Troy Smith: Striking the pose a little early

Troy Smith very well may have won the Heisman trophy today. Sure, he had another great day, including that incredible touchdown to Robiske that makes you think the guy is Donovan McNabb out there. His 15/22 passing for 234 yards and 2 TDs, no INTs, only lifted up his already all-time Big 10 QB Rating record, and the fact that he makes everything he does look easy as he picks apart defenses just lengthen his highlight-reel resume.

However, Troy Smith may not have earned the Heisman trophy with his play today, as much as Adrian Peterson and Garrett Wolfe pretty much gave it to him. Peterson was just finishing up yet another dominating day on the ground as he broke a late 53 yard run towards paydirt, when his Oklahoma career came to a screeching halt. Diving into the endzone, Peterson broke his collarbone, and is now out for the season. Although the injury really hurts his draft chances, I can't see him coming back, because even if he is hurt, he's still probably the best player in the draft. More importantly for the Ohio State fans here, Peterson's injury drops him from the consesus #2 vote on the ballot to completely off of it altogether. The man who was going to take Peterson's place on that list, also killed his chances today, as Garrett Wolfe ran for a grand total of 25 yards on 18 carries (1.4 YPC), against Western Michigan of all teams. Everyone knows the saying, "Big players make big plays in big games." Well, Wolfe made absolutely no plays against a mediocre defense, and he won't get anymore chances to have any big games. Every Heisman winner has a defining moment in his season. You know, coming up big in the most important games. Reggie Bush had that one flip against UCLA that was on every highlight reel, Eddie George had this, heck, even Eric Crouch had that touchdown catch, and he was arguably the worst Heisman winner ever. There's a reason why guys on 4-3 MAC teams don't win the Heisman: They don't play in big enough games that become remembered over time.

How did the rest of the Heisman competition fare this week? Of the only two other real contenders that played this week, one played spectacular (Steve Slaton, 20 carries, 163 yards), although I still insist that he's a fast player in a system pays high dividends for speed, and one played downright awful (Chris Leak, 2 4th Quarter turnovers in one of the biggest games of the season).