Once more, our ballot in the MaxwellPundit Award voting, as presented by and hosted at The Rakes Of Mallow.
Remember: voting is open to players of any age, at any position.
1. Reggie Nelson, Safety, Florida Gators There's a lot I dislike about today's college football coverage on television - starting with the human beings being paid to talk during the broadcasts. One truly wondrous development, though, is those outstanding floating cameras that shoot film from just over the action on the field. When they replay a down from that floating angle, you get a reasonable facsimile of what the quarterback saw as he dropped back to pass.
On Monday night, every time we saw what Troy Smith saw, there was Reggie Nelson leading his secondary to blanket coverage of the Buckeye receivers. Dudes were just never open. As crappy as Ohio State's line was - and they were bad - the Florida secondary was smothering, too. Nelson was a huge reason why. There weren't any big numbers for Nelson to have because the Buckeyes could not move the football. The guy's a monster.
2. Patrick Willis, LB, Ole Miss Here's your rightful Bronko Nagurski winner. Led the SEC in tackles, hit like a ton of bricks, while starting all twelve games. He's gonna make a whale of a professional and - if he's not a top ten pick - be the steal of the draft.
3. Calvin Johnson, WR, Georgia Tech Sucks for Johnson that he wasted his talent with Reggie Ball. But he did. Probably the #1 overall talent in this year's draft class. Just unbelievably gifted. Reminds me of Terrell Owens during his best years. But sane.
4. LaMarr Woodley, DE, Michigan Who's better? Woodley or Branch? Aw, who cares? Both were elite. Woodley finished with 12 sacks and helped Michigan's line dominate at a near-record level.
5. Colt Brennan, QB, Hawaii Mel Kiper says he's a "system" guy. Whatever, Mel. He still had - what - 80 touchdowns? Okay, 58. And he threw for five touchdowns against Boise State! They are a good football team, no? Brennan's numbers are inflated, yes, but when you're pretty much doubling up the rest of the field, this is more than just floating through the system. You're playing great, great football.
--PB--