My man Mark Ingram won the big trophy tonight in New York City. With real class, and a lot of tears and some very obvious nervousness, Mark Ingram thanked God, his mother, his grandparents, his father (who is in a New York jail), his aunts and uncles, his coaches, his teammates and even the strength coach (who helped him build his body to become a more talented runner).
A friend twittered that Tim Tebow prayed with Mark just before the award to calm his spirit. Classy stuff from a fellow competitor, which is one reason I love the college game so much. Ingram thus becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner in Alabama's storied football history. If you had asked a student of this great game in September if this day would come no one, and I mean no one, would have predicted that unheralded Mark Ingram would win the Heisman Trophy in the closest vote in the seventy-five year history of the award. And this guy is on track to graduate in three years and will be back to play next season before he is obviously off to play in the NFL. An amazing, feel-good story. Can the kid handle all of this at such a young age? Who knows but he seems grounded and humble. As a lifelong Crimson Tide fan I am very happy to finally see our team take this elusive trophy home. Now all that is left is the really, really important award: the crystal ball trophy given to the team that wins the BCS title game. Roll Tide!
Will this award divert attention from the game and make things harder for Alabama? Not with this player or this coach. I think it is more incentive to win it all, not less. We shall see.
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I’m happy for you and for Ingram. However, the run defenses Ingram faced were FAR weaker than those Gerhardt faced. Ingram ran against only 1 (one) top 50 (fifty) run defense all year. Gerhardt ran against 8 (eight) top fifty run defenses and 6 (six) top 40 (forty) run defenses. Sad thing is, Gerhardt very likely won’t get much of a chance to be a runner in the NFL! Still, Ingram is an amazing runner and seems to be a class act. Good for him!