December 11, 2008

Tom Dienhart
Rivals.com College Football Senior Writer

You could hear the anger in Texas Tech coach Mike Leach's voice.

His star quarterback, Graham Harrell, was not invited to New York for Saturday's Heisman Trophy ceremony. And Leach just couldn't retain his venom.

Who can blame him? It is a shameful oversight.

"If it's not based on numbers, then it must be based on politics and agenda," Leach said by phone Thursday morning from New York's LaGuardia Airport. "For him to not be there cheapens the award. It obviously isn't made out of bronze. It must be made out of aluminum."

That Harrell won't be sitting there with Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, Florida's Tim Tebow and Texas' Colt McCoy is a joke. Harrell's numbers speak volumes. He has been nothing short of spectacular in compiling arguably the best package of statistics of any quarterback in America. At the least, Harrell's numbers are on par with the three players who will be in New York.

Harrell has competed 71.5 percent of his passes (406-of-568) for 4,747 yards and 41 touchdowns, with only seven interceptions. His passer rating of 163.03 ranks ninth in the nation.

Even more impressive than his statistics is that Harrell has elevated the Red Raiders' program ? which has less of almost everything than Oklahoma, Texas and Florida ? to tremendous heights. Texas Tech jetted out to a 10-0 start, reaching as high as No. 2 in the polls before a loss at Oklahoma. The Red Raiders finished the regular season 11-1 and were co-Big 12 South champions.

It's enough to make you wonder why more people didn't fuss about Texas Tech being left out of the Big 12 title game as much as they did about Texas' exclusion. Was the Red Raiders' resume really that much different than OU's or Texas'? Of course not. But Tech has been shuffled off to the Cotton Bowl to play Ole Miss, while Texas and OU will play in marquee BCS bowls.

To top it all off, Harrell enjoyed an unrivaled "Heisman moment" this fall. Facing a second-and-10 from Texas' 28 and trailing the then-No. 1 Longhorns 33-32, Harrell tossed a game-winning touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree with one second left to give Tech a 39-33 triumph.

"There was nothing left for him to do," Leach said. "There obviously is more to the selection process than performance."

The Heisman winner is determined by a vote of 925 media members, as well as former winners. Each voter lists their top three choices, with the No. 1 pick getting three points, the No. 2 selection two points and the No. 3 pick one point. The points are totaled to determine the winner. The point totals also are used to decide who gets invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony. According to Heisman coordinator Tim Henning, the Heisman finalists are determined by the "natural breaking point in the voting."

Thus, it has to be presumed that Harrell finished fourth in the balloting.

Why not break from whatever protocol the Heisman honchos have in place to determine the finalists to invite four or five players? It's a way to reward players such as Harrell for outstanding seasons. And in this case, it would have been great to see a program such as Texas Tech get more national exposure.

Instead, we will have three quarterbacks from "blue blood" schools. It's yet another example of the class system that permeates college football, which has created the most unlevel playing field in all of team sports.

Harrell has won the Unitas Award, which goes to the best senior quarterback. But he deserves much more. At the least, he deserved to be invited to the Heisman ceremony.

Tom Dienhart is a national senior writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at dienhart@yahoo-inc.com.