My Michael Crabtree Blog

As the NCAA College Football gets into full swing, college campuses nationwide are filled with the buzz of who might win this year's Heisman trophy. Honoring the best player in college football each year, the award went to sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow of Florida last year. While Tebow returns to lead the Gators, there are a number of other contenders for the trophy this year.

Coming out of (seemingly) nowhere last year, the Missouri Tigers rose to the top of the Big 12 pack, earning a number one ranking until their loss in the conference championship game to perennial power Oklahoma. Led by two Heisman contenders, senior quarterback Chase Daniel and true sophomore receiver Jeremy Maclin. With a top 10 rating and early season success, if this Tigers go all the way, then either of these players are capable of bringing home the hardware.

While Heisman winners generally play for national contender teams, there are a number of impressive players who play on good, but not great, teams. South Florida Quarterback Matt Grothe is an outstanding athlete, as is Boise State running back Ian Johnson who could run for over 7,000 yards in his college career.

There are a number of competitive quarterback sin this year's class ranging from the impressive first-year USC starter Mark Sanchez, Texas' Colt McCoy, the efficient passer Todd Reesing of Kansas and the talented Ryan Perrilloux of LSU.

Texas Tech also featured two top-tier Heisman candidates in quarterback Graham Harrell and wide receiver Michael Crabtree who caught 21 touchdowns last year. While Tech is in a competitive conference, the combination of Harrell and Crabtree could propel them to the top tier this season.

Among top running backs, Chris "Beanie" Wells leads last year's runner-up Ohio State where he ran for over 1500 yards and Wisconsin's PJ Hill will put in a competitive season for the Badgers. Texas running back Jamaal Charles is one of the fastest players in college football, and should put up some impressive numbers this season.

This year's Heisman competition features one of the more talented classes in recent history, and should make for an exciting year heading into the BCS.

Jason Forthofer is the owner of Get Football Helmets where you can shop for college football helmets from all major universities.

This Florida Gators Quarterback will become only the second player to ever receive two Heisman trophies. The other was running back Archie Griffin of Ohio State. Tim Tebow won it last year as a sophomore becoming the youngest player to ever win the prestigious award. He is in good standing to make history.

First off, Tebow is the only player in the SEC that is close to winning the award. This helps because the votes will be all slit up between the four different Big 12 players that are up in the votes. There is Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree. Who will most likely have votes divided between the two of them. Then there is Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy who are also in the Big 12 and will take away some of those votes. Usually Big 12 press and coaches vote for Big 12 players, that's just the way it goes. This is most likely because if your a coach in those conferences you think you are going up against the toughest teams. It's just a natural bias and cannot be helped. So if Tebow gets all the SEC votes and some votes from other small conferences then he will be in good shape.

Another reason, Tebow is a kind of player that doesn't come around very often. He can run and throw the ball and has a cannon for an arm plus precision. He also has good character traits which the voters respect as the Heisman is not going to go to some Michael Vick type characters. There is also the fact his Gators team is on a roll and looks likely to upset Alabama in the SEC championship. If this happens the odds are really good he will win the Heisman. Especially if they beat them with a good margin of points.

There is a chance, albeit a smaller one that he could win it again next year. Just ponder that, no one has ever won three Heismans! That would be unbelievable! He will be a senior next year and if he keeps Florida undefeated like he was trying to this year he could have a really good shot at it. He would also have to put up even better numbers than any other year in his career. On top of that he would have to hope that none of the other returning quarterbacks put up really good stats. Because the voters would only give him a third trophy if he blew the competition out of the water.

Clarke Baldwin is a journalist who has worked for Dallas Morning News and other publications. You can find his site at International News Blog and a related story in Sports.