One man's Heisman vote

Mailed in my Heisman ballot earlier this week. More than 20 years I've been doing this: Filling in three names, signing my own, finding a mailbox and beating the postmark deadline. Never been tougher than it was this year. (Hey, I know it's a small job in the grand scheme and all that, but they send me a ballot, so I figure I owe it to the good folks of the Downtown Athletic Club to make an informed decision.)

Step into my brain (plenty of room; I've been clearing out space since calculus):

The process: I try to ignore statistics as much as possible. Some are enlightening, most are misleading. I didn't vote for Houston's Andre Ware in 1989 when the Cougars and coach John Jenkins were lighting up the southwest (I went with West Virginia's Major Harris instead). I didn't vote for Florida's Danny Wuerffel in 1996, opting instead for Arizona State's Jake Plummer, as inspiring a college player as I have ever seen. And so on.

Here's what I look for:

1) A player who is invaluable to a very good team, without whom that team would be something less.

2) A player who would be good on any team, not just his own. (i.e., no system quarterbacks, like Ware and even '90 winner Ty Detmer; I went with Rocket Ismail that year).

3) A player with something special, something beyond just production and victory. Plummer had that. Charles Woodson (picked him over Peyton Manning in '97) had it, too.

So this year, I measured the following:

1) Somebody from Miami: I like Ken Dorsey a lot. I think people who find him to be vanilla are missing the point. His steady production and underrated fire are critical to the 'Canes' national title run. But in the near-loss to Boston College (probably should have been a loss), Dorsey was awful. Against Virginia Tech he was better, but not brilliant. I think Dorsey will be a terrific NFL quarterback, but he's not even the Hurricanes' MVP. That would be either an offensive lineman or a defensive back. Mammoth offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie will be a top-five draft pick, but for Miami he's only marginally more valuable than guard Martin Bibla and tackle Joaquin Gonzalez. This bunch is better than the sum of its parts. In the secondary, there are a bunch of athletes, but they feed off the godfatherly jive of senior All-America safety Ed Reed. Invaluable, good on any team, special. Reed's my 'Cane.

2) All those other quarterbacks: Rex Grossman is a better athlete than Wuerffel was, and almost as tough (have to be to play QB for Steve Spurrier -- not only mentally, but also physically.) But he threw four picks in a crucial loss at Auburn. Oregon's Joey Harrington is an inspirational kid, a solid passer who doesn't throw a lot of picks and is the backbone of a one-loss team. But he was lousy in that one loss, to Stanford. Indiana's Antwaan Randle-El is a sensational option athlete, but his team went 5-6, not even good enough to save coach Cam Cameron's job. Nebraska's Eric Crouch made big plays and ran the 'Huskers' offense better than anybody since Tommie Frazier (I voted for him, too, over Eddie George ). Fresno State's David Carr is better than all of them as a pure quarterback, and he put a decent team on his back and made it good, especially early in the season. I keep Crouch and Carr in the hunt.

3) Non-quarterbacks: McKinnie. Reed. Oklahoma's Roy Williams is a great college football player, but it's hard to take a defensive back off a team that loses twice. Tennessee defensive lineman John Henderson is the best player on a team that might play for the national championship. North Carolina's Julius Peppers is a little better and had flashier stats, but his team wasn't in the hunt.

That's the discussion. I go to the finals with Reed, Crouch, Carr, Henderson and Peppers. Among their teams, only Miami is guaranteed to play for the national title, so Reed makes my ballot. Crouch was most valuable to his own team, and I truly believe he'd be a terrific player on any team. Carr, Henderson and Peppers are the best players, overall.

Give me a pen:

1. Crouch.
2. Reed.
3. Carr, by a nose over Peppers.

There. Done. And still uncertain. Told you it was tough this year.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

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