Tonight, this
year's Heisman Trophy winner will be announced and everyone knows it will be Jameis
Winston.
Two nights ago,
this year's Coach of the Year was announced and it was Guz Malzahn -- just like
everyone knew it would be.
So I think it is
time to roll out a new kind of award. One that goes not to the "most
outstanding" or "most valuable," but instead goes to the player
who most exemplifies the spirit of college football by withstanding the most
unanticipated turmoil while fighting on in spite of it. One whose season
involves every kind of emotion from the highest highs of big-game wins to the
gut-wrenching agony of last-second defeats -- but whose individual performance
is always stellar and whose character is unwavering.
Since one could not
win such an award without experiencing immense pain, I would call it the Red
Badge of Courage Award, and this year’s winner would be Georgia quarterback
Aaron Murray.
Murray could
have turned pro after last season and probably been drafted high, but he chose
to return for his senior year because he believed his team had a chance to win
the SEC and thereby play for the national championship.
He led his
charges to 35 points at Clemson to start the season, but the effort was for
naught because Georgia's young and inexperienced defense yielded 38…Then he
responded by rallying his troops and orchestrating high-scoring victories over
South Carolina and LSU, both of whom were ranked in the top ten.
Then the wheels
fell off the cart as Murray’s team suffered an unprecedented slew of injuries
to key contributors. At one point they were taking the field without
their top two running backs and top three receivers -- begging the question of
who he would throw to, plus the question of who could possibly keep opposing
defenses honest by running the ball to take their focus off of stopping the
passing game.
As the injuries
mounted, Georgia's championship hopes disappeared with losses to Missouri and
Vanderbilt, yet Murray soldiered on and never hung his head…He delivered a
victory over Florida that made him 3-1 against his school's most hated rival…Then,
against his school's oldest rival (my beloved Auburn) he engineered a
remarkable fourth quarter comeback from a 37-17 deficit to take a 38-37 lead
with under two minutes remaining -- only to see that lead vanish forever when
Auburn's Ricardo Louis scored a 73-yard touchdown on a deflected Hail Mary pass
on 4th-and-18.
The sight of
Murray lying face-down on the turf after Louis’s score was eye-moistening even
for non-Georgia fans like myself.
He still had a
chance to end his career on a high note, however, because Georgia's
season-ending game was against their only in-state rival, Georgia Tech. But first
they had to play Kentucky on the Saturday between the Auburn and Georgia Tech
games, and during the second quarter of that contest, the
anterior cruciate ligament in Murray's right knee was torn while he was being
sacked. Just like that, his college career came thudding to an end.
Aaron Murray finished that career having thrown more
touchdowns than anyone in SEC history, which means he surpassed Joe Namath,
Fran Tarkenton, Ken Stabler, Danny Wuerffel, and Peyton and Eli and Archie
Manning. In a sport that dates to 1869, only five players from any conference
have thrown more touchdowns than him. Meanwhile, he threw for more yards than
any QB in SEC history, surpassing the mark set a few years ago by Tim Tebow.
But as indicative as those things are, they are just stats.
What counts more than anything else in life is character, and this year Aaron
Murray proved he has it. His actions showed that he loves his school and his team
more than himself. They showed that he is willing to take a risk, and to endure the
consequences like a man if they prove to be other than desired. His actions
showed he is willing to pursue a higher goal no matter how much bloodying and
bruising are involved.
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