Full-Court Press
OVER the past month, we needed a voting booth to handle all the ballots coming in and out of our office. Voting for college’s
best has been funIf columnist Bill Kwon wasn't casting his Associated Press Top 25 ballot or sports editor Joe Edwards wasn't voting for the AP's Coach and Player of the Year honors, then you could find me over in a corner somewhere fretting over my choices for the Heisman Trophy and the Doak Walker Award that's given to the nation's best running back.
Not that we minded taking part in the national collegiate scene. We even consulted with one another before selecting who we felt were the deserving candidates and teams.
Kwon usually phones in his top 25 on Saturday night at home or minutes before the Hawaii game when the Rainbows are out at Aloha Stadium. His No. 1 pick for most of the year has been Florida State.
My only input was to make sure my alma mater figured prominently in the top 25, although that was tough considering Texas A&M's three losses in the Big 12.
WE recently received an interesting e-mail in our office about a computer group that put together a simulated college playoff. These guys took the eight major conference winners and eight at-large selections, and seeded them 1 through 16.
The top seed was Florida State and the 16th seed was Hawaii. These two teams played 10,000 times and the Seminoles won all 10,000 by an average score of 52-6. Florida State and Virginia Tech advanced to the final of this computer game with the Hokies winning 61 percent of the time. Kwon was not swayed.
I wasn't swayed by Kwon to change my Heisman threesome, although we had a lengthy discussion on it. Our first choice was Ron Dayne. Not only did he break Ricky Williams' career rushing record, but like his University of Texas counterpart, Dayne made his mark as a freshman against the Rainbows. His 339 yards that November night in 1996 accounted for nearly 5 percent of his career total of 6,925.
Choice number two for me was Florida State's Peter Warrick, who, if not for a bogus clothing discount, would have worn the Heisman well. Kwon took an old-school approach that pleading guilty to theft should disqualify him from consideration.
I countered that he is still probably the best college player in the country, but apparently I was in the minority. Warrick won't be among the five finalists for tomorrow's award. My third choice, Georgia Tech's Joe Hamilton, will be, although it really doesn't matter because Dayne's the man.
WE all agreed with that in the office. So much so, I selected Dayne to win the Doak Walker Award, which he won last night, and Edwards voted the burly back as AP Player of the Year, an honor he ran off with earlier this week.
Interestingly, Edwards noted that in the Suzuki radio ad that promoted on-line fan voting for the Heisman, the school song playing in the background is "On Wisconsin." Guess they figured the Great Dayne is a mortal lock.
As for the AP Coach of the Year, Edwards voted for June Jones. Former NFL coach Bum Phillips once said of the great Don Shula that he can take his players and beat yours or he can take yours and beat his.
One thing we know, Jones took Fred vonAppen's 0-12 team and transformed it into an 8-4 group bound for the Oahu Bowl. Sure, you can hang a disclaimer on Jones' NCAA-tying turnaround.
But to inherit a team that lost 18 consecutive games and make a winner out of it on short notice is certainly worthy of consideration. And regardless of what some computer prints out, give Jones 10,000 chances to play Florida State and you gotta believe he'd squeeze out at least one win.
Of course, that's just our opinions, we could be wrong.
Paul Arnett has been covering sports
for the Star-Bulletin since 1990.