College Football •

Marcus Mariota Wins Heisman

Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy at the award ceremony on Saturday in New York City. He didn’t just win it either, Mariota ran away with the award.

Mariota’s play this year earned him the second highest percentage of votes in Heisman history, earning 90.92 percent of every possible point in the vote. That percentage is second all time only to Troy Smith 91.63 of the total vote in 2006.

“I had to give thanks to so many people because where I am today, it’s all due to all those people,” Mariota said. “It’s hard not to get emotional. It’s been a long journey. My emotions got the best of me.”

Mariota has some of the most impressive physical abilities of any quarterback in College Football, and his skills have helped him lead the Oregon Ducks to the 2nd overall seed in the inaugural college football playoffs, and will lead them against the Florida State Seminoles in the Rose Bowl national semifinal.

Mariota has a fantastic arm on him, and speed to rival some of the top receivers in the game today. Mariota came into this season as the early favorite to win the 80th Heisman Award, and his play this year didn’t disappoint the people who expected him to perform this way.

Mariota has accounted for 53 touchdowns this season, a record for the PAC-12, with 38 touchdowns passing, 14 touchdowns running on the ground, and even a receiving touchdowns.

In addition to the Heisman, Mariota has also picked up the Maxwell award alongside the Davey O’Brien awards, becoming the first player since 2010 to win all 3 of the awards when Cam Newton won them all.

Mariota’s win has broken the run of red shirt freshman winning the nation’s highest honor for college football individual performances, though Mariota did first become a starter as a red shirt freshman.

Mariota has a reputation for being a quiet, composed leader on and off the field, and that personality was evident as he accepted the award. Only time will tell if Mariota will have even more to hold his head up about in the coming weeks.

Heisman Finalists Announced

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The Heisman committee has selected the 3 finalists for the most prestigious award in all of college football on Monday.

The 3 finalists selected are Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper, and Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon.

This particular field for the Heisman award is a really strong showing, with 2 of the players on teams that, on Sunday, were selected to be a part of the 1st ever College Football Playoffs.

Quarterback Marcus Mariota has had a stand out season leading the Oregon Ducks to the number 2 overall seed for the inaugural College Football Playoffs. Mariota has thrown for 3,783 yards, 38 touchdowns, and just 2 interceptions on the season. Mariota will need to remain at the top of his game, as the Ducks are scheduled to run up against the Florida State Seminoles and last year’s Heisman winner Jameis Winston in one of the semi-final games for this seasons championship.

Amari Cooper has been, far and away, the top wide receiver in the country, and has helped Alabama earn the top overall seed going into this years playoffs. Cooper has hauled in 115 passes for 1,656 yards and 14 touchdowns on the year, with his receptions setting an SEC record. Cooper will need to continue to be a major contributor as Alabama faces off against the Ohio State Buckeyes in their semi final game.

The last, and not to be counted out finalist, is Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon, who has been a massive force on the ground, and been the biggest contributor for Wisconsin’s offense. Gordon leads the country having accumulated 2,336 yards on the ground this year, along with 26 touchdowns. Gordon even held the record for most rushing yards in a single game with 408 yards, though it held for only a week. If Gordon rushes for around 300 yards in Wisconsin’s bowl game vs Auburn, he could break Barry Sanders’ single-season record of 2,628 yards.

The field of finalists is very stacked this year, and there are legitimate cases to make for each of the finalists for this year’s award. Only time will tell, but this has the potential to be one of the tightest Heisman votes in recent memory.

First College Football Playoff Matches Set

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It finally happened, after years of tolerating a sub-par BCS bowl selection system, the first ever College Football Playoffs’ matchups have been set.

The University of Alabama Crimson Tide were selected as the top seeded team to enter the inaugural College Football Playoffs. The University of Oregon Ducks were selected to be the 2nd overall seed. The reigning champion Florida State University Seminoles earned the 3rd seed after a narrow victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the ACC championship game. Finally, earning the 4th and final seed, are the Ohio State University Buckeyes, who earned a blowout victory in the Big 10 conference championship game over Wisconsin.

While, much like the now old BCS selection system, there are still some deserving teams left on the outside looking in on the playoff picture. Both the TCU Hornfrogs and Baylor Bears have made strong cases for themselves this year, the selection committee has chosen, and many feel like they have chosen well.

The Crimson Tide will face off against the Buckeyes in the All-State Sugar Bowl, while the Oregon Ducks are set to face off against the Florida State Seminoles in the Rose Bowl. Both of these games will take place on New Year’s Day along with some other big bowl games.

While it remains to be seen which of the teams or conference, will come out of the playoffs with a championships, all 4 conferences that have a team featured, the SEC, PAC-12, ACC, and Big 10, will all receive $6 million for having a team being selected for the playoffs.

While those conferences will certainly be pleased to receive the bonus, the Big-12, the power 5 conference that didn’t have any teams in the playoff, has to be feeling like that caught the short end of the stick as both Baylor and TCU made strong cases to be a part of the playoff.

While there will certainly be debate ass to if the proper selections were made, there can be no question that fans of college football have a lot to look forward on New Year’s Day when the inaugural College Football championships finally kick off.

Mike Riley Hired As Nebraska Head Coach

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The Nebraska Cornhuskers have hired Oregon State head coach, Mike Riley, as the replacement for fired coach Bo Pelini.

Riley has coached at Oregon State since 2003, following a 3 year stretch within the San Diego Chargers in the NFL and was hired shortly after Nebraska fired Pelini.

“It is truly an honor to join the University of Nebraska family,” Riley said in a statement released by Nebraska. “Though we love Corvallis and Oregon State, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to coach at one of the nation’s most storied football programs and I can’t wait to get started.”

This move has some people around college football scratching their heads, especially when one compares the performances of of Pelini and Riley’s teams over the stretch after Pelini was hired on at Nebraska.

Since 2008, the Cornhuskers were able to play to a winning percentage of .710, 3 ten win seasons, a 39-26 record against teams with records over .500, and 3 bowl victories under the guidance of Bo Pelini. Oregon State, however, only managed to play to a .523 winning percentage, no ten win seasons, a record of 27-31 against teams with records above .500, and only 2 bowl wins.

When one simply looks at those kind of numbers, it begs the question if Nebraska has been a bit hasty in their decision to hire Riley, and may even call into question if firing Pelini was the right move, as he was an instrumental part of making Nebraska a legitimate team to contend with in college football.

This speed of this move seems to imply that ebraska really had their eye on Riiley, and that they’ve seen enough from him to think that he will help lead the program to further success and become a contender in the national picture once again.

Nebraska’s athletic director Shawn Eichorst seems to have the utmost confidence in the hire, and definitely thinks that Riley is the man to help lead Nebraska into the future.

Eichorst said “I have no doubt that Mike will assemble a tremendous staff and lead our student-athletes to win Big Ten titles and compete for national championships in the years ahead.”

We’ll see if that confidence works out.

Jim McElwain Hired As UF’s Next Coach

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The next head coach of the University of Florida football program will be Colorado State’s Jim McElwain.

McElwain has been pegged as the guy the Gators have been pursuing for the majority of time that the Gators were in need of a head coach. During McElwain’s tenure as the head coach for Colorado state, he has racked up an overall record of 22-16, having coached his team to a 10-2 record this season.

One of the things to be optimistic about for Gators fans is that every year that McElwain has been a part of the program, it has seen improvement. He has successfully made Colorado State a legitimate force within the Mountain West conference. While some people may scoff at the success McElwain has found in the Mountain West, people need to remember that McElwain was the offensive coordinator for Alabama for 2 championship runs.

Besides, the last time the Gators hired a relative unknown from a Mountain West school who had some experience coaching as part of a big program, the Gators would play to 2 national championships during his reign. That coach was Urban Meyer, and there is no question that decision worked out in favor of the Gators.

This hire puts the final nail in the coffin of the Will Muschamp of era of Florida Gators football. The Muschamp era has, by all accounts, fallen short of the expectations of the program, something Muschamp is keenly aware of. Under Muschamp’s watch the Gators program missed a bowl game for the first time in decades.

While Muschamp did have some notable stumbling blocks during his tenure, including an injury riddled 2013 season that was a major contributor missing the bowl game, as well as suffering a loss to FCS team Georgia Southern.

During this season, Muschamp’s Gators have suffered largely self inflicted wounds that have kept their record just over .500. After giving up a blocked field goal and a blocked punt in the 4th quarter of the game against South Carolina to allow the Gamecocks to force overtime and steal a win in the swamp. That loss was the straw that broke the proverbial camels back.

With McElwain’s hiring, the new era of Gators football starts today.

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