Last week I wrote about Utah's Brian Johnson chances of at least getting consideration for the 2008 Heisman Trophy, and now we are going back further and taking a look at the 2001 season of Fresno State quarterback David Carr. That Fresno State team finished the regular season at 11-2 and was as high as No. 8 in the polls before their first lost of the season which came against their rival Boise State. The following week Fresno State went on the road to loss to Hawaii, and that loss knocked them out of the rankings.
Before those two loses Fresno State started the season by defeating Colorado, No. 10 Oregon State and No. 23 Wisconsin in consecutive weeks; so they started off extremely strong that year.
As for the Heisman Trophy, Carr had the signature wins against two ranked teams from power conferences, but going undefeated was the only chance he had.
The 2001 winner went deservedly to Nebraska's Eric Crouch, but the real Heisman shame came as Carr was not even invited to New York, but he did end up in fifth place. That year was one of the closer Heisman Trophy awards in a very long time. The top six were are quarterbacks, and going off of the statistics alone, Carr had the best stats. However, we all know the Heisman Trophy is more than just numbers.
Here is the top 10 that year in the Heisman voting:
| Rk | Player | School | Class | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Tot | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Crouch | Nebraska | SR | QB | 162 | 98 | 88 | 770 | 105 Cmp, 189 Att, 1510 Yds, 7 TD, 10 Int |
| 2 | Rex Grossman | Florida | SO | QB | 137 | 105 | 87 | 708 | 259 Cmp, 395 Att, 3896 Yds, 34 TD, 12 Int |
| 3 | Ken Dorsey | Miami (FL) | JR | QB | 109 | 122 | 67 | 638 | 184 Cmp, 318 Att, 2652 Yds, 23 TD, 9 Int |
| 4 | Joey Harrington | Oregon | SR | QB | 54 | 68 | 66 | 364 | 186 Cmp, 322 Att, 2415 Yds, 23 TD, 5 Int |
| 5 | David Carr | Fresno State | SR | QB | 34 | 60 | 58 | 280 | 308 Cmp, 476 Att, 4299 Yds, 42 TD, 7 Int |
| 6 | Antwaan Randle El | Indiana | SR | QB | 46 | 39 | 51 | 267 | 118 Cmp, 231 Att, 1664 Yds, 9 TD, 5 Int |
| 7 | Roy Williams | Oklahoma | JR | DB | 13 | 36 | 35 | 146 | 5 Int, 25 Yds, 0 TD |
| 8 | Bryant McKinnie | Miami (FL) | SR | OL | 26 | 12 | 14 | 116 | |
| 9 | Dwight Freeney | Syracuse | SR | DL | 2 | 6 | 24 | 42 | |
| 10 | Julius Peppers | North Carolina | JR | DL | 2 | 10 | 15 | 41 | 3 Int, 42 Yds, 1 TD |
As you can see, Carr had more completions, yards, touchdowns and was only behind Joey Harrington for interceptions. It also was not an exclusive passing offense as the Fresno State rushing attack averaged 163 yards per game which would have put them in the top 50 or so in the NCAA rankings.
If we are taking a player down to get Carr to New York, my take would be to have Ken Dorsey sit this one out. Yes, Miami won the national title but it was not entirely because of what Dorsey did for the team.
The only problem was that there were so many good teams that year and had Fresno State beaten either Boise State or Fresno he would have received and invite, and who knows what would have happened if they went 12-0 that year.
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