The Champ is Here: Your 2009 Heisman Trophy Winner

Turn off your televisions and go out for the night: The Heisman votes have already been counted, and we're here to announce the winner.  Well, The Buck List's Hesiman votes anyway.  We've consulted with ten of America's top college football analysts (read: ten people who watch college football and whom we mildly trust) and conducted the first annual Buck List Heisman balloting.  It works basically like the real thing, except with more of an emphasis on actually being good at football, and maybe a slight penalty for playing for Florida or USC.  Just like it should be.  

Below we give you the 2009 Buck List Heisman Trophy winner, and a full report of the voting for accountability. 

Second Runner-up,  Mark Ingram (RB, Alabama):  The likely "real" Heisman winner comes up third in the People's Heisman, which is right about where he should be.  Ingram has been the best back in maybe the best defensive conference in the nation, and he's racked up over 1800 yards of total offense, and 18 total touchdowns.  A couple of weeks ago, Ingram nearly Buck-Listed himself, falling flat on his face against Auburn in a game that almost cost the Crimson Tide their shot at a national championship.  But he responded in the only way that could have saved his Heisman chances: by completely dominating Florida en route to a Bama victory in the SEC championship.  That performance in his most important game of the year can't be ignored (and will likely win him the award tonight in New York), but over the season he has been a bit too inconsistent for it to vault him over the top two.

First Runner-up, Ndamukong Suh (DT, Nebraska): Like Ingram, Suh had the good sense to put on his best performance of the season in maybe the only game that people actually watched him this year.  Against Texas in the Big 12 conference championship, Suh was unstoppable, bullying his way to 4.5 sacks and 12 tackles (7 for a loss) and very nearly ending the Longhorns' title hopes.  If Suh had that kind of numbers the rest of the season, he'd sleepwalk his way to the Heisman.  But in his other 12 games, Suh had a combined 7.5 sacks, and 70 tackles (16 for a loss).  Incredible numbers from an interior lineman, but perhaps not enough to overcome the offensive bias of the Heisman, and become the first defense-only player to win the award.  On a team and at a position that people simply don't watch enough to assess exactly how good Suh is, he'd probably need some sexier numbers on paper (for instance, while he's broken up 10 passes and blocked 3 kicks, Suh has only accounted for 2 turnovers), to stand out enough to actually win this thing.

The People's Champ, Toby Gerhart (RB, Stanford): Gerhart probably won't win the actual Heisman tonight—he's simply not "exciting" enough for the typical voter.  And that's a shame.  Gerhart, who ran away with our voting (7 out of 10 first place votes), has put up numbers that completely eclipse the competition in this watered-down year for the Heisman.  He leads the nation in rushing with over 1700 yards and 26  touchdowns (plus one passing touchdown), averages nearly 30 more yards a game on the ground than Ingram, and does it all on behind an undersized offensive line and a freshman quarterback.  But Gerhart's consistency is what's most impressive:  He has only been held under 100 yards twice this season (82 yards at Wake Forest and 96 at Oregon State), and in each of those games he still averaged nearly 5 yards a carry.  He has only been held without a touchdown once (at Wake) and he scored at least two touchdowns in nine of his twelve games.  He scored three or more touchdowns five times.  And he didn't fumble once all season.  Simply, Gerhart was the most consistent and most dominant offensive player in the country this season.  The problem is that Gerhart plays in the supposedly weak Pac-10 (and not for USC) and with a style that appeals to only those who miss the days before the forward pass and Mike Alstott.  No one knows what Gerhart would do at Alabama or in the SEC, but there's no ignoring what he has done at Stanford.  He probably won't get the trophy which bears the illustrious names of Doug Flutie, Desmond Howard, and Chris Weinke tonight, but that thing's a sham anyway.

Toby, lift up your head and stick out that barn-sized chest:  You've just won the first ever Buck List Heisman Trophy, and that puts you quite literally in a class of your own.

After the jump, we honor Mr. Gerhart with one of YouTube's finest and give you the full results of our voting.

Voting Results