to me without them laughing as much as I do. That makes everyone laugh. happy people. It’s special. I would never take it for granted.”
Nor should we take Heisman for granted. Instead, treat them for what they are. Presents. And when they lead to a great player receiving the most coveted trophy the sport has to offer, to quote Cousin Eddie, it’s a gift that doesn’t stop giving throughout the year … not to mention the years to come.
Bryce Young explains: “Every athlete dreams of being on a team that people will remember because they were able to do great things. “I hope we’ll give them more moments to remember before we’re done.”
