I'm in Orlando for the Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards, and I had the chance to speak with Graham Harrell right after he learned he had not been invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony.
Texas Tech's senior quarterback from Ennis - standing in the same hallway as invitees Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow when he heard the news - handled the disappointment with class.
"It is what it is," he said. "We had a special season...that's what we focused on.
"They a lot of times base who goes to the Heisman as picking one of the best players off one of the best teams. We won as many games as anyone."I felt like Crab [receiver Michael Crabtree] or I or someone on our team was more than worthy of being there. If we don't get picked that's the way it goes.
"Programs' reputation has a lot to do with that. Texas Tech has never been a big-name program. Hopefully this year winning as many big games as we've had, Texas Tech can build on that...and allow players to get more recognition, more often."
about 3 years ago
Seth C
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Always wrongly named?
Well, I wish everyone could see those quotes. I’m so proud of him for what he said. Anyone with a brain can read between those lines, but he did it with class.
Ridiculous example of big boy politics
At least he’s got the Johnny Unitas Award and 1st Team All American (so far). Not everyone is owned by the old school bigwigs.
In many was, I am more disappointed over this than the BCS thing. At least in the BCS, the rules are made clear up front and we saw it coming. This was a sucker punch to the groin.
Agree with Plano Jeff. Harrell has shown a great deal of class all year. His maturity as a senior is something more players should try to emmulate.
The only rationale I can see is that, generally (read in my experience) with awards like this there is a break point in the judging/voting where there is a more significant drop between places. I imagine he and Crabtree were pretty close to even in votes. Combined, they were probably enough for 1st or 2nd place, but because they likely split votes it left a large gap between 3 & 4. If the winner has 10 votes, 2nd place 9, 3rd 8, 4th & 5th maybe had 5 a piece. They draw the line at 3rd because that is where the break is.
Can we figure out how close they actually were?
Are they gonna give us the # of votes or the percentages received by these guys?
After the annoncement Saturday evening
ESPN will show all the vote totals so we’ll know the breakdown everyone received.
by jeffinhouston on Dec 10, 2008 8:32 PM CST up reply actions
by the way...
What are your son’s responsibilities for the team?…I’m not sure I’d answer that here but, you must be very proud!…congratulations to you AND him on a great season!
Thanks for asking
Matt is a Junior and is the cornerbacks coach along with Coach Brian Mitchell. He is involved in defensive game planning and prepares and runs the offensive scout team each week that the defense practices against. This season he is up in the press box helping call signals down to Ruff and charting the plays.
This past summer, because of his position and lots of help from the Tech coaching staff, he was hired as an intern for the Houston Texans in their football operations department (scouting, player personnel, etc). He is the first undergraduate assistant from Tech to ever land an NFL internship and he was the only undergraduate from anywhere this past summer to get one of the Texans’ internships. Assuming he doesn’t continue in college coaching, he hopes to get into scouting for an NFL team.
by jeffinhouston on Dec 10, 2008 8:49 PM CST up reply actions
That is REALLY cool! He must have a lot of potential to have found that much favor with the coaches.
Jordy Rowland is from my hometown(he transfered there his Sophmore year). I hear he is a great kid! My brother and I have been following his progress very closely since he walked on. We went nuts when he tipped the ball into the air for Duncan to intercept against Baylor. That is definitely his biggest play yet.
He’s come a long way! Your son probably had alot to do with that!
Good company
given the Heismann curse and all, maybe it’s better that he doesn’t win. Peyton Manning didn’t win. I’ve thought that Harrell might do well in a system like that of the Colts where the QB makes a lot of reads and play calls.
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