By TARIQ KENDALL
Contributing Writer
The college football season is upon us and with that comes a brand new race for the Heisman Trophy. This year, as with every other year in college football, the spotlight is on four or five “elite” players who are thought to be the best in the sport. Well, for this segment we are going to sift through that pool to get the crème of the crop and pit them against each other. This week The Chronicle will be taking a look at the South Carolina Gamecock’s Heisman hopeful Jadeveon Clowney and last year’s Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.
I’ll start off in Columbia, South Carolina where Heisman hopeful Jadeveon Clowney began his season this past Thursday night with a solid 27-10 victory over the rival Tar Heels of North Carolina. The Gamecocks’ not-so-secret weapon posted a “resounding” three tackles. But that’s okay, because the effect a good defensive player has on a game is dictated by his effort. Somebody needs to tell that to Clowney because the 6’6 274 pound man-child gave 100 percent for 50 percent of the game.
Last year the Ted Hendricks award winner was second in the NCAA in tackles for loss and ranked in the top ten in every major defensive category, this according to Sports-reference.com.
Now we go from Columbia to College Station where reigning Heisman winner Johnny Manziel started off his 2013 campaign with a bang. After sitting out the first half of Texas A&M’s home opener against Rice, Manziel torched the Owl’s defense racking up 94 yards on 6 of 8 passing with 3 touchdowns. Hmmm… so that’s 75 percent completion percentage, and of that 75 percent, half of those passes lead to points. Sounds like a Heisman winner to me.
However, Manziel couldn’t just take the win could he? After dropping his third and final Touchdown pass to receiver Mike Evans, Manziel was flagged for jawing at the Rice defense.
Now I can’t knock the man’s performance, he had a of Quarter Back Rating of 84.6 (QBR is on a scale of 100),this according to ESPN, that’s pretty good, but Manziel, ever since he’s captured the Heisman, has shown more than questionable character and Saturday was just another reminder of that. Manziel’s summer included being carried out of a frat party, kicked out of the Manning Passing Academy and was topped off by a half game suspension by the NCAA for “inadvertently” violating NCAA rules. He has shown no respect for any authority and doesn’t seem to care.
Head-to-head there doesn’t seem to be much of a competition, Manziel has done it before, and despite a shaky offseason seem to continue to keep doing it. Texas A&M’s schedule is significantly harder than South Carolina’s due to playing in the all-powerful South East Conference, or SEC to those who don’t know, the highlight being a showdown on Sept. 14th at Kyle Field against No.1 ranked Alabama. This may be a huge task for most, but according to Scout.com Texas A&M’s schedule in 2012 was tougher then their schedule this year, and Manziel managed to navigate
that schedule with only two losses by a combined 8 points, so it’s a fair assumption that he’ll be fine.
Clowney, who lead his Gamecocks to an 11-2 record in 2012, just doesn’t match up to Manziel when it comes to football intangibles. Although, he may have run a 4.40 over the summer and is without a doubt the best athlete in college football today, he’s often had his conditioning question and instead of rising to the occasion and disproving the critics he’s simply continued to rely solely on his athleticism to make him a force. That may have worked in the past but now that he’s the vocal point of opposing offense’s game plans he’s going to have to dig deep and grind out a stellar season.
Clowney’s an amazing athlete, but unfortunately great football players aren’t just great athletes. For this reason Johnny Manziel is a better football player than Jadeveon Clowney and if he keeps it up and stays out of trouble he will repeat and become the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner.
WINNER: JOHNNY MANZIEL
