106 is the key number here.  I don’t mean to say it’s the exact number, but it makes the point.  The source is sketchy, but I can guarantee he’s not off by more than 50.  And even then it’d still be embarrassing for those little midwestern nuts. 

106 it is.  Hehe, funny.  To us.  Sad for OSU fans and Troy Smith.

What’s the number 106?  It’s the number of projected draft spots that separate Brady Quinn’s current mock draft position from Troy Smith’s.

BQ sits at #7 in Todd McShay’s latest mock draft.  Troy Smith?  #113.  Quinn could go as high as # 1, and is quite obviously a First Round pick and definitely Top 11 (with 11 being worst case scenario).  Smith could drop as low as the 120’s or 130’s, making him a solid Round 4 or Round 5 pick.  Ah, the greatest college football player in the land…wait, what???

After all the ballyhoo and the debate, it’s a pretty telling fact.  (I mean, this is coming from McShay, who I consider 85% dumb.  Even he couldn’t screw this one up.) 

Here’s the thing - how can the greatest college football player in the land be the 113th or the 120th or the 99th best player (at best!) in the draft?  Or even if you go by position, heck, Mr. Smith should start running routes - because becoming a WR in the NFL will be his best shot at seeing the playing field.  It’s because Smith wasn’t the best player in the land.  He was just on a good team that had a solid run in a so-so conference.  Oh, and he had the hype.  That too. 

Now, I’m not going to say that BQ had a better season than Troy.  He didn’t.  I won’t say that BQ deserved the Heisman.  But of course, neither did Troy. 

And clearly NFL scouts, coaches and owners know more about talent than the Heisman voting committee.  How many of those old Heisman-vote-having goats would you want running your favorite NFL team’s sideline?  None?  Right.  And that 106 spots makes it pretty obvious that one of those groups is REALLY wrong.    Can you guess which?  I’ll give you odds…maybe 106-1?   Uh yeah, I’ll take the NFL guys.

What I will say is that Brady Quinn is clearly a better player, with more talent, than Troy Smith.  All those NFL guys are dead on with where these guys fall out compared to one another, based on talent:  it’s not even close.  People (OSU fans and the delusional) will say that the NFL draft is irrelevant - a ton of time has passed, workouts have happened, people forget, people remember, blah blah blah.  But that doesn’t hold water.  It’s not like Troy was a consensus Top 10 pick and then dropped based on his combine performances and/or film reviews by the coaches and scouts.  He was ALWAYS a late pick.  He was never even considered to be a potential pick in the first TWO WHOLE ROUNDS.  So don’t bring that up here - doesn’t work.  And worse, none of those workouts or interviews moved him up in the draft at all. 

“Hello there Mr. NFL Scout. Check out my Heisman Trophy.  Oh, you’re not interested?  You just want someone that can play?  Okay then, thanks for your time.  Unless you want to see me run a few slant patterns…”

Which brings up the sad state of the Heisman process.  It’s not about the best player in the country anymore.  It’s about the best player…that also got hyped early on, that also has a good team around him, that also won a bunch of games.  Brady benefitted from some of these things, but was penalized severely for others.  Other players weren’t even looked at because they were never, and could never, be hyped.  Or their teams lost. 

Whatever the case, things aren’t right in the Heisman process if they somehow end up choosing a “Greatest Player” that gets picked in Round 4 of the draft.  At the very worst, whoever wins the Heisman should go in one of the first two rounds.  Barring any Rudy-esque season-long magic.  Something needs fixed, or soon enough the award will become one big joke.  And that would be sad for college football.

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