Coaches’ Contracts: Urban Meyer

The SEC coach contract train rumbles along, now with Florida’s own Urban Meyer. As always, the contracts are collected and hosted by the USA Today.

Image CC by Flickr user chasingfun.

As I mentioned before, Urban Meyer is tied with Nick Saban for longest SEC contract (excluding amendments) at 32 pages. It read suspiciously like Saban’s contract at times, leading me to think that someone at UF was reading off of Mike Shula’s deal when drawing it up. It’s just something else to throw in the “Stuff we probably stole from Alabama instead of the other way around” bin along with the Gator band’s pregame routine, the “Go Gators” tune, and the unfortunate concept of a gymnastics band.

The defining characteristic of the contract is overwhelming amounts of legalese and non-standard phrasing. Nearly every sentence has the word “shall” in it, and it gives off the impression the lawyers were getting paid by the word. Going through it was an outright chore.

His bonus scheme is a little unusual, as he gets twice as big a payment for winning the SEC title game ($75,000) as he does for going to a non-BCS bowl ($37,500). His BCS game bonus is $100,000, meaning winning the SEC title game is actually worth $175,000 to him. Playing in the national title game is another $50,000 above the standard BCS bonus (so Michigan fans, you can now whine about him trying to get extra money by campaigning in 2006), but winning it all gets him $250,000.

Note that winning a non-BCS game doesn’t get him any more money than appearing in one does, and the BCS bonuses are non cumulative. Winning the national title gets him the $250,000, not $400,000. If you’re doing the math at home, his total bonus in 2006 for winning the SEC and national championships was $475,000.

So Urban, how did you spend your half million bonus after the title game? Image CC by Flickr user bobbyuggles.

The contract does acknowledge in a couple places that Meyer’s coaching services were in high demand (see quotes below), but UF didn’t throw in a clause requiring him to be a “loyal employee” like Alabama did with Saban. Rather, it gave him a $500,000 signing bonus and some of the largest longevity bonuses I’ve seen, culminating in $600,000 just for sticking around to end of the final season of the contract (2011).

About the only other unique thing worth mentioning is that Meyer officially is employed by the University Athletic Association, which from a legal standpoint is more independent than most athletic associations are. Granted, the UAA is inextricably aligned with the school and UF President Bernie Machen is the chairman of the board of the UAA, but it is a Direct Support Organization (definition here) and component of UF for accounting purposes only. That means they are able to get around certain parts of Florida law regarding state employees if they want to since he is legally an employee of the independent UAA Corporation and not the university. DSOs are explicitly allowed by Florida state law, so there are no loopholes at work here if you were wondering.

Selected Quotes:

“Parties. Association is a Florida corporation nor for profit with its principal place of business in Gainesville, Florida. Urban Meyer is a resident of Gainesville, Florida.”

This is at the beginning and just illustrates the fact that Meyer is not an employee of the State of Florida but of a legally separate entity, the UAA. If it seems odd to see that it lists Meyer as being a Gainesville resident, since he was living in Utah when he agreed to take the UF job, don’t worry. The contract was signed in April of 2005, after he already relocated.

“The parties acknowledge that Coach’s skill, success and experience create a demand for his services at other universities and by professional football franchises.”

Great Odin’s raven! Does this mean that pro teams were pursuing Meyer as well, and UF beat out not just Notre Dame but the entire NFL as well? No, probably not; this is just the opening quote from the clause that gives him his signing bonus. I guess in case someone decides to audit something, they have a justification for giving him a signing bonus, something that no other SEC coach got as far as I can tell. But then, they’re all state employees and probably aren’t eligible to get one.

Sorry, but no third quote this time. It’s just too dry and boring to justify pulling anything else out. It’s not homerism; take a look at the thing and see if you get more than two pages through without succumbing to drowsiness.

Meyer asks Tim Tebow how to stay cool when “dot.com and email” gets on your case. Image CC by Flickr user bobbyuggles.

Orange and Blue Review

Well, only a few of my pictures from the game came out since my camera is just a simple point-and-shoot deal and not a professional setup where I can adjust brightness and color. I also got home late last night so I haven’t been able to see all the coverage from ESPN that I recorded, but I have seen some. I can just tell you a few quick impressions from the game.

The Crowd

It was a record crowd, at over 61,000 for the spring game. If you’re wondering why the crowd didn’t react to what the GameDay guys were saying despite hearing their voices echoing through the stadium at times is because you couldn’t hear them that well in the stands. Even when Chris Fowler counted off for the third pregame race and the people in the stands were quiet, it was still somewhat difficult to hear him. Despite the increased numbers, it was still a standard Spring game crowd: they cheered for only for the offenses and started filing out after halftime.

The GameDay set roughly 20 minutes before the game. As you can see, the location wasn’t conducive to a standard GameDay experience.

The Races for a Scholarship

Everyone around me in the stands wondered why Fowler only announced the final heat participants, and it appears from what the TV guys yakking with Urban Meyer said is that they saved the fastest students for the last race against Chris Rainey. It’s too bad they didn’t just start that heat with a whistle because though Rainey would still have won, the students in it did look pretty fast. It did worry some people that Louis Murphy didn’t win by much, but we gave him a pass since he’s been bothered by an ankle sprain this Spring.

Who’s red shorts? I gotta recruit red shorts to come play.

The Passing Game

It didn’t look much like anything we’ll see this Fall since so many guys like Percy Harvin and Cornelius Ingram were out. Tim Tebow is clearly better than Cam Newton still, which makes sense and all but the gap is unsettlingly large. Newton’s nadir was rifling a pass intended for 5′6″ Brandon James about 9 feet high. Still, he’s big (looks like he’s been on the JaMarcus Russell diet this winter), and we’ll see him carrying the ball to pick up tough yards so Tebow won’t have to. All you need to know is that despite the teams having roughly equal receivers, Tebow threw two interceptions and still had the blue team up 28-0 in offensive points by the end of the third quarter.

If the game is any indication, we’ll see a lot of roll outs, sideline patterns, and Riley Cooper on the slant route. Until everyone gets back, though, we won’t know what the total picture will be. I do have a hunch though that we’ll see a ton of Harvin.

Florida may have the rattiest no-contact jerseys in the country. Tebow’s and John Brantley’s have the numbers fading off the front, and here you can see Newton’s with a hole.

The Running Game

Based on who played and for how long, the depth chart here something along the lines of:

1. Kestahn Moore
2. Rainey
3. Mon Williams
4. James
5. Emmanuel Moody

James and Moore started for the orange, and Rainey and Williams started for the blue. Moody then replaced Moore in the orange’s rotation.

As I understand it, the game was a microcosm of Moody’s spring: it began slow, got better, but was marred by putting the ball on the ground. I think we can all give the “Yeah, but we got Moody” talk a rest for a while. Moore will almost certainly start the opener against Hawaii, and Williams will be able to get some tough yards up the middle.

What I didn’t get was rushing Rainey up the middle. We saw Meyer run James up the middle some last year too, and I can’t understand having undersized speed guys go between the tackles. Sure it’s unexpected, but that’s because it’s a bad idea. Rainey will be at his best on the edges in a Harvin-like role. And he will be very, very good.

The Defense

You never get to learn anything about the defense as a whole in the spring game since they can’t go after the quarterback full-on and there’s a lot more rotating of guys than normal. Carlos Dunlap has gotten a lot better, having added some technique to his natural skills, but it’s hard to say too much more.

So, I’ll just say how funny it was to see Tebow lay out Major Wright on Lorenzo Edwards‘ interception return. What you couldn’t see on TV was Wright tugging at Tebow’s sleeve after the play, evidently trying to remind him that it doesn’t just mean that he can’t be hit but that he shouldn’t be hitting other people either. He then got quite a lecture from Dan Mullen, more than what you saw on TV.

A coach’s nightmare: the returning Heisman-winning quarterback in his no-hit jersey winding up to lay out the hard-hitting starter at free safety in the spring game.

Special Teams

Chas Henry has a monster leg now. If he can be consistent, he’ll be a humongous asset in the field position game.

Caleb Sturgis definitely has a big leg, but he’s got to find accuracy. Jonathan Phillips will probably be the kicker to begin the year, but Sturgis will almost certainly do the kickoffs.

Overall

No serious injuries, and everyone had a good time. You really can’t ask for much more out of a spring game, especially when you get 4 hours of free publicity on ESPN while you’re at it.

Golf: A Good Walk Spoiled… By Awesome GOLF

Title is reference to an awesome reference book.

This weekend is The Masters, so everyone seems to be talking about it. It is a “major” tournament of course, and the only one that doesn’t rotate sites. It is allegedly “a tradition like no other,” ostensibly because of the rich stories that get woven in the signature green jackets every year. In honor of that, I’d like to tell you a story you may not have heard that you won’t find in the threads of an ugly grass-colored sport coat.

In 1989, Mark Calcavacchia won the British Open, another one of the majors. It was a proud day in Gator history as Mark attended UF, and to this day he is the top money winner among all golfing Gator alumni. To celebrate his victory not just for Florida but also America, he took all the tea in the clubhouse and dumped it into a nearby water hazard, shouting “Give me an enormous prize money check, or give me death!”

The enraged Brits running the tournament chose the latter, deciding to kill him for his heinous crime. Fortunately for Mark, Tim Tebow was nearby watching it all unfold. To rescue his fellow Floridian, he took decisive action: he threw a football so hard through London’s famous Clock Tower that time in the U.K. and for all of its citizens stopped temporarily. That allowed Mark and Tim not only to take the enormous prize money check, but also the crown jewels of England a couple Coldstream guardsman hats back with them to Florida.

The jewels were later returned under a treaty negotiated by former UF President John Lombardi himself, where in return the Crown furnished some gems that were then embedded into the official scepter of UF that appears at every graduation. True story.

The Clock Tower’s current appearance, unchanged after repairs made in 1990.

So enjoy The Masters, golf fans. I’ll be enjoying football instead.

Tebow’s Stats and Records

Just so you all know, the posting has been light around here lately because I graduated in December and now am in the process of moving to Charlotte, NC. It’s a lot of work and not conducive at all for putting out quality content.

For the time being, I’d like to draw your attention to a post made by cwarner206 from the GatorSports.com message board. It contains a list of every record set by Tebow this year, along with other records that are within striking distance. He probably won’t get a lot of the overall rushing records since Florida should have 2-3 good running backs for next year, but it’s still pretty amazing, and it’s some excellent work by cwarner206.

Season Marks

NCAA records:
–1st underclassman Heisman winner
–1st person to ever have 20+ rush and 20+ pass TDs in one season
–Most rushing TDs by a QB, season (23, previous record 22)
–Highest passing efficiency in a Heisman season: 172.5
previous: 170.6, Danny Wuerffel, 1996, Florida

SEC records:
–Most total TDs, season: 55
previous: 41, Danny Wuerffel, 1996, Florida
–Most total TDs, game: 7 vs S. Carolina, tied with 7 other players
–Most rush TDs, season: 23
previous: 19, 3 players
–Most rush TDs by a QB, season: 23
previous: 13, 3 players
–Most consecutive games with a rush TD and pass TD: 13
–Most total yards, season: 4181
previous: 4151, Tim Couch, 1998, Kentucky
–2nd in passing efficiency, season: 172.5
–2nd in most points, season: 138
–3rd in completion pct, season: 66.9%
–5th in yards per game, season: 321.6
–7th in TD passes, season: 32
–7th in ratio of attempts/ints, season: 1 every 58.3 attempts
–14th in passing yards, season: 3286

UF records:
–Most total TDs, season: 55
previous: 41, Danny Wuerffel, 1996
–Most total TDs, game: 7 vs S. Carolina, tied with 3 others
–Most points, season: 138
previous: 110, Reidell Anthony, 1996
–Most rush TDs, season: 23
previous: 14, Emitt Smith & Buford Long
–Most rush TDs, game: 5 vs S. Carolina
–Most rush TDs by a QB, season: 23
–Most rush yards, QB, game: 166 vs Ole Miss (also #2 with 120 vs S. Car.)
–Most rush yards, QB, season: 895
–Most rush yards, QB, career: 1364
previos: 785, Larry Libertore
–Most consecutive games with a rush TD: 13
previous: 7, Errict Rhett
–Most consecutive games with a rush TD and pass TD: 13
–Most total yards, season: 4181
previous: 3904, Rex Grossman, 2001
–Most 200 yard passing games, season: 11, tied with 3 others
–Highest completion pct, season: 66.9%
previous: 65.6%, Rex Grossman, 2001
–2nd in passing efficiency, season: 172.5
–2nd in yards per game, season: 321.6
–2nd in ratio of attempts/ints, season: 1 every 58.3 attempts
–4th in TD passes, season: 32
–4th in passing yards, season: 3286

Career records within reach

NCAA:
–Most total TDs, current: 146, Colt Brennan, Hawaii
needed: 78 TD over 2 years
–1st person to ever have 50+ rush and 50+ pass TD
needed: 19 rush TD, 13 pass TD over 2 years
–Most rushing TDs by a QB, current: 59, Eric Crouch, Nebraska
needed: 28 rush TD over 2 years
–Highest passing efficiency, current: 168.9, Ryan Dinwiddle, Boise St.
needed: maintain anything close to his current 175.0 career rating
–Highest completion pct, current: 68.2%, Bruce Gradkowski, Toledo
neeeded: average a little over 69% over 2 years (66.8% currently)
–Lowest % of passes intercepted, current: 1.85%, Matt Leinart, USC
needed: maintain current average of 1.83%
–Most consecutive games with a rush and a pass TD:
needed: may already have it
–Most consecutive games scoring a TD, current: 27, Lee Suggs, VT
needed: 14 consecutive games with a rush TD
–Most Heisman trophies, current: 2
needed: one more
–Highest pct of passes for TDs, current: 9.7%, Danny Wuerffel, Florida
needed: slighly raise current 9.66%

SEC:
–Most total yards, current: 11,270, David Greene, Georgia
needed: 6,262 yards over 2 years
–Most total TDs, current: 122, Danny Wuerffel, Florida
needed: 54 TD over 2 years
–Highest passing efficiency, current: 163.6, Danny Wuerffel, Florida
needed: maintain anything close to his current 175.0 career rating
–Highest completion pct, current: 67.1%, Tim Couch, Kentucky
neeeded: average a little under 68 % over 2 years (66.8% currently)
–Lowest % of passes intercepted, current: 2.22%, David Greene, Georgia
needed: maintain anything near current average of 1.83%
–1st person to ever have 40+ rush and 40+ pass TD
needed: 9 rush TD, 3 pass TD over 2 years
–Most rush TDs, current: 49, Herschel Walker, Georgia
needed: 18 rush TDs over 2 years

Capital One Bowl Wrapup

The Capital One Bowl - What’s left in your wallet?

After last year’s national title game, many people attributed Florida’s win to the Gators having “SEC speed.” While that was true to a degree, Florida was the more physical and aggressive team. I just watched most of the game DVD last week, and that fact was easy to see.

I bring this point up because Michigan dominated Florida on both sides of the ball today. Florida’s defensive line, which punished Ohio State last year, looked like a collection of linebackers going up against the Wolverine offensive line. Florida’s offense couldn’t figure out a way to pick up the blitz. The secondary played terribly as usual, but you knew that was coming. The physicality of Michigan won them this game. It’s rare to see a team completely push the other around and lose.

Urban Meyer gave some very accurate analysis in the postgame press conference. According to the AP, he covered the basics: “Florida didn’t give Tebow much time to throw, couldn’t get pressure on Henne and failed to cover Michigan’s receivers.” It’s just what I was mentioning - Florida couldn’t pick up blitzes all year, Florida never got any push up the middle all year on defense, and the defensive secodary was a sieve all year.

He was quoted as saying, “I don’t think we coached very well in certain areas,” and that’s for sure. The answer to the blitz on offense was to have usually Louis Murphy (who’s a twig compared to most linebackers) come back and block and still run slow-developing pass plays. Kestahn Moore is a much better blocker, but more often then not he was lined up way out by the sideline when he was in the game.

We also saw a return to the Tebow-Harvin tunnel vision offense. Only two rushes in the game were by someone other than those two guys (Moore, 2 rushes for 9 yards). Harvin also had as many receptions as the rest of the receiving corps combined, and more if you throw out Chas Henry’s completion to Aaron Hernandez. I realize that those guys are the two best players on the offense, but there’s more than enough talent on the offense for the ball to get spread around more than that. On defense, we constantly saw a linebacker on the slot receiver, which makes no sense in any situation.

Michigan for its part appeared to go with Auburn’s game plan. Florida’s defense this year was one of the worst open-field tackling squads in the country, so Chad Henne spent most of the game throwing slants and screens. When you know that the first guy is going to miss and the second guy might not arrive until 20 yards later, there’s no reason to try anything riskier. On defense, it was blitz on any 4 or 5 wide receiver set on second or third down. With the Gators never doing anything to make them pay for sending an extra guy or two, it made for a great strategy.

In some ways, Florida was fortunate that it was such a close game. After all, Mike Hart lost two fumbles just short of the goal line, and he had lost only one fumble in the rest of his four year career. Those would have been touchdowns in any other game. Now, some Florida fans might counter with complaints about questionable officiating, but that’s a red herring. The Gators had a four point lead with 5:36 to go. In those final five and a half minutes, Michigan outscored Florida 10-0, and the Gators could only muster 4 yards on 8 downs.

In the end a senior-laden, hugely physical team beat a very young, smaller team. Last season, Urban Meyer preached that he wanted to have the most physical team in college football, and he just may have had it based on the national title game. That toughness was missing this year for a lot of reasons. It’s now time for everyone to learn some lessons, have the young players to get some bulk and technique in the offseason, and get ready to come back ready to blow the doors off Hawaii on Labor Day weekend.

It’s Official: Tebow Has Won the Heisman

The votes are in, the announcement’s been made, and Tim Tebow is your 2007 Heisman Trophy winner. I honestly thought during the preseason that he had zero chance of winning the award; after all, he’s a sophomore, and there were other, older guys out there like John David Booty and Mike Hart who were poised to put up excellent numbers on high-profile teams.

As those teams and players fell one by one, Tebow rose to the top like the cream always does over the course of a college football season. His team may have faltered some, but that was obviously due to the defense, not offense. Then, he started setting records (first 20/20 guy, longest streak of throwing and rushing for a TD in the same game) and his case became more compelling. After he scored 7 TDs against South Carolina, I thought it could happen. After wiping the field with the same FSU defense that knocked Matt Ryan out of the Heisman race, I figured he had it in the bag.

If you want to see (or see again, as the case may be) video from the ceremony, hit up ESPN.com. For now, enjoy watching all 51 of his touchdowns and reveling in the fact that you live in historic days.

It’s great to be a Florida Gator.

As a final note, Florida now has more Heisman winners than both FSU and Miami, and honestly, should Gino Torretta even count? One more stiff arm statuette, and it’s as many as they have combined.

Only 4 schools have more Heisman winners than Florida does - Notre Dame, Ohio State, and USC each with 7, and Oklahoma with 4. Florida is tied for fifth with Army, Michigan, and Nebraska. When you compare Florida’s tradition with the rest of those schools (about 30 good years out of 101), that’s not too shabby at all.

Trophy Day

Three trophies for Tim Tebow the Cheat!

Tonight is the Heisman Trophy ceremony, and by all accounts Tim Tebow will win it. He’s already won the Davey O’Brien and the Maxwell Award, and for him to take home the Heisman would be a great ending to an amazing season. No one deserves it more than Tim does, and I fully expect him to make history tonight.

Unfortunately, I am not in a place with cable at the moment, so I will not be able to watch the ceremony tonight. I have it recording on my DVR back home, so I will get to see it when I get back to Florida. That’s fine though, since most of the show is fluff-ridden biopics of each candidate. I can live without yet another ESPN piece on Colt Brennan, considering there’s been one nearly every week on College GameDay.

Congrats, Tim. You’ve earned it.

June Jones’ Comments about Tim Tebow

First, a video:

Jones went on to clarify his remarks here.

This is my interpretation of what happened:

June Jones finally got a chance to do a live interview on ESPN during a time when people on the East Coast are still awake and watching. He wanted to make the best case he could for his guy, Colt Brennan, to win the Heisman Trophy, so he did what everyone else has done in 2007: put Brennan in terms of Tim Tebow. He compared his guy to the front runner for the award and said Brennan is better. How he made that case was from the start bound to cause confusion.

You see, in the college football world, the spread offense is commonplace and there’s nothing unusual about it. It is considered to be a normal part of the landscape. June Jones however is first and foremost an NFL guy, so when he evaluates football he looks at both the NFL and college. The spread has not been tried in the NFL, so for him it goes alongside the triple option, the Nebraska power option, and other college-only systems. For an NFL guy, an offense has to work in both college and the NFL to be a valid offense and not a “system” that manufactures good stats due to scheme rather than talent and technique of the quarterback. Because of this mindset, Tim Tebow is a “system quarterback” for running the spread.

Now, June Jones implemented the Run & Shoot offense at Hawaii, which he also ran in the NFL while coaching the Atlanta Falcons from 1994 - 1996. His argument is that because Colt Brennan has proven himself in Jones’ NFL offense, then Brennan could run any offense and therefore is a better pro prospect than Tebow is. Also, because Brennan is the better pro prospect, he is plain and simple a better quarterback and should win the Heisman Trophy. Remember: in an NFL guy’s mind, anything that is NFL-related is automatically better than anything solely college-related. Tebow runs a college-only scheme, so he is not as good as the pro-offense running Brennan.

There are two glaring problems with Jones’ statements, though. First, he says Tebow is not a natural passer due to a lack of accuracy and not being able “to make all the throws” required by his offense. I find it overwhelmingly unlikely that Jones has had time to break down tape on Tebow, and due to time zone differences and just plain being busy because he’s a coach, its just as unlikely that he’s seen Florida play a full game. He’s probably only seen highlights of Tim’s play. That’s unfortunate because the majority of his highlights this year are of his runs, not his throws, because it’s his running style that makes him unique from any other QB. If Jones had seen Tebow play all year, he’d know that Tebow has made every throw in the book, from screen passes all the way up to 50-yard bombs. He’s stuck on the old “Tebow can’t throw” theme, and he hasn’t had the chance to see enough of Florida to know it’s not true.

The “inaccurate” comment is completely inexcusable when it’s easy to look up that Tim Tebow has a better passer rating than Colt Brennan himself does. Plus, Tebow faces much more difficult defenses week in and week out. Boise State and Hawaii going to a BCS game in consecutive seasons does a great job at disguising the fact that the rest of the WAC is really, very, extremely, deplorably bad. Take out the top two and you’ve got the Sun Belt west.

The second glaring weakness is his implied assertion that the Run & Shoot is a legit NFL offense. As far as I can tell, only two teams actually ran it in the NFL: the early 1990s Houston Oilers and Jones’ Atlanta teams. Other franchises have done no-huddle or other fast-paced schemes, but those two teams are it for the actual Run & Shoot. Those teams never made it to even a conference title game much less the Super Bowl, and the offense hasn’t been used again since Jones’ firing by Atlanta due to it not employing the running back enough. Jones’ final NFL record was 19-29. At best, the Run & Shoot was an experiment run by two head coaches (Jerry Glanville and Jones) that was discredited for a lacking a sufficient running game and not having enough blocking. In other words it’s no West Coast Offense, something that has been employed in the NFL consistently for more than 20 years.

Jones did backtrack from his initial comments some, saying that Tebow is a great QB who will likely win the Heisman and probably a national title as well. However, he continued, Tebow is productive by doing things that can’t be done in the NFL, whereas his guy Colt Brennan is the “best passer in college history.” While that’s true if you look at the record book, Jones should also look at the guys Brennan has been passing up: Andre Ware, David Klingler, Kliff Kingsbury, B.J. Symons, and the like. Owning records in college is an awful predictor of NFL success, especially when you consider that Jones’ and Brennan’s Run & Shoot is what Ware, Klingler and (more or less) Mike Leach’s Texas Tech guys (Kingsbury and Symons) ran in college. You should also note that when pressed on the issue, Jones bases his evaluation of Tebow more on how Alex Smith is performing with the 49ers than anything Tebow has actually done at Florida.

In the end what we have here is someone seeking to promote his player by denigrating another. We also have an NFL supremacist taking a shot at the spread offense, despite the fact that his own “pro-style” offense hasn’t been run in the NFL for over a decade. We also have someone asking for 70+ points to be scored on him come August 30, 2008. Perhaps when Tebow levels his linebackers, June Jones will understand why Tebow is such a special player as a runner. And maybe, just maybe, as he watches Tebow connect with Percy Harvin on a 70 yard touchdown pass he’ll realize a year behind the rest of the country that hey, this kid can throw after all.

UPDATE: Tebow responds with humor, Jones backtracks, and Bob Griese talks some sense.

ESPN Bowl Special on Florida

Here’s a video of ESPN’s Bowl Special full of glowing praise of Florida and Tim Tebow. An interview with Tebow was included as well. Can we put to rest the myth that ESPN hates Florida now?

Brown Accidentally Votes for “Daniel McFadden”

LOS ANGELES, Ca. — Former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown knew who wasn’t going to be his choice in this year’s balloting. However, his research into who was going to be his choice for the prestigious award led him to make a historic blunder.

A source close to the Heisman Trophy Trust confirmed that Brown has submitted his ballot, and his choice for first place was “Daniel McFadden,” a likely confusion of the names of two current leading candidates, Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel and Arkansas running back Darren McFadden. The source additionally stated that the given school was “University of California, Berkeley,” which happens to be the home of Daniel Little “Dan” McFadden, a Nobel Prize-winning econometrician.

Brown said on several national media outlets that he did not believe an underclassman should win the Heisman Trophy and therefore would not be voting for Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. When contacted, Brown explained that he attempted to do research into the other leading candidates using the Internet, the first time he had tried to use a computer to help fill out his ballot. “I’m not very good with these computer things,” Brown said.

A search for “Daniel McFadden” on leading search engine Google will lead the user to several websites about the real Daniel McFadden. When contacted, McFadden stated that he was unfamiliar with the award, though after hearing that it is an award related to colleges, he wanted it made clear that UC-Berkeley is his employer, while the University of Minnesota is his alma mater. McFadden shared the Nobel Prize in economics with Dr. James Heckman in 2000.

It is believed this is the first time that a Heisman vote has gone to someone who is not a student at an eligible university. It is not yet known whether Brown’s second and third place votes will stand.