Watkins and the "H" word

Tweet from ESPN's Tom Luginbill on Saturday night:

Sammy Watkins for Heisman?? Absolutely. Freshman? Who cares. He is a difference-maker. Who has come up with more big plays on O this year?

I'll admit this was the first moment I put "Watkins" and "Heisman" in the same sentence in my mind.

But it gets you thinking, doesn't it?

Through six games, Watkins had limited opportunities to showcase himself in the return game. Opponents were booming kickoffs for touchbacks left and right, and the staggeringly low number of punt returns (five) led Dabo Swinney to grouse about it last week.

But as you watched Watkins do all of the crazy stuff after catching passes, you had to think it was only a matter of time before he started doing crazy stuff after catching kickoffs.

He showed that at Maryland, of course. If the Auburn and Florida State games were his breakouts as a receiver, then Saturday night was precisely that for his return game.

When you saw Randy Edsall chewing out his kicker for kicking to Watkins after the 89-yarder for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, how many of you thought of another Randy (this one Shannon) chewing out his kicker for kicking it to C.J. Spiller two years ago at Miami?

It was a similar deal back then, but Watkins carries a much bigger sensation because he's a freshman who's incredibly advanced for his age. He has the blinding speed, but he also has a number of other attributes that are making the national analysts swoon: the ability to adjust to the ball in the air ... the ability to rip the ball down like Michael Irvin ... the great hands ... the willingess to be physical and lower his shoulder ... the maturity to flip the ball to the ref and run to the sideline without even thinking about any sort of celebration.

In my game column late Saturday night, I borrowed a famous line from the great Larry Munson in his 1980 description of a kid named Herschel.

"My God ... a freshman!"

The point is not to compare Watkins to a guy I believe is the best player in college football history. Not fair to either guy.

But there's a similarity in the take-your-breath-away impact supplied by a freshman. Those words by Munson were uttered as Walker put the Bulldogs on his back -- while putting future NFL safety Bill Bates on his butt -- in a stirring come-from-behind victory at Tennessee.

Later that season, in a mammoth matchup with a really good South Carolina team in Athens, Walker outplayed George Rogers. Rogers had a late fumble deep in Bulldogs territory, and Walker supplied a highlight-reel run earlier in the game.

But the thinking of Heisman voters was different then, and Rogers ultimately took the award in part because there was reluctance to give it to a freshman. Rogers was a tremendous college running back, and there was certainly a legitimate argument to be made in support of him. But plenty of people still believe the only thing that kept Walker from bringing home the trophy that year was his status as a freshman.

Is the thinking different now? A freshman still has never won the Heisman, but I'd think voters are more liberal in their considerations, more willing to take a look at a kid who seems to break new ground every week.

Is Watkins too late-arriving to the conversation? He has some ground to cover given that his first appearance on the radar is seven weeks in.

This AP story by national college football write Ralph Russo mentions Watkins.

Beyond that and Luginbill, I haven't seen a bunch of other chatter about him and the Heisman. No mention in this Heisman Watch from Sports Illustrated.

But he was not exactly an obscurity before his exploits at Maryland. People already were fascinated with the guy, so if he keeps this up you'll start to see more voters thinking of him as a serious Heisman candidate.

He's already making this voter think about it.



LW