Awards wrap-up

OSU FootballOSU reigned, Lloyd Carr complained, Brady Quinn gained, but Troy Smith maintained.

Here’s a summary of OSU award winners (let me know if I neglected any):

Davy O’brien (Best QB):
Troy Smith

Walter Camp (Player of the Year):
Troy Smith

Bronko Nagurski (Top Defensive Player):
James Laurinaitis

Danny Wuerffel (Outstanding Athletic, Academic, and Community Service):
Joel Penton

All-America Team (Outstanding Athletic Acheivement):
Troy Smith, Quinn Pitcock, James Laurinaitis

Academic All-American Team (Outstanding Academic Achievement):
Anthony Gonzalez, Stan White, Jr. (1st team); James Laurinaitis (2nd team)

Scout.com National Player of the Year:
Troy Smith

Scout.com All-America Team (Outstanding Athletic Acheivement):
Troy Smith, Quinn Pitcock, James Laurinaitis (1st team); Doug Datish (2nd team)

Heisman Memorial Trophy (Best Player in College Football):
Troy Smith (yes, we’re already including this one)

“But… but… Quinn won the Maxwell! So the media thinks he’s the best player!” Not exactly. The Maxwell tends to be more of an MVP trophy. Some people confuse ‘most valuable’ with ‘best,’ but that’s not always the case. Sometimes, they’re the same person, and other times not (like this year).

I think there’s an argument that Quinn, while not the best player in college football, might be more valuable to Notre Dame than Smith is to OSU. Of course, Smith is still the better QB and athlete, but if you remove Quinn from ND they probably become a sub-.500 team. Do the same to OSU, and they probably lose a bunch more games, but they probably don’t tank like the Irish would.

Besides, Quinn had a good season and broke all those records at ND… so they had to give him something. A good player like Quinn, from an institution like Notre Dame, getting shut out would be bad for PR purposes. And the media is still overly obsessed with Weis.

So I consider the 2006 Maxwell as sort of a token “Most Valuable, but Really Bad Timing Award,” as in “Sorry, Brady, you’re a good player, but you just happened to be playing football when Troy Smith was. Bad timing for you, so here you go.”

Otherwise, he ends up being remembered as being the guy that got to ride in the limousine with Troy Smith after the 2006 Heisman ceremony.

Comments

  1. Mr. Quinn thanks for playing football this year. We have a lovely parting gift for you…the Maxwell trophy.

  2. baby jesus says

    Lmao…………. R.O.T.C award is what they should call it. Awarded to the best player who people really believe is pretty good playing against army, navy, air force, coast guard.

    Why doesn’t the Marines have its own school or does that fall under command of Army?????????????

  3. baby jesus… are you serious? The Marines are part of the Navy.

    I like the ROTC award. Good one. I hope the media didn’t feel sorry for Quinn on Saturday night.

  4. The Marines are the BEST part of the Navy. While technically under the Department of the Navy — they have equally standing as the other major services with a General seated with on Joint Chiefs of Staff.

    I didn’t watch. What did Carr do to complain last night ?

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