[jacket3ree]

Here's a fun exercise. Of Stanford's H-man runner ups, who was the most deserving of winning that year?

My rank:

1. McCaffery. He had a season for the ages, Stanford went 10-2 in the regular season and only the Northwestern loss was anything less than dynamic. The week before the presentation, he single handedly beat USC. (I don't recall if the votes were already in by then.)  All H-man stuff. Then after watching Derrick Henry grab the hardware because an SEC running back must be inherently better than a Pac12 running back/receiver/returner/spot quarterback, he smashed Rose Bowl records and left Iowa in the dust. Stanford could take Bama that year IMO.

2. Gerhart. Man among other men. In Luck's first season he was still the Stanford offense really. That ND game. Holy smokes. Hampered by the losses I suppose. Another Bama back, so there's that too.

3. Luck. Even he said the first silver medal behind Cam Newton was expected. RG III was flashier and lead exciting comeback wins while Luck simply crushed all life out of opponents. Maybe beating Oregon would have done it. I knew they were doomed when Shaw said they sent a powerpoint presentation to voters. Calling one's own plays is pretty special at the collegiate level, but RG III was appointment television. 

4. Love. Substantially behind Baker Mayfield but ahead of freaking Lamar Jackson. Kinda hard to complain about that.

5. Elway. He lost to Herschel Walker but finished ahead of Eric Dickerson. Elway was also must see TV but his brilliance only dragged Stanford to mediocrity (not his fault) and the few wow wins were destroyed by losing to SJSU and boofing it against Cal.* Walker brought Georgia to a level they haven't relinquished in 45 years. Program changer. Stanford won one game the year after Elway left. Not program changer.

I could be full of it, too.

*Someone explain the Cardinals/Cardinal era to me. So much talent and such mixed results. Elway's years noting that he split time with Schonert in '79:

1979  5-5-1  Mediocrity defined and leave it at that. Finished 6th in the Pac10. Never played a ranked team.

1980  6-5  Beat #4 Oklahoma on the road, ranked as high as #11, no horrible losses and no bowl.

1981  4-7  Losing streaks of 4 and 3 sandwich beating #17 UCLA. Lost to SJSU. Close loses against #8 Ohio State, #7 USC. Did finish strong.

1982  5-6   Beat Purdue and #13 Ohio State plus Beavers (easily) and Cougs (close) and #2 Huskies (easily); lost to SJSU, ASU, SC (by a lot), Arizona (by plenty), UCLA (close) and Cal (rivalry weird)

Schizophrenic!

[jacket3ree]

Here's a fun exercise. Of Stanford's H-man runner ups, who was the most deserving of winning that year?

My rank:

1. McCaffery. He had a season for the ages, Stanford went 10-2 in the regular season and only the Northwestern loss was anything less than dynamic. The week before the presentation, he single handedly beat USC. (I don't recall if the votes were already in by then.)  All H-man stuff. Then after watching Derrick Henry grab the hardware because an SEC running back must be inherently better than a Pac12 running back/receiver/returner/spot quarterback, he smashed Rose Bowl records and left Iowa in the dust. Stanford could take Bama that year IMO.

2. Gerhart. Man among other men. In Luck's first season he was still the Stanford offense really. That ND game. Holy smokes. Hampered by the losses I suppose. Another Bama back, so there's that too.

3. Luck. Even he said the first silver medal behind Cam Newton was expected. RG III was flashier and lead exciting comeback wins while Luck simply crushed all life out of opponents. Maybe beating Oregon would have done it. I knew they were doomed when Shaw said they sent a powerpoint presentation to voters. Calling one's own plays is pretty special at the collegiate level, but RG III was appointment television. 

4. Love. Substantially behind Baker Mayfield but ahead of freaking Lamar Jackson. Kinda hard to complain about that.

5. Elway. He lost to Herschel Walker but finished ahead of Eric Dickerson. Elway was also must see TV but his brilliance only dragged Stanford to mediocrity (not his fault) and the few wow wins were destroyed by losing to SJSU and boofing it against Cal.* Walker brought Georgia to a level they haven't relinquished in 45 years. Program changer. Stanford won one game the year after Elway left. Not program changer.

I could be full of it, too.

*Someone explain the Cardinals/Cardinal era to me. So much talent and such mixed results. Elway's years noting that he split time with Schonert in '79:

1979  5-5-1  Mediocrity defined and leave it at that. Finished 6th in the Pac10. Never played a ranked team.

1980  6-5  Beat #4 Oklahoma on the road, ranked as high as #11, no horrible losses and no bowl.

1981  4-7  Losing streaks of 4 and 3 sandwich beating #17 UCLA. Lost to SJSU. Close loses against #8 Ohio State, #7 USC. Did finish strong.

1982  5-6   Beat Purdue and #13 Ohio State plus Beavers (easily) and Cougs (close) and #2 Huskies (easily); lost to SJSU, ASU, SC (by a lot), Arizona (by plenty), UCLA (close) and Cal (rivalry weird)

Schizophrenic!