ESPN TV analyst and color commentator Jeff Van Gundy is back on the grid for the 2014-15 NBA season, and it didn’t take long for him to stray away from the game of basketball to give his opinion on today’s college football landscape and the Heisman Trophy Award race.
“I have a dark horse Heisman candidate for you,” Van Gundy said while voicing the play-by-play in the Chicago Bulls-New York Knights opening night game on Wednesday. “Shane Carden, the quarterback for East Carolina. He is getting it done this year. I don’t know if you’re following East Carolina, but they’re in the Top-20.”
ECU is 6-1 (3-0 AAC) with wins against ACC Coastal members Virginia Tech and North Carolina, and Carden has been the catalyst for a passing offense that currently ranks No. 3 in the nation with 381.9 yards per game. Carden, a senior, is 204-of-316 (64.6 percent) with 2,574 yards and 21 total touchdowns this season, and has the best QBR of any quarterback in The American (No. 29 in the NCAA).
With top candidates such as Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott, Oregon’s Marcus Mariota, and Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon leading the way (along with other outstanding Power Five performers), there’s little room for Carden’s Heisman hopes—though former Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch proved that an invitation to New York can be attained by Group of Five gunslingers when he took a seat at the ceremony in 2013.
As for Van Gundy, I can’t blame him for wanting to express his opinion on another subject—he was, of course, watching the Knicks play.
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