Q&A: 2021 Walter Payton Award; An Alternate Path for Nick Saban
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The following is purely speculative, based on my own conjecture and assessment of who has accomplished what thus far in the 2021 season. If I’m editorializing a bit on how I would vote, someone like James Madison wide receiver Antwane Wells Jr. would be at the forefront.
Like with the Heisman Trophy, only two wide receivers have ever won the Walter Payton Award1: current Los Angeles Rams standout Cooper Kupp, and Villanova’s Brian Finneran in 1997.
Another parallel to the Heisman is how quarterback-dominated the Payton’s been in this century. Kupp is the only player of another position to win it since Jamaal Branch in 2003.
To that end, leaning quarterback is the strong play but not necessarily a guarantee. A few running backs, in particular Pierre Strong for national title contender SDSU, could charge into the lead as the season progresses.
Eric Barriere, QB, Eastern Washington: 135-203, 2,105 yards*, 18 touchdowns*, four interceptions, 84 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown
Cole Johnson, QB, James Madison: 77-130, 1,127 yards, 14 touchdowns, one interceptions, 51 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown
Cole Kelley, QB, SELA (spring 2021 Walter Payton Award winner): 135-182, 1,593 yards, 13 touchdowns, four interceptions, 148 rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns.
Cameron Ward, QB, UIW (spring 2021 season Jerry Rice Award winner as the nation’s premier freshman): 134-218, 1,636 yards, 16 touchdowns, three interceptions, 43 rushing yards
Pierre Strong, RB, South Dakota State: 55 carries, 486 yards, five rushing touchdowns, five receptions, 31 receiving yards
Quay Holmes, RB, ETSU: 104 carries, 617 yards*, seven rushing touchdowns, eight receptions, 115 receiving yards, one receiving touchdowns
* = leads the nation
Nick Saban’s career fascinates me in part because I firmly believe his success has been understated. Yes, the dominance at Alabama is transcendent and recognized as such, but Alabama is also a program with a long, rich history of and obsessive commitment to winning.
To win at a national championship at a university without the same culture2 puts Saban in a unique class, and that’s what he accomplished at LSU.
Now, you might read the above and scratch your head. LSU is a winner of three national championships in the 21st Century and is so committed to championship football that Ed Orgeron is very much on the hot seat less than two full years from winning the program’s most recent title.
But rewind to 2000 when Saban arrived from Michigan State, and LSU was a Basketball School. We’re talking 14 years removed from a Final Four run, a decade after Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (at the time, Chris Jackson) was one of the biggest names in college basketball, and a Tigers center became such a superstar that he earned one-name status: Shaq.
Dale Brown was a bigger deal than any of his football contemporaries. It’s staggering in retrospect, but consider LSU football’s trajectory in the 42 years from when Billy Cannon led the Tigers to the national championship and Saban’s hire in 2000:
Winning at a place that has long been more invested in basketball is challenging because a staff has to essentially compete with an established winner. Engendering patience and excitement among fanbases that pivot to, “When’s the hoops season start?” at the first loss isn’t easy, and I attribute to being at the heart of why the basketball blue-bloods are so rarely elite at football, as well.
That’s all to say if he left Alabama now, when he still has a few years in the tank, Nick Saban could realistically win a national championship at a traditional Basketball School with a few of the right conditions.
For example, I don’t believe he could win a national championship at Kansas. The Jayhawks have only finished ranked in the Top 25 seven times post-World War II and face too many systemic challenges.
Part of me wants to answer UCLA, but that feels like too much of a copout. Most observers recognize the program’s untapped potential.
That leaves me with three nominees:
Arizona
UA is awful right now, but it wasn’t long ago (2014) that the Wildcats played for the Pac-12 Championship. In 1998, Dick Tomey’s ballyhooed Desert Swarm era reached its peak with a team that came one win away from playing for the inaugural BCS Championship.
Arizona as a state has a quality pool of high school football talent, and UA has more than enough inroads to California to win blue-chip prospects there. A running joke when I went to school there was referring to UA as UC Tucson because of the abundance of California transplants.
Tucson is a sports-mad city that has proven it will rally behind Arizona men’s and women’s basketball, softball and baseball.Virginia
I considered going with North Carolina for this spot, but Virginia spoke more to me. Stanford and Vanderbilt are often cited as exceedingly difficult programs to win because of the academic standards, but Michigan, Cal and Vanderbilt fly under the radar for the same reason.
Saban’s a master recruiter who could use Virginia’s academic standing as an asset to turn Charlottesville into a national recruiting destination, while also hitting the talented Tidewater Region aggressively.Kentucky
Mark Stoops has done an excellent job at Kentucky — the 2021 Wildcats could realistically win the SEC East, which is no small feat — so this is in no way intended to disparage him. I’m merely measuring a great coach against arguably the greatest ever.
Winning in the SEC is inherently more difficult because of the football-obsessed programs like Alabama, Florida and Georgia, all of which sit in deep talent pools. Kentucky has to go outside of the state for its recruiting, but that can also be advantageous: UK neighboring Ohio, where Saban played his college ball at Kent State, has serious potential.
NASCAR’s foray into the Coliseum has piqued my interest in auto racing more than of the other promotional efforts the sport’s made in the 21st Century. It’s actually the second crossover there in recent months, with New Japan Pro Wrestling holding its first American show since the pandemic outside the Coliseum at the Peristyle.
Being a huge wrestling fan, my mind immediately goes there for potential crossovers with college stadiums. The World Wrestling Federation initially planned to hold WrestleMania VII at the L.A. Coliseum, but the exploitative Desert Storm angle with Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter wasn’t nearly the draw Vince McMahon anticipated.
In the ‘80s, however, a variety of promotions held supercards at football stadiums: the Dallas-based World Class ran at the Cotton Bowl, Jim Crockett Promotions took the Great American Bash tour through the Orange Bowl, and the American Wrestling Association ran Minneapolis’ Metrodome.
I would love to see a super-show that incorporates the venue itself as part of the show — the history of it, the traditions, and perhaps even packaged with a football game itself. North Texas did this a few years ago, hosting an independent promotion’s card following a Mean Green game.
In that same vein, an early-season college basketball game combined with a college football game has intriguing possibilities. Outdoor venues admittedly aren’t great for hoops, hence the disappearance of the aircraft carrier exhibitions they were pushing a few years ago.
Still, a warm-weather location like the Rose Bowl hosting a doubleheader of UCLA football in the day and basketball with a court assembled on the field at night would be a fun spectacle if nothing else.
EuroLeague is a ton of fun and a great fix for the basketball junkies, particularly those who want to see college stars that didn’t quite pan out in the NBA. Paring it down to just five is a chore, but I find these the most intriguing:
C - Brandon Davies (BYU)
The Barca big man’s college career is one of the all-time What Ifs. Had he not been suspended from BYU’s roster in 2011, could the Cougars have won the national championship?
F - Alec Peters (Valparaiso)
Were you to build an All-2010s Mid-Major Team, Alec Peters would be a strong contender for a spot on the lineup. The 2016-17 Horizon League Player of the Year really felt like an NBA-caliber player to me, able to both post up and shoot the 3-pointer, but he has found a prominent place with Baskonia.
G - Emmanuel Mudiay
Emmanuel Mudiay never played a second of college basketball, which in and of itself makes him Remember Some Guys material. His time at Prime Prep3 sacrificed his eligibility and prevented him from playing for a good SMU team, instead sending him to China for a year. Mudiay was one of the many casestudies for the anti-college basketball crowd to tout as setting a new standard for elite prospects, when instead, his was a one-time situation. His first few years at Denver, Mudiay looked like a future NBA star but never really progressed. I’ll be interested to see how he adjusts at Zalgiris.
G - Jerian Grant (Notre Dame)
If you argued Jerian Grant threw down the best dunk of the 2010s in college hoops, you’d have a helluva case. Grant was also central to Notre Dame’s incredible 2015 Elite Eight game against Kentucky.
G - Thomas Walkup (Stephen F. Austin)
Two of last decade’s most memorable mid-major moments in March Madness are the handiwork of Thomas Walkup. In 2014, he dished an assist leading to SFA’s upset of VCU, then two years later, dominated West Virginia in a 14-over-3 matchup for the ages.
As many wide receivers have won the Walter Payton Award as have won the Heisman despite the Heisman being more than 50 years older.
The word’s become cliche when used in athletic circles, but is the most accurate descriptor in this instance.
Prime Prep is a prime example of why I roll my eyes when people claim Deion Sanders’ presence at Jackson State is good for HBCUs or the FCS.