Alabama Football: AJ McCarron for Heisman?
Beth Hall-US PRESSWIRE
In 2009, Mark Ingram won the Alabama Crimson Tide’s first and only Heisman Trophy in school history. Two years later, Trent Richardson was a Heisman finalist and ultimately finished third in the voting behind Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck.
Coming into 2012, nobody really expected Alabama to produce a serious threat for the Heisman with Richardson going pro a year early. Eddie Lacy received a little bit of hype in the preseason, but with Alabama’s depth at running back, he was never going to get enough carries to seriously make a push for the Tide’s 2nd stiff-arm.
But, it seems that a candidate has emerged for the Crimson Tide this season in junior quarterback AJ McCarron, who has been as efficient as any quarterback in the nation thus far.
Through four games, McCarron has the 4th highest QB Rating in the country at 188.6. Only TCU’s Casey Pachall, West Virginia’s Geno Smith, and Texas’ David Ash have a higher passer rating than McCarron.
Here’s a quick look at his numbers in 2012:
63.0 CMP% 819 Yards 10 TD O INT 188.6 QB Rating
His completion percentage of 63 percent is a bit down from a year ago, where he completed 67 percent of his passes in his first year as the starter.
McCarron is currently on pace to shatter Alabama’s single season passing touchdown record, which is currently held by Greg McElroy, who threw for 20 touchdowns in 2010. McCarron is halfway to that mark, and he still has eight regular season games remaining to go along with what could be two postseason games if the Crimson Tide win the SEC West and play for the SEC Championship.
McCarron is currently tied for 8th in the nation with his 10 touchdown passes, and is only two off the pace. Also, only West Virginia’s Geno Smith and Louisiana Tech’s Colby Cameron have more touchdown passes without throwing an interception. McCarron hasn’t thrown an interception since the second quarter of last season’s game against Mississippi State on November 12th.
He has just five interceptions in 457 career pass attempts.
At this point in time, McCarron isn’t receiving much buzz for college football’s most prestigious individual award. As far as quarterbacks go, it is Geno Smith, Florida State’s EJ Manuel, Georgia’s Aaron Murray, and Kansas State’s Collin Klein who have the attention of the pundits.
So what will it take for McCarron to seriously make a push for the Heisman Trophy? It’s going to take a lot, and it is probably unlikely that he makes a serious run at the award.
But, we still haven’t seen all of what AJ can do. The Crimson Tide have yet to be challenged, and really haven’t opened up the playbook quite yet. In the coming weeks, the Crimson Tide will be challenged, and McCarron will have to step up. If he is able to step up and come through in the clutch, then he could start to receive some love from the media.
Regardless, it will probably take at least 3000 passing yards and 25-30 touchdowns with a very low number of interceptions for McCarron to garner serious consideration. His numbers are a bit lower than they should be because he has yet to play an entire game. He has given way to backups Phillip Ely and Blake Sims all four weeks due to the game being well in hand.
Over the last two weeks, McCarron has been pulled in the third quarter.
So will AJ McCarron be amongst the finalists invited to New York for the Heisman Ceremony? Not likely. Will he even garner serious consideration in the coming weeks? Probably not.
A big reason for that is Alabama’s offense is built around the run, and with a dominant offensive line opening up holes, the Crimson Tide will continue to pound the rock.
But McCarron deserves praise for the way he has played so far this season. He has been one of the most efficient passers in the nation through four weeks, and he has led an offense that is averaging 42 points per game.
McCarron may not be a serious challenger for the Heisman Trophy, but he is far from a game manager.
Follow John on Twitter.