Heisman Trophy

Who is going to win the Heisman Trophy? According to our experts, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel. Times national football columnist Chris Dufresne and UCLA reporter Chris Foster agreed during our live video chat held Thursday morning. You can watch a replay of the chat above. From Dufresne: "He is going to be the first freshman to win the award. He had over 4,600 yards of total offense and beat Alabama on national TV. Notre Dame's Manti Te'o ... people just aren't ready to vote for a defensive player for the Heisman.

What was Texas A&M thinking in keeping Johnny Manziel muzzled all season? The school Monday lifted the season-long gag order on the phenom quarterback known as "Johnny Football," now the prohibitive favorite to become the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. Not only can Johnny play, it turns out, he can eloquently speak. "Nice to be able to talk to you all," Manziel said on a conference call. For followers of college football, it was like going from silent films to "talkies.

USC receiver Marqise Lee had the national spotlight to make his case for inclusion among the Heisman Trophy finalists. Eleven fans in the front row of the student section painted their bodies to read: LEE4HEISMAN. The sophomore made a late push in USC's 22-13 loss to top-ranked Notre Dame at the Coliseum on Saturday. Lee caught five passes for 75 yards and finished the season with a school-record 112 catches. He also returned four kickoffs for 98 yards and finished with 172 all-purpose yards.

Deflate the balls until they are prunes, switch the jerseys until Lane Kiffin is wearing one, and it still won't detract from one undeniable USC truth. Marqise Lee is the best college football player in the country. Talk about firing the coach, rip the defense so bad that Mike Brown applies to replace Monte Kiffin, and there is still only one undebatable USC conversation. Marqise Lee deserves the Heisman Trophy, and would actually have a chance of winning it if the Trojans had won more games.

Quarterback Matt Barkley has received most of USC's Heisman Trophy push, but with Marqise Lee coming off two spectacular performances, the school on Wednesday released a video hyping the multipurpose star. Lee, a sophomore, leads the nation in all-purpose yardage and is second in receptions and receiving yardage per game. He is 11th in kickoff returns. He vaulted to third place in the latest HeismanPundit/CBSSports.com Heisman straw poll. On Tuesday, Stanford Coach David Shaw said Lee was the best college receiver he had seen since scouting Randy Moss.

  FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND : Doug Flutie's famous Hail Mary touchdown in the 1984 Orange Bowl clinched the Heisman Trophy for Flutie. Down 45-41 with just 28 seconds left and on their own 20, Boston College's football team was led by their quarterback, Doug Flutie, to a shocking 47-45 victory over Miami in the 1984 Orange Bowl with a now legendary 63-yard touchdown pass (going against the wind) to wide receiver Gerald Phelan. It is undoubtedly one of the most amazing plays in sports history.

The comparisons between Kansas State's Collin Klein , a Heisman Trophy candidate, and former Florida star Tim Tebow , who won the Heisman in 2007, are not lost on people. Both are big, physical, run-first quarterbacks who aren't the prettiest of passers. They are also humble, strait-laced Christian fellows who are known as fierce competitors. Their statistics may end up similar too. In 13 games during his Heisman-winning season, Tebow passed for 3,286 yards and 32 touchdowns with six interceptions, completing 66.9% of his throws.

Could Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o actually win the Heisman Trophy? What happens Saturday evening when the Fighting Irish play Oklahoma in Norman could make the senior from Hawaii a legitimate candidate -- maybe even a favorite. Or it could push him into the background. (Say, whatever happened to Geno Smith's runaway?) Te'o has a lot of things going for him. First, he's been a model of consistency for a Notre Dame defense that is the biggest reason the Fighting Irish are undefeated and ranked No. 5 headed into the Oklahoma game.

The Milan Puskar Stadium scoreboard has been condemned until electricians can repair all the short circuits, while three volunteers working Saturday's press box have already filed for stat-man's compensation. West Virginia's 70-63 victory over Baylor in Morgantown, W. Va., did not just improve one school's record to 4-0 as it dropped the other school's record to 3-1. It was not merely No. 9 West Virginia's first game as a Big 12 Conference member or the best visual effects programming on FX preceding a later showing of "Spider-Man 3. " West Virginia's victory over Baylor passed "Honey, you have to see this" in the second quarter on its way to "You have got to be kidding me. " One copy of the final game book should be sent to the Smithsonian, with another shipped to Morgantown CSI. The offensive coordinators will look at it as a work of art to be studied like a Manet or Monet.

Matt Barkley has been less than perfect. But USC's senior quarterback, who's had four passes intercepted in the last two games, says he's "perfectly happy" if the Trojans win, regardless of his statistics. "This is not a year for me to start complaining about stats or anything like that," Barkley said Tuesday after practice. "Because if we're winning, then I'm perfectly happy. If we're running the ball for 300 yards, than I'm perfectly happy. " The No. 13 Trojans have an open date this week before playing at Utah on Oct. 4. Barkley's statistics through the first third of the season are comparable to what they were at this stage a year ago. After four games last season, he had completed 68.5% of his passes for 1,120 yards and 10 touchdowns with three interceptions.