Heisman Forecast: Buckeyes' Miller now facing long odds

From Adrian Peterson in 2006 to Matt Barkley in '12, it has been year
after year of failure for preseason Heisman Trophy favorites since USC's
Matt Leinart won it in 2005.

Could Braxton Miller be the next name to join that list of misses?

Urban Meyer said Ohio State's junior quarterback is day-to-day
as he suffered a sprained ligament in his left knee during the first
possession against San Diego State and did not return. But regardless of
whether he plays Saturday against Cal, Miller doesn't have much margin
of error.

Just twice in the last 70 years has a winner missed one
game and that last happened in 1993 with Florida State's Charlie Ward,
who sat out against Maryland with bruised ribs.

It’s going to
take Miller dominating the rest of the way, beginning with Saturday in
Berkeley, to salvage his chances. But if he misses any more time, he’ll
likely put his name alongside his former teammate Terrelle Pryor, who
couldn’t come through as the 2010 favorite.

Here’s a look at where things stand heading into Week 3:

1. Tajh Boyd, QB Clemson
2. Marcus Mariota, QB Oregon
3. Teddy Bridgewater, QB Louisville

Now, on with the Heisman Forecast:





Mark
Ingram, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III and Johnny Manziel were all
out-of-nowhere winners and Winston may be the most logical choice to
follow them. Of course, it's been just one game, but Winston has only
increased the already high expectations -- with some help from his girlfriend
-- and with a schedule of Nevada (103rd ranked defense), FCS school
Bethune-Cookman, Boston College and Maryland, he could set the stage for
a clash to get all Heismanphiles on Oct. 19 vs. Boyd and Clemson. But
let's not get too carried away just yet. First, he'll have to prove Week
1 was just a taste as the Seminoles take on the 1-1 Wolf Pack.



He
delivered one of the tent poles of any campaign by stealing the show in
a marquee games, both with his impressive play (294 yards and four TDs
passing and 82 rushing yards and a TD) and his tribute to 1940 winner Tom Harmon in
the win over the-No. 14 Notre Dame. Gardner has our attention and now
he has time to pad his stats, beginning this week against Akron and its
111th-ranked defense and 0-1 UConn, before the Wolverines head into Big
Ten play Oct. 5 vs. Minnesota.



The
Bears lead the nation in total offense (736.5 yards per game) and are
second in scoring (69.5 points per) and in any system that produces
absurd stats, the QB is bound to get most of the Heisman love -- see
Graham Harrell in '08 over Texas Tech teammate Michael Crabtree -- but
it's Seastrunk who is the Bears' most intriguing candidate. With the
trend of dual-threat QBs winning, it would take something substantial,
say a run at Barry Sanders' single-season record of 2,628 yards, which Seastrunk has his eye on. He already has 261 yards in two games and gets Louisiana-Monroe and its 86th-ranked rush D this week.



He
just earned his second career win over a top-10 team, beating then-No. 6
South Carolina and is in line to end his time in Athens as the SEC's
all-time leader in nearly every major passing category. He's certainly
re-entered the mix, but it's really RB Todd Gurley that has emerged as
the Bulldogs' prime candidate, running for 154 yards on No. 1 Alabama
and 134 vs. the Gamecocks. In an e-mail, Georgia's sports information
director, Claude Felton, said they won't be launching a campaign for any
of their players, but are they missing out in putting the focus on
Gurley as Murray continues to make a run at the SEC record books?



It's
all over for the presumptive best defensive player in the nation.
Georgia, like North Carolina before it, played away from Clowney, who
has just six tackles and a sack after two games. The defensive end expressed his frustration
and it only underlines the point that the mere fact that offenses can
take a defender out of a game shows why no purely defensive player will
ever win the award. He may still be the No. 1 pick in April's NFL draft,
but Clowney won't be leaving college with the stiff-armed trophy.



His
story and Clowney's have so many parallels. Both entered the year with
immense hype as arguably the best at their respective positions and both
faced extremely long odds in ending the QB/RB monopoly on the Heisman
(no wide receiver has won since Desmond Howard in 1991). The reigning
Biletnikoff Award winner has been hampered by the mess of a quarterback
situation the Trojans are dealing with, posting a career-low 27 yards on
seven receptions in last weekend's loss to Washington State. Lane
Kiffin has named Cody Kessler the starter, which could help for
continuity from Lee's perspective. But considering he was already
playing from behind as a WR, that dismal performance vs. the Cougars may
be too much to overcome.