The Heisman Trophy, which will almost certainly be presented Saturday night to Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith, is perhaps the most famous individual award in all of American sports. It’s also the most misunderstood.

The award nominally goes to the “outstanding player in college football,” but in reality it serves as the offensive most valuable player award from among the top-ranked teams in the nation’s major conferences. The award has gone to just one primarily defensive player — Michigan’s Charles Woodson in 1997 — and even he would not have won without playing some on offense for the Wolverines that season. A player from one of the current BCS power conferences has won the Heisman 15 consecutive years, including a quarterback five of the past six seasons.

There will be little suspense to Saturday’s announcement, and none of those recent streaks will be in jeopardy. Smith is, of course, the quarterback of the nation’s top-ranked team, 12–0 Ohio State, and his fellow finalists are also glamour-position players from prominent programs: Brady Quinn, the Notre Dame quarterback, and Arkansas tailback Darren McFadden.

Smith has been the leading candidate since his outstanding performance in a win over Texas on the season’s second Saturday. Neither his team nor his candidacy were threatened until the last game of the regular season against Michigan, so there is a tendency to question whether the award is actually fair or is just being given to the best player on the nation’s best team.

There should be no such questions about Smith, whose honor will be richly deserved. Though it’s probably true that the Buckeyes could have won many, if not most, of the games on their schedule with coach Jim Tressel at quarterback, the same can be said of many top teams. Still, Smith is deserving because of what he has done in Ohio State’s biggest games.

Against Texas and Michigan (both ranked second at the time Ohio State played them), Smith — at one time thought to be primarily a scrambling quarterback — stayed in the pocket and picked apart two of the nation’s better defenses. His combined numbers from those two games: 46-of-67 passing (68.7%) for 585 yards, six touchdowns with just one interception, and an average of 8.7 yard per pass attempt.

Even more important than the totals is when Smith got his yards. Against Texas, he threw for 219 first-half yards, including a beautiful deep ball for a touchdown to Ted Ginn Jr.,just before intermission that put the Buckeyes ahead, 14–7. Against Michigan, Smith started even faster. After the Wolverines silenced the crowd with an opening-drive touchdown, Smith completed 9-of-11 passes in a 14-play, 69-yard drive that tied the score. All but six yards in the march came on Smith’s arm, including a one-yard touchdown pass to Roy Hall.

In contrast to Smith, who was at his best against his best competition, Quinn piled up most of his big numbers against some of the nation’s worst pass defenses. He surpassed 300 yards passing four times this season: against North Carolina (89th nationally in pass efficiency defense), Michigan State (110th), Purdue (76th), and UCLA (57th).

Notre Dame played just two games against really good teams: Michigan and USC. Quinn threw for 508 yards and six touchdowns in those two contests — respectable numbers that do not necessarily mean he played well. He did not. Against Michigan, Quinn could charitably be described as awful. He completed just 50% of his passes (24-for-48) for 234 yards and three touchdowns, but also threw three interceptions. He also lost a fumble that was returned for a score. Those numbers came despite a game that was out of hand so early that the entire second half was garbage time. Quinn went just 3-of-11 for 14 yards with one touchdown and one interception (which was returned for a score) as Michigan built a 34–7 lead in the first half.

Quinn, who was a heavy preseason favorite for the Heisman, was never again a serious candidate after the Michigan game, a performance so bad that his highlights were set to the Benny Hill Show theme song “Yakety Sax” in one widely distributed YouTube clip.

Because of the exposure Notre Dame gets, Quinn had one more chance to redeem himself in the Irish’s season-ending game at USC, but the results were only slightly better. He was 22-of-45 (48.7%) for 274 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. But again, Quinn’s slow start helped to bury the Irish. He was just 7-of-22 for 104 yards as USC built a 28–10 lead before Notre Dame all but abandoned the run, allowing him to pad his passing totals.

If Quinn’s gaudy season totals of 3,278 yards and 35 touchdowns make him Heisman-worthy, then the award should go to Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan, whose 4,990 yards and 53 touchdowns easily surpass Quinn’s.

If there is a player who should challenge Smith for the Heisman, it is Arkansas’s McFadden, whose numbers (1,558 yards, 14 touchdowns) don’t fully explain his importance to the Razorbacks. That Arkansas managed to win the SEC West and go undefeated in conference play until the SEC championship game is a tribute to McFadden’s brilliance. Against four of the nation’s top-25 teams in total defense (no. 2 LSU, no. 10 Florida, no. 18 Alabama, and no. 25 Auburn), McFadden ran for 512 yards on 95 carries (5.4 yards a carry) and scored four touchdowns, and those numbers include just 73 yards against Florida, a game in which he suffered an early ankle injury.

But even when the Gators limited McFadden on the ground, he found a way to have an impact. Playing quarterback in the Razorbacks’ “Wildcat” formation, he threw a one-yard touchdown pass in that contest, one of his six completions on the year.

McFadden was able to dominate on the ground despite an Arkansas passing attack that went through three starting quarterbacks and ranked 105th in the nation. Against LSU at the end of the year, starter Casey Dick completed just three passes (or one more than McFadden did), yet McFadden kept the Razorbacks in the game against the nation’s second-ranked defense by breaking off an 80-yard touchdown run.

Quinn and McFadden have had outstanding years, and the 6-foot-4-inch Quinn will no doubt be selected far ahead of the, ahem, 6-foot-1-inch Smith in next year’s NFL draft. But the battle over which player was the most outstanding in college football this season is no contest. It’s Smith in a landslide.

Mr. Levine is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.
(Allen Barra’s case for Brady Quinn is at nysun.com.)