According to the Mississippi Sun Herald, Reggie Bush did not have Brady Quinn on his ballot, but did vote Troy Smith #1 and Darren McFadden #2. His reasoning for not voting for Quinn?
When asked about Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn calling him after Saturday’s ceremony to complain, Bush responded by saying, “You have to have the big numbers and lead your team to wins in big games or a chance at the national championship.”
Maybe what Bush meant to say was, “you need to push your team to big wins in big games.”
Of coourse, Bush also could be upset that Brady might get drafted #1 overall, and not #2 behind some defensive end from North Carolina State…
And for the Ohio State fans out there who we know are reading Bush also offered this up in the same report.
“There was nobody who really had that standout season”
Did Bush watch any football this year? Smith, Quinn, and McFadden all had huge years. Not to mention some damn fine players who won’t be in New York Saturday like Steve Slaton and Ray Rice. Last I checked, all five of these players had their teams in the top 5 at some point in the season, but I guess that doesn’t qualify as giving their teams a chance at the national championship.
And just for fun… according to ESPN’s profile of Steve Slaton, the sophomore running back is projected to run for 1,877 yards and 19 (17 rushing, 2 receiving) toucchdowns – both of which top Bush’s 1,740 yards and 18 (16 rushing, 2 receiving) toucchdowns from a year ago.
I know, I know, Bush had more receiving yards and the returns and all that, but the fact that you can find a running back who wasn’t even invited to New York as a finalist with more touchdowns and yards than last year’s winner makes a statement like “nobody who really had that standout season” seem just a bit assine.
ND sucks. This is hilarious.
Brady won’t be crap in the pros. The next Ryan Leaf.
Reitzel,
You think the press cares what ND fans think? Ha! The press are the ones that pre-season ranked the Irish as a national championship contender. And you’re smart enough to know that it ain’t the 1st time that a team finished well below expectations. Hell, any ND fan could tell that their defense was not of National championship caliber. What I did not expect was the experienced O=Line regressing from last year. They’ve given up close to 30 sacks this year and can only establish a running game vs. average opponents. That’s a fact. As far as Darius Walker, you may think he’s a “pretty talented guy” but I see him as a nice little scat back who is only adept at running the draw. He lacks game-breaking speed & most of his 1000+ rush yds were compiled vs. average to below avg. teams. He’s sure not on the level of Darren McFadden, Adrian Peteson or the stable of backs that OSU & USC possess. You are right about Samardjiza & McKnight. They may play on Sunday (although if I was Jeff, I’d choose ba$eball w/ its guaranteed cash) but they lack the world-class speed of Ginn, Gonzalez & Dwayne Jarrett. They can jump & catch but they can’t get deep vs. the elite DBs for the “homerun” play. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take the 2 ND receivers along w/ TE Carlson any day. It’s just that when you combine their lack of world-class speed w/ the rest of the team’s deficiencies, it all adds up. Let’s go back to before Weis’ 1st year. Not much expected from this unranked team. Then they reel off some impressive wins vs. ranked teams and they’re called overratd b/c it’s Notre Dame’s fault that their opponents in ’05 underachieved w/ superior talent (Michigan & Tenn. for example). If you would have told me that Weis’ 1st two years would include 19 wins and 2 major bowl games, then sign me up. Quinn can’t block for his RBs and himself like the Razorbacks & Buckeyes do for their respective Heisman candidates (those are what I call experienced O-lines!). He can’t pass defend like Michigan & LSU. He can’t stop the run like the rest of the BCS participants. All he can do is try to lead his team of overachievers to a modest season that will most likely end in a blowout loss to LSU. And I’ll watch every damn second of the game from kickoff to post game. I don’t expect you to watch every play of every ND game, so you can be excused for relying on stats & ESPN highlights to form your opinions, but even the casual football fan can spot the many shortfalls of this year’s Irish team. And for a fan of the juggernaut that is the USC Trojans, surely you don’t hold the likes of Washington & Washington St. as elite teams that took SC down to the final play much like ND vs. Stanford last year & MSU this year. USC’s superior athleticism was evident vs. ND & the better team won, but I couldn’t ask any more of Quinn in that game. He & his team got off to a rough start vs. Michigan & played catchup the rest of the game w/ the defense unable to stop Manningham. Stuff happens. But surely you rate your Trojans & the Wolverines as elite teams whereas you can’t say the same about the 2 teams who beat the men of Troy: Oregon St and UCLA. I bet you also remember the difference between Carson Palmer under the Paul Hackett regime vs. Carson Palmer under Norm Chow/Pete Carroll. So is Weis an “offensive genius”? Who cares, if he can’t bring ND back to the elite status that USC & OSU enjoy. He certainly was an offensive genius in the pros according to his boss & his peers. And you can’t deny, that much like Palmer at SC, Quinn has come light years from his days as a tough but inconsistent QB under the previous coach’s staff. Finally, kudos to Troy Smith for maturing on & off the field as he overcame some stupid mistakes to finish a successful career at OSU. By the way, check out what Quinn had to say about Smith. Both QB’s comments exhibited the class that most of the posters on these blogs lack.
final thought:
this article looks even sillier after the results are in…how many ballots didn’t have quinn in the top 3…over 400?
a few responses to “ND Fan.”
don’t intend this to be adversarial or sarcastic, but:
1. i thought nd was loaded with offensive talent. that’s what everyone, nd fans and tv network included, told us going into the season. i thought this was particularly true on the offensive side of the ball. as it is, are you really admitting that you would rather have ginn/gonzalez over jeff s./mcknight? that’s interesting. even from an sc fan, that strikes me as close to even. certainly both nd receivers will play at the next level. likewise, much of nd’s offensive line were veterans and your running back is, if i recall, a pretty talented guy. i thought his coach was an offensive “genius.”
i don’t think quinn and his supporters ought to be whining about the offensive talent he played with. that’s just not fair to too many other qbs who actually had it rough.
2. was nd’s schedule more difficult this year than ohio state’s? in any event: quinn and nd got smoked by their two toughest opponents, michigan and usc, while smith and company beat texas (AT TEXAS) handily and handled their business with Michigan in a great rivalry game. You might want to compare, e.g., Smith’s stats versus Quinn’s in their common “big” game.
3. your dignity, perseverance and heart comment is precious, but seriously, bush laid out his criteria quite clearly. He was looking for big performances and wins in big games and quinn fell short. there is simply no denying it. it may very well be that it wasn’t Quinn’s “fault,” and i’m sure bush would acknowledge other factors are at work. but even that wouldn’t change the facts. for a player as celebrated as Quinn, you’d like to see a win (or 2 or 3) that you can point to. You can’t. He’s got some nice moments, but they were against teams that had no business leading ND at any point in the game, never mind the 4th quarter (Stanford in 2005, Mich State in 2006). for Bush, that wasn’t enough. I’m sure for plenty of other voters it wasn’t enough for him to get slotted ahead of Smith or to make their ballots, why does Bush need to take whiny guff for it? And why does it have to be about ND-bias?
4. perhaps quinn is a victim of the media hype that surrounded him going into 2006. national championship predictions and all that.
5. why get all riled up about it? bush’s vote, or lack of, doesn’t change quinn’s accomplishments, or lack of, at ND. quinn still broke all the ND records, except the team records…for bowl wins and championships and all that. he’ll still got very high in the draft and have a chance to win championships at the next level.
I actually thought this article was a spoof, I mean how disrespectful and pompous can Reggie Bush be? It’s funny because at that moment that I realized this was a credible paper and that he actually made these comments I had to stop and laugh. My husband, his brother, myself and my daughter were sitting seperately at the usc/notre dame game this year and at one point he turned to his brother and said ” No wonder USC’s mascot is a trojan, their fans are a bunch of D1cks”, I guess the same rings true for their (former)players. Obviously, I am a Quinn supporter and true ND fan. I’m sure if BQ was surrounded by all of the amazing offensive support that Troy Smith received his assistance from this year it would be quite a different story. Put him up against some adversity with a harder schedule, challenging academics and a lesser offense/defense and see how he reacts. I can guarantee you that he wouldn’t perform with the dignity, perserverance and HEART that Brady Quinn has shown. Just another trojan sticking it to the irish because he can, rivalries die hard.
here’s a tissue.
bush/leinart/young or bush/white/peterson/leinart versus:
smith/quinn/mcfadden.
national championship/undefeated team leaders all vs. one national championship participant, 1 qb with no big wins on his resume and a great running back on a less popular team.
the buzz is tangibly different and bush is simply noticing it, your snide comments notwithstanding.
in all, the comments are perfectly justified. as a fan, this year does seem a little “quiet” on the heisman front. all of the guys you mention had excellent years, but the way things broke out, it sure seems like none of them are getting the kind of coverage that recent heisman winners (and runners-up) have received. frankly, e.g., vince young had a better, bigger and more impressive year than any of the guys you note.
1. as for quinn; what about bush’s statement is confusing? the guy’s “signature” win is against who, stanford in 2005? or was it michigan state? or was it the loss against usc? bottom line; if your criteria is playing big in big games and leading your team to big wins; well, guess what, sad but true, quinn falls short. live with it.
2. bush voted for mcfadden. but a few things to note; there is nowhere near the celebration of mcfadden’s accomplishments in the college football world as there has been for other recent winners and non-winners. bush is kind of busy. i’m sure he’s picking up things like the rest of us fans. and, guess what, there isn’t a lot of mcfadden chatter out there. there are probably semi-knowledgeable fans out there that still really don’t know who he is. is that fair? probably not. but he plays at arkansas and, while a nice story, still ended up losing 3 games this year.
3. slaton; absolutely great year. but, fair or not, he plays at west virginia. and he plays for a team that lost multiple games they should have won. applying the same criteria bush does to quinn…slaton came up a little short, stats aside. and, as with mcfadden, fair or not, it’s not like the college football world is mesmerized by steve slaton.
4. troy smith; quietest great year ever. perhaps because the big 10 is so weak. but he went into the season one of the favorites, won early at texas, while quinn got smoked at home v. michigan, and, unless he blew it, was set up to win. hence, the lack of excitement around his “campaign.” he basically played a 2 game season. not his fault, but the buzz factor is missing.
bottom line: none of this is any of these guys fault. but this is a heisman race lacking in any buzz whatsoever. perhaps it’s because some of the great players played at less “traditional” heisman-type schools while others failed to live up to the hype in big games? whatever the reason, it is completely fair for bush, a guy BUSY playing professional football, to notice the lack of buzz and say, “hey, it seems like there aren’t a lot of guys setting the world on fire, stats notwithstanding.”
bottom, bottom line:
how does smith, quinn, mcfadden stack up to bush, leinart, young (all playing in national championships)? the “fame” factor isn’t even close. again, stats only tell half the story. how does smith, quinn, mcfadden compare to leinart, bush, peterson, white? again, 4 guys playing in the national championship?
maybe those 2 years were the exception, but they were the years bush was part of…and his frame of reference?