USC quarterback Cody Kessler was named one of five finalists for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Rodney Peete, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart previously won the award. The other finalists are Brett Hundley (UCLA), Marcus Mariota (Oregon), Bryce Petty (Baylor) and Dak Prescott (Mississippi State).
Just a few PAC 12 names, to bad the conference cant promote itself and has an ex-womens tennis guy running the show. Wolf would be thrown out of the SEC/South if he tried to write in one of those towns.
Pretty good company, Cody. And Kessler will certainly return for his senior year, so he may be the No. 1 quarterback in the country next year.
Almost nobody wins the Heisman on just one year’s performance. The committee tends to vote more for a body of work with a great current year. Kessler is setup perfectly to get the recognition this year and then with a good senior year, have a shot at the Heisman.
I guess Scottie didn’t see this one coming.
I have to disagree with you there, Helen. Jamies Winston was a freshman when he won it. last year. That in and of itself is a pretty strong indictment of the notion that it is not a one year performance. John Manziel was a freshman when he won it the year before. RGIII sort of came out of nowhere the year before that. Everyone knew Cam Newton was a star (I mean his old man was laying out how much he needed to be paid to deliver him) but he had no college record prior to his win. Ingram, Bradford..all were just Sophomores. Recent history suggests it really is a one year trophy.
Kessler’s problem is that USC had no signature wins (other than the Stanford one, and that was the defense and terrible Stanford decision-making). The two games that could create an opportunity for Kessler, UCLA and Notre Dame, come at the end, by the time the short list is already created. Kessler has not been the reason for USC’s losses (crap clock management and terrible defense are), but they DO hurt him a lot.
Kessler could come back and be a serious contender next year for the trophy (and he’ll be on the short list to start the season) but Hundley was on the short list and he is damn near as far away as Kessler is this year. With so much college football saturation on so many networks, it really is about a one year dynamic performance anymore rather than a “body of work” over several years.
Of course you’re right.
Jimmy Johnson: “Great players play great in big games.”
And within big games, on the critical possessions and plays.
So far, not happening here.
Kessler needs some big wins on his resume. UCLA and ND would be a good start.
It’s about time the kid gets some recognition —> 25:2=Td:Int ratio=WOW
Agree. And you know the recognition won’t come from Scottie. Funny how he slams Sark and the offensive play calling, yet USC’s RB and QB are both mentioned for prominent post-season awards. The only thing Sark let us down on was the play of the TE, but that may have been more a consequence of the new OL.
Not all problems are Sarks.. Think the players need to take some blame as well.. Execution has been an issue more than play calling..
New system, young players.. next year should be higher expectations
Execution, indeed….the number of dropped passes this year has been ridiculous….
Just how many K passes have been ridiculously dropped? Be specific bleauz.
Why is this information important to you anyway, gramps??…. all you’re planning to to is refute it anyway…..You ask almost as many inane questions as Wolf….And it’s not just the number of passes dropped, but also when during the game and where on the field….against ASU, they dropped at least 4 passes in the first half alone, including a potential TD pass….I seem to recall Bruce Dixon dropping a potential TD pass in the end zone against BC and Darius Rodgers dropping several passes at critical points during the game… and JuJu, Buck Allen and Nelson have all dropped passes that have hit them square in their hands…..now go ahead a rip apart my statment, old man…. wait for it….
I tried a dialogue with him once. Waste of time and energy. He’s not dumb at all, but he’s just here for provocation. He’ll lose interest if you decline the bait.
I agree…….he enjoys confrontation just for the sake of have a prolonged “discussion”…..and he loves asking questions in order to set up his next wave of “interrogation”…..
Yawn.
I asked for factual numbers not a soliloquy of gripe.
I could say Cigar Butt, you’re a half wit. But to be fair to you, I would need to support my contention to eliminate the stink of pure pejorative opinion.
I asked you a simple question regarding one of you comments that SUCC was dropping way to many passes. So, once again, how many passes has the SUCC FB team dropped.
If you don’t know say so. Man up like Hilary/Helen.
How many are too many, old man?
You’re right, Cigar Butt, I’m not young enough, like you, to know everything.
Bleauz, here are some sobering details:
Kessler’s 4-game average vs. Stanford, ASU, AZ, and Utah:
22/32, 214 yards, 6.6 yards/attempt, 0.75 TDs, 0.50 INTs.
I acknowledge Sark’s play choices, the snaps, the OL, the drops. And I acknowledge CK’s failure to change plays at the LOS, issues with velocity and placement, and most of all, poor anticipation, leading to sub-optimal and tardy choices.
I never said Kessler was perfect, let alone worthy of Heisman consideration….while he has plenty of room for improvement on decision making skills, I’d say he’s made the most of the situation, considering the various issues which you’ve acknowledged…..And the four game window that you referred to were all hard fought games that all could have gone either way…..(3 of the 4 were basically decided on the last play)
CK is a good person.
My point was only that CK’s play is not yet entitled to clear recognition with praise, because of his rather ordinary play in important games, against roughly equal opponents. That is not the road to praise.
Sark and CK have that in common [snarky remark withheld :)].
No QB is perfect, and certainly no college QB. However, Mariota, Prescott, Petty, and the now reviled Winston have, with some regularity, been the focus of the offense and played well when it REALLY mattered. I think that Hundley has similar achievements, and unfortunately, several against USC.
I would like to see CK do that. When he does it a few times in a row, I’m all in to praise him.
I hear you…..CK will probably never be confused with any of the QB’s that you mentioned, but the last two games of this season will be as big as any that they have on their schedule this season, since they won’t be playing Oregon…..With Hundley, Mannion, Halliday, Kelly and Mariota leaving for the NFL next year, Kessler will be one of the top 3 returning QB’s in the Pac-12 with great group of WR’s and TE’s to throw to……
Funny H/H, you’re mentioned in Black Widow Weekly, but you deserve it.
SUCC cupcake schedule = seven TD passes against CU. How many against Sanford?
The same CU “cupcake” that took UCLA 2 overtimes to beat?……The same “cupcake” school that Hundley passed against for 200 yards and 1 whole TD pass? ….Lucky for you that Paul Perkins played the game of his life and Hundley had just enough gas left in the tank to rush for the game winning TD…learn to respect your opponent, old man….there are no gimmes (cupcakes) in the Pac-12…..
The Bruins played CU in Colorado.
SUCC just took Buffalo tongue at the mausoleum.
The altitude is to blame for the double OT game against CU?….. that wouldn’t happen to be an “EXCUSE”, would it?….At least you’re undefeated on the road this season, including destroying ASU, a Top 10 team, at their stadium…. a truly amazing accomplishment………and UCLA are certainly favored to win the rest of their games this year….so why does it feel like they’ve underachieved this year?… so hollow….and empty…….last weekends game was the first game this year where they seemingly managed to put it all together…..
I’ve not mentioned “altitude” in connection with UCLA’s O/T win at CU. CU played tough at home, like SUCC does most of the time.
Hey ugly rents the rose bowl, dufus, you play the ame teams in the Southern Division like Colorado. U barely squezed by when beating colorado. You played weaklings like texass, memphis, and virigina. As always USC will take the hardware and ugly will take the whinning.
Morong = ucla and their fans on estrogen.
Washington St. 3 – 7; Fresno St. 4 – 6; CU 2 – 8 = 9 – 21 or 30% WPct.
Of K’s 25 TD’s as of 11/10/2014, he has 16 TD’s (64%) against the three above teams.
If we do little more math, the 9 remaining TD’s divided by 6 = 1.5 TD’s a game – BFD. The conclusion is undeniable – K doesn’t do well in competitive FB games.
Somebody passed simple arithmetic…….Angry old man, even YOU should know that numbers rarely tell the whole story….. whether it be good or bad….but keep having fun picking apart our statistics and our opponents……
Cigar Butt description: Yap, yap, yap; excuses,excuses, excuses; yap, yap yap.
Numbers ONLY MATTER when they look good for you knuckleheads…That’s why you don’t publish On and around Crime Statistics!
Surrounded in Barb Wire is no way to live.
Kessler is a solid young man. Glad he is getting this recognition.
In my opinion Kessler is better than what he has been able to show. Sark
refuses to put the ball (and game) in his hands, continually trying to
run the ball when we have receivers getting open everywhere DOWNFIELD.
Sark is so in control he cannot see what he has out there, Kessler is
extremely lethal throwing downfield, just cut him lose. Let the pass
open the run game for a change. And let the OC run the offense and HC
run the team, how refreshing.
We agree 100% regarding your last sentence. The likelihood of a less effective offense is small.