Clarion Ledger’s Recent Endorsement of Wallace for Heisman Screams Love me Too
If you didn’t know any better and just fell off the ole turnip truck, the state of Mississippi’s college football can sometimes get confused with modern day politics.
I don’t think any objective person would disagree that CNN and MSNBC are staunch leftist television platforms, while Fox is way to the right in itself.
It’s the modern day media that we live in, where networks, papers blogs and more are no longer objective and down the middle. There is always an agenda or they are pushed one way or the other by this group or that group. Simply put, the wheel that squeaks the loudest gets the most oil.
The same can be said about sports and the state of Mississippi. Use to, state and local papers were objective and down the middle and while some still are, many are not.
Granted you know what you are going to get from say Rebelgrove.com or Bulldogs247.com. You’re going there to get information on your team from your team and their writer’s perspective.
But – when you open the state’s biggest fish wrap you would expect them to be objective and down the middle, but that’s exactly what you don’t get – sometimes.
For decades upon decades when you talk about football in the state of Mississippi, most think of Ole Miss. Granted most of their success until recently was pre-integration, but from the Mannings to Vaught and everywhere in between it’s been all Ole Miss and their fans feel entitled. Their fan base feels like they are the football school of the state and when someone like Jackie Sherrill or Dan Mullen comes along, it threatens everything they are about.
The same can be said about quarterbacks in this state. Mississippi State has never been quarterback-U and that’s common knowledge, but since the emergence of Dak Prescott, Rebel fans and some media have done everything they can to discredit Prescott.
The Clarion Ledger’s Hugh Kellenberger, who is the beat writer for Ole Miss did just that a few months ago and you can read our write-up on that right here.
And just when you think you’ve seen it all, something else comes along – like Hugh Kellenburger’s recent endorsement of Ole Miss Quarterback Bo Wallace – for Heisman.
Just like many local and state sports radio shows refuse to be negative about Ole Miss, without mentioning Mississippi State in a negative light, to keep the Ole Miss lemmings happy, Ole Miss fans have screamed and cried so much about Dak Prescott, that now the State’s biggest newspaper has decided to oil the proverbial squeaking wheel just a little bit.
Dak Prescott has been on fire and the national media has taken notice and fallen in love with the quarterback of the number one team in America. And rightfully so, as we have shown you before that Prescott is on course to do what Tim Tebow, Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel did. That’s dominate college football and take home the hardware and maybe even the National Championship.
But Bo Wallace for Heisman; seriously? The same Bo Wallace that is referred to by his own fans as good Bo, bad Bo? The same Bo Wallace that can be a turnover machine like he was against Boise State and Memphis, just this year? The same Bo Wallace that had five turnovers in the Egg Bowl last year?
Granted, Wallace has played well the last two weeks and is a major reason the Rebels are undefeated, but Heisman candidate – not hardly.
This recent endorsement by Kellenberger is simply greasing the wheel that is Ole Miss fan screaming loudly, WHAT ABOUT US! LOVE ME TOO!
The Dak Prescott mania has gotten to them so bad that when Prescott threw two interceptions against Auburn last week, many Ole Miss fans proclaimed, “should we call him good Dak- bad Dak?” Or they proclaimed, “Dak is catching up with Bo on interceptions, Bo’s thrown for more yards so he’s better.”
Their hate and disdain for Mississippi State is so bad and jaded that they cannot look at things objectively.
Well let’s look at Wallace’s numbers “objectively” like we did with Prescott and compare Wallace to other former Heisman winners with the same style of play and similar skill set. It would be unfair to compare Wallace to Newton, Tebow or Manziel because their games are totally different.
We will look at Wallace verses Robert Griffin iii and Sam Bradford, the 2011 and 2008 winners. Both played in up tempo offenses and both relied on their arms way more than their legs. Wallace could be compared overall more to RG3 because both can make plays with their feet when needed.
Here is a chart comparing Wallace to RG3 and Bradford through their first six games of their respective seasons. RG3 and Bradford’s stats are from their Heisman winning years.
Like we did with Dak, let’s break down Wallace’s numbers verses these guys, who he is similar to.
Attempts are roughly the same, but as you can see, Wallace is on the back end of completions and completion percentage. Wallace is also 250-yards behind G3, who is second on this list and he’s off pace on touchdowns thrown by a minimum of seven. Then there’s the proverbial interception stat that hangs Wallace and will continue to in his career.
Wallace has the most interceptions of the trio and yes only one more than Bradford, but Bradford had thrown eight more touchdowns at this stage of his season.
Also it is to note that neither RG3 or Bradford had games their Heisman years where they had meltdowns like Wallace has already had twice this year.
The numbers don’t lie and the numbers show you, while a good college quarterback, Wallace is hardly Heisman material. If you look at Wallace’s body of work over his career he is comparable to a great MAC quarterback or Mountain West guy. He throws for a lot of yards and some touchdowns, but he is a turnover machine more times than not and that is hardly Heisman material.
Only Dennis Dodd of CBSsports.com lists Wallace as a Heisman hopeful, which is the basis of Kellenberger’s article, but after that, the national consensus has Wallace nowhere to be found. As a matter of fact, if you go by cbssportsline.com, their overall panel has Prescott at the top, followed by Marcus Mariota of Oregon, Melvin Gordon of Wisconsin and Ameer Abdullah of Nebraska. You also have Brice Petty of Baylor, along with Jameis Winston and Todd Gurley still being mentioned. Of course you can throw Gurley and probably Winston out of that mix.
Others had Notre Dame’s Everett Golson as their leader just a week ago. But Bo Wallace? Bo Wallace is a good college quarterback, but he being listed by the Clarion Leger as a Heisman contender is ludicrous and laughable.
After the way the state’s biggest paper allowed a writer to try and discredit arguably the top quarterback, who happens to play at the other state institution, then allow the same writer to try and build up a case for the other quarterback who’s known for football schizophrenia is truly sad.
This is truly a great example of modern media in this state and around the country and eerily resembles the way politics is covered as well.
This is also another example of catering to a fan base that simply cannot stand it when “that other university” is doing well. You have to continue to show them love, love them too and stroke their ego. That’s exactly what the state’s biggest paper did here; they put some serious oil on a very squeaky wheel.