Florida State Seminoles red-shirt freshman quarterback Jameis Winston has put himself into conversation for the 2013 Heisman Award and that’s where it should stay. Still there are some who believe that’s he’s got a chance to win based on a singular performance and that happened yesterday against no.3 ranked Clemson Tigers.
Winston completed 22-34 passes for 444 yards with a long of 94, threw for three touchdowns as well with one interception and had one touchdown running the football. There’s no question that he’s had one of the better seasons of any quarterback in the country. Overall on the season he’s completing 71. percent of his passes, thrown for 1,885 yards, 20 touchdowns to three interceptions and so far has been sacked 11 times.
With those outstanding numbers it certainly appears that he is the front-runner for the Heisman. Unfortunately that isn’t the case though it’s not his fault that the Seminoles’ strength of schedule is less than stellar facing teams such as Pittsburgh, Nevada, Bethune-Cookman, and Boston College.
The only ranked team before facing the Tigers was the Maryland Terrapins who had just got into the rankings at no.25 and that ranking didn’t last long after getting shutout 63-0 by Florida State. Only concern for the Seminoles is facing Miami ranked no.7. Other teams remaining on the schedule North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Idaho and Florida.
As for Winston his resume consists of beating Clemson. What about the other candidates? Even with two losses there’s no question that Johnny Manziel and Marcus Mariota are the two front-runners with the red-shirt freshman no.3. That could change over the course of the next few weeks if Texas A&M suffers are third loss that might end the chance for back-to-back wins for Manziel and as for Oregon in the next two weeks the Ducks will face no.12 UCLA and no.8 Stanford.
Here’s a look at their numbers overall:
Manziel: 73.3 completion percentage, 18 touchdowns to seven interceptions, sacked eight times and has a long of 95. He’s also ran the ball 85 times for 486 yards, averages 5.7 yards per carry, scored five times and has a long of 25.
For the Aggies their schedule has been strong throughout the year and have already played the no.1 team in the country Alabama which resulted in a loss and lost to no.24 Auburn yesterday. The last two games of the season come against no.13 LSU and no.5 Missouri.
If Texas A&M wins out Manziel is in great position for his second Heisman award.
Mariota: 62.4 percent completion percentage, 19 touchdowns and has not thrown an interception, sacked eight times and has a long of 75. Has ran the ball 49 times for 493 yards good for an average of 10.1 yards per carry, scored nine times and has a long of 71.
The Ducks have already beaten no.16 Washington and Tennessee a team that just beat no.11 South Carolina and were inches away from beating no.6 Georgia two weeks ago.
Even if Florida State winds up beating Miami and ends up undefeated compared to the remaining schedule for the Aggies and Ducks it will remain a race between Manziel and Mariota with Winston a distant third.
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