2nd Annual Duckie Awards



The Duckie Award:

The Duckie Award goes to the nation’s best player this season regardless of team or position. 

Nominees:

Collin Klein
Johnny Manziel
Manti Te’o

Winner: Johnny Manziel 

For much of the season, Collin Klein was a shoe-in for this award, but Johnny Football’s play down the stretch combined with Klein’s struggles put him over the top.  The Alabama win was unquestionably Manziel’s defining moment, especially after his early struggles against Florida and LSU.  For those who missed the Heisman ceremony, it was refreshing to hear him call out his offensive linemen by name to thank them for making his unbelievable freshman season possible.

 

Lou Brown Award:

The Lou Brown Award goes to the national coach of the year based on both pure achievement and exceeding expectations.

Nominees:

Brian Kelly

Bill O’Brien
Bill Snyder


Winner: Bill O’Brien

O’Brien walked into an impossible situation at Penn State.  The Nittany Lions won’t be able to compete for a title of any sort for four years, and the team was littered with defections before fall practice, yet they finished 8-4.  That was good enough for 2^nd place in the division and probably double the wins expected this year.  O’Brien has to get all the credit in the world for keeping the team together and motivated against all odds.

 

Game of the Year:

This award goes to the season’s most exciting regular season game.  Importance of the game on a national scale is a factor, so no Tuesday night MAC shootouts are eligible.

Nominees:

UGA vs. Alabama

LSU vs. Alabama
Stanford vs. Oregon

Winner: UGA vs. Alabama

 

 

 

This one is a no-brainer.  If ever there was a game to prove why a playoff is needed, it was this one.  The winner took home the SEC title and earned a trip to the national title game, and both teams played like it.  Aaron Murray stepped up against an elite team, and Bama’s duo of Lacy and Yeldon refused to be tackled in the 2^nd half.  The two teams were constantly back and forth, with each making their own runs before the final decision came down to a tackle at the Bama five yard line as time ran out on UGA.

 

The Devo One Hit Wonder Award:

The Devo Award goes to the most impressive single game performance by a player, though that player may not actually be a one hit wonder.

Nominees:

Collin Klein- 19-21, 323 yards, 3 TDs, 41 rush yards, 4TDs vs. West Virginia

Geno Smith- 45-51, 656 yards, 8 Tds vs. Baylor
Marquise Lee- 16 Rec, 345 yards, 2 TDs, 469 total yards vs. Arizona

Winner: Collin Klein

 

This was Collin Klein’s statement game that put him in the pilot seat for the Heisman.  He completely dominated West Virginia on the ground and through the air on the way to a 55-14 win.

 

Chet Steadman Award:

The Chet Steadman Award goes to the rookie of the year, or top freshman in America.

Nominees:

Johnny Manziel
Todd Gurley
Marcus Mariota

Winner: Johnny Manziel

If you are the best player in the country and you are also a freshman, then you must also be the best freshman in the country.  One exciting thing about this season was the number of huge impact freshmen across the country.  Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall almost rushed UGA to the title game.  Marcus Mariota picked up the reins at Oregon, falling one loss short of the title game.  Duke Johnson dominated the ACC as a freshman at Miami, and T.J. Yeldon gave everybody flashbacks of Trent Richardson as a freshman.  Our reward as fans is that we get to watch all of these players and more return next year.

 

Charlie Sheen Award for Winning:

This award goes to the player, team, coach, conference, fan base, etc. that thoroughly embarrassed itself or wasted the most potential over the course of the season.

Nominees:

B1G

ACC Coastal
Bobby Petrino

Winner: Bobby Petrino

 

 

This is a close one.  Both the ACC and B1G saw their top qualifiers for the conference title games ruled ineligible.  The B1G got even worse when 7-5, 3^rd place, Wisconsin put 70 points up on Nebraska to go to the Rose Bowl.  It doesn’t get much more embarrassing, though, than the Midnight Ride of Bobby Petrino. 

 

Desperate Housewives “You’re still on TV?” Award:

The Desperate Housewives Award goes to the player who has seemingly been playing way longer than his eligibility should have allowed.  Just like I was shocked to learn that Desperate Housewives is still on TV, these players should all have been long gone before this season.

Nominees:

Richard Samuel, UGA

Stepfan Taylor, Stanford
Robert Marve, Purdue

Winner: Robert Marve

Robert Marve was going to be the next great QB at Miami when he signed in Randy Shannon’s first recruiting class.  In his time at Miami, he injured his throwing hand in a car crash, got arrested, turned the ball over, failed out of school, and whined until he transferred to Purdue.  Once at Purdue, he tore his ACL what seems like at least 10 times, including at the end of this season, after which he continued to play because Purdue literally had no other QBs. 

 

The Tranny Award:

The Tranny Award goes to the player who made the biggest impact as a transfer this season.

Nominees:

Silas Redd

Lache Seastrunk
Justin Brown

Winner: Lache Seastrunk

This is an uninspiring list compared to last year’s, which included Russell Wilson, Arthur Brown, and Jarvis Jones.  Redd was supposed to complete the USC offense, making them unstoppable.  That didn’t quite happen, and Justin Brown couldn’t make a huge impact at OU despite their depleted receiving corps.  That leaves Lache Seastrunk, who transferred from Oregon amid a recruiting scandal.  He didn’t have a huge year at Baylor but did provide them an explosive weapon at RB and played a big role in their upset over Kansas State.

 

The Tony Award:
The Tony Award goes to the best play of the season, be it a spectacular individual effort or a game or season changing play.

Nominees:

Johnny Manziel drops ball, throws touchdown against Alabama

T.J. Yeldon screen pass to beat LSU
Taylor Martinez runs 200 yards for a touchdown against Wisconsin

Winner: T.J. Yeldon

Bama was done.  LSU had just taken the lead late in Baton Rouge, and A.J. McCarron had shown little capacity to lead the Tide to a game winning touchdown.  Then he completed a pass…then another pass.  LSU turned up the heat, and McCarron dropped it off to Yeldon on a screen.  The freshman then weaved through the LSU defense for the game winning score to preserve Bama’s title hopes.

 

Charlie Steiner “Follow me to freedom!” Award

 

 

The Charlie Steiner “Follow me to freedom!” Award goes to the player who picked up the lantern, put his tie around his head, and carried his team on his back over the course of the season.  This is the most prestigious of all the Duckie Awards.

 

Winner: Manti Te’o

 

Final Regular Season Top 25

The regular season is over, and we now have over a month to wait for Notre Dame to meet then entire SEC in the national title game.  We have a team that thinks it is an entire conference and an entire conference that thinks it is one team fighting for the national title.  Irony?  Fitting?  By the way, that headline is a lie.  It's only 15 this week.

Final Regular Season
1. Notre Dame	Here we go.  The last time Notre Dame played for a national title, nobody cared that Jose Canseco was on the juice.  For the first time, they are also in the BCS because they actually deserve it.  For the next month, we are going to hear about how the SEC is going to destroy Notre Dame.  Maybe that will happen, but Notre Dame's defense is too good for me to predict it.
2. SEC	The Tide escaped in what was probably the game of the year.  They asserted their dominance in the running game and made just enough plays on defense (literally) to earn a trip to Miami.  This will be an interesting matchup, as it pits two great defenses against each other.  Notre Dame has made a living stopping the run, which means A.J. McCarron better be ready to step up an make a few plays again.
3. SEC	The dogs move up a spot after their narrow loss in the SEC title game.  Their supposed NFL defensive line was manhandled, as Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon ran wild on them.  Aaron Murray, however, really stepped up in a big game and played about as well as could be expected.  You can't ask for much more than to come within a play of the national title game.  Mark Richt, on the other hand, fell short yet again, and his poor decision not to spike the ball may have cost them a chance at a title.
4. Oregon	Oregon has to feel like this season was a disappointment.  Even though they sit at number four on their way to the Fiesta Bowl, they can't even claim the Pac-12 North title.  That said, it should be a really entertaining matchup against Collin Klein in the desert.
5. SEC	The Gayta get to finish the season with an undeserving Sugar Bowl bid.  We could have had a national title rematch against Oklahoma, but BCS rules have prevented that.  Instead, the Gayta will probably roll over Louisville, and Northern Illinois gets to go to the Orange Bowl.
6. SEC	I'm pretty sure Lester made up that whole Arkansas story just to get a raise.
7. SEC	A&M gets to go right back to its Big12 days when it matches up with Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.  This is another interesting matchup that should turn into a high scoring game.  Bigger news could come this weekend, however, as Johnny Football goes into the Heisman ceremony considered the favorite.
8. Collin Klein	Collin Klein comes away with a berth in the Fiesta Bowl, but what looked like a guaranteed Heisman and BCS title game appearance may be all gone.  Klein hasn't been the same since he suffered a concusion against Oklahoma State.  Despite the big win over Texas on the scoreboard, Klein may not have had the dominating game he needed to reclaim the Heisman.
9. Stanford	Stanford has definitely found their successor to Andrew Luck in Kevin Hogan.  Hogan has been the spark that has carried Stanford to the Rose Bowl, where they will get a rematch of their last Rose Bowl appearance against Wisconsin.  Wisconsin is making their third straight trip to Pasadena, except this time it's at 8-5 after finishing third in their division.  Putting up 70 points against Nebraska helps make up for it though.
10. SEC	Nothing interesting to say about the Gamecocks.
11. Oklahoma	Good news is that Big Game Bob won't lose a BCS game this year, so maybe Northern Illinois was a blessing in disguise.  Besides, let's be honest, except for the BCS label, the Cotton Bowl is way more interesting than half the BCS games this year.
12. Florida State	The Noles hung on late against Georgia Tech to win the ACC.  As has been discussed ad nauseum here, they are rewarded with a trip to play Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl.  This has to be the worst BCS matchup ever.  At least Hawaii was undefeated…and, you know, from Hawaii.
13. Clemson	Let's see, what can we say that's interesting about Clemson.  Nothing.  Must be something about the state of South Carolina, which, outside of Charleston, is completely uninteresting.
14. Oregon State	Stanford wasn't the only Pac-12 team to win this weekend.  Oregon State finally won their opener against Nicholls State by putting 77 points on the board.  With that many points, it's no wonder it took three months to finish the game.
15. UCLA	Because nobody else is any good, and UCLA came within a field goal of forcing overtime against Stanford, they move up to #15 despite the loss.  Jim Mora has really done a remarkable job turning around UCLA in his first season.  Of course, this is the same Mora who was supposedly a miracle worker with the Falcons too, so stay tuned.  And UCLA played in the Pac-12 title game last year too, so how much of a turnaround was it really?