And I'm sure Palmer put up all his yards against quality opponents..... Larry Johnson had one of the 10 best seasons EVER for a RB in college football.If he went to Notre Dame,he have won the Heisman in a unanimous vote,and would probably have been named President as well. Palmer put up numbers that 10 other QB's put up every season .
He tore up a good defensive ND team. Tore them a new *******. Johnson tore up an already torn up MSU, NU, and IU.
Larry Johnson: UCF - 0 yds. rushing Nebraska - 123 yds, 2 TDs Louisiana Tech - 147 yds, 2 TDs Iowa - 68 yds, 1 TD Wisconsin - 111 yds, 1 TD Michigan - 78 yds, 1 TD Northwestern - 257 yds, 2 TDs Ohio St. - 66 yds, 1 TD Illinois - 279 yds, 1 TD Virginia - 188 yds, 1 TD Indiana - 327 yds, 4 TDs Michigan St. - 279 yds, 4 TDs Bold names = teams ranked in the final Top 25 By my calculations, Johnson averaged 70.6 yards against the 3 Top 25 teams Penn State faced. He therefore averaged 190 yards against the other crappy 9 teams he faced. That is not a Heisman winner. Carson Palmer: Auburn - 23-32, 302 yds, 1 TD, 2 INTs Colorado - 22-30, 244 yds, 1 TD Kansas St. - 18-47, 186 yds, 1 TD Oregon St. - 23-41, 231 yds, 2 TDs, 1 INT Washington St - 32-50, 381 yds, 2 TDs, I INT California - 25-39, 289 yds, 2 TDs, 2 INTs Washington - 21-34, 348 yds, 4 TDs, 1 INT Oregon - 31-42, 448 yds, 5 TDs, 1 INT Stanford - 22-32, 317 yds, 4 TDs Arizona St. - 20-34, 214 yds, 2 TDs UCLA - 19-32, 254 yds, 4 TDs Notre Dame - 32-46, 425 yds, 4 TDs, 2 INTs Bold names = teams ranked in the final Top 25 Against the 5 Top 25 teams he faced, Carson went 127-205 (62%) for an average 307.6 yds with 9 TDs and 5 INTs. That's pretty damn good against ranked teams. Subsequently, against the 7 other crappier teams, he went 161-254 (63%) for an average 300.1 yards with 23 TDs and 5 INTs. His numbers are about the same against ranked and unranked teams. Essentially, he was pretty steady, regardless of the kind of competition he faced. LJ, on the other hand, had a drastic change in rushing average against ranked and unranked teams. This, coupled with USC's high ranking, equals a Heisman for Palmer and a Maxwell Award for Johnson. Oh, and just as an aside, Palmer was 7th in the nation in QB rating, 6th in passing yards, 2nd in TD passes, 6th in completions, 7th in attempts, and 9th in completion %. The only QB, IMO, who approaches those rankings is Kliff Kingsbury... ... This post was brought to you by the letter F, as in COLD, HARD FACTS...
I think Palmer deserved it. But I think the voting came down to demographics. Banks/Johnson split the midwest, Dorsey/McGahee split the East/SE, Carson cleaned up the West, and who knows what happened in the SW. If you switched Palmer and Banks schools honestly I think Banks wins--but that doesn't mean either is not worthy, to tell you the truth I think it would have been fair either way.
Screw Carson Palmer. He will end up riding the NFL pines, sitting next to Chris Sims. Neither will play quarterback...they will both play guard and tackle. Guard the waterbucket and tackle anyone who comes near it.
