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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, December 7, 2009

CFB: Nebraska lineman stands out in crowded Heisman field


By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett

This can’t leave the room, because Heisman votes are supposed to be kind of secret. But here’s the decision if you promise not to tell anyone else, since the deadline passed Monday.

Maybe we should start at the beginning. Like most voters, I first noticed quarterbacks - Heisman electors are drawn to passers like the swallows return to Capistrano.
But good reports also kept coming in about a Nebraska defensive lineman.
This Ndamai ... well, whatever his name is.
The quarterback candidacies began to fade as the season hummed along. Reigning winner Sam Bradford was quickly out, since nobody wins the Heisman from beneath an MRI machine. Tim Tebow is highly admirable, but this is not a career achievement award, and his 2009 had some bumpy patches.
Colt McCoy stayed on the short list. So did a platoon of running backs. Alabama’s Mark Ingram, Stanford’s Toby Gerhart, Clemson’s C.J. Spiller.
And it was hard to forget the Nebraska lineman, since he seemed to be treating offenses each week as if they were abandoned cars and he was the metal crusher.
This Ndomor ... well, whatever his name is.
Last weekend was for closing arguments.
Gerhart wasn’t playing, but he’d already covered more territory this season than Patton’s army. Spiller had a big day, and so did Ingram, as a dagger into the heart of Florida.
McCoy struggled in the Big 12 championship game, and while his clock management on the final play worked — by one fortunate second — it felt like it came out of a textbook, “How to be a Kamikaze Pilot.”
Then there was Ndimoi ... well, whatever his name is.
Any defensive unit would be proud to have seven tackles for losses and 4.5 sacks in a game. He did that by himself. And Texas wasn’t exactly trying to block him with members of a ballet class. He was storming through several beefy Longhorns to make a mess of the Texas offense.
Monday morning was time to vote.
Gerhart seemed an attractive candidate as the studious underdog from Stanford. It’d be like electing the chemistry whiz as prom king.
Spiller had been among the most electrifying players in college football to watch. Ingram was part of the heart and soul of the No. 1 team, McCoy the winningest quarterback the sport had ever seen.
But here’s the thing. When looking to pull the Heisman trigger in a crowded field, it helps to find something truly extraordinary from one player.
The Big 12 championship game was truly extraordinary for Ndmaio ... well, whatever his name is. The man owned the night.
Has he done that all year? The numbers suggest a relentless and dominating effort from the gritty, sweaty workplace of the trenches. If a lineman wants to accomplish great things, he is left to his own will. Nobody blocked for him, when he stormed opposing backfields through double teams for 12 sacks and 82 tackles, 23 of them for a loss. He clawed his way there on his own motor.
The past week has been full of surreal sport developments.
Were we imagining the New York Yankees talking about cutting payroll? The New England Patriots turning into Jell-O? The New Jersey Nets winning a game? Two different Minnesota Vikings found driving 104 and 109 miles an hour? I didn’t even know the Vikings had a NASCAR team.
Tiger Woods kept showing up in headlines, linked to various playing partners, but none of them on a golf course. Very strange.
And here I was, ready to vote for a tackle for the Heisman, by the name of ... uh, let me check again... Ndamukong Suh.
Ingram - who’ll probably win - second, and Gerhart third.
Not an easy call, though any doubters of Suh’s greatness can consult two groups: NFL scouts and the linemen trying to block him.
Besides, how often do you get the chance to give a legitimate Heisman vote to a lineman whose mother came from Jamaica and father from Cameroon?
But the really hard part was typing his name on the ballot. Hope I got it right.