Ryan is screwed just like San Diego State's Marshall Faulk was; because Ryan (now) and Faulk (then) were in the WAC. It sucks but it's reality.

The WAC of today is not the same WAC when Faulk was there.  Faulk had one monster game against USC (a mediocre team at that time) and BYU (they were pretty good) then played a bunch unknowns.  Mathews has went over 100 yards in every game to include highly ranked teams like UC, Boise State, and Wisconsin.  He wont win but he's definitely on the radar.  The sad part is that he's going to have to continually produce 100+ yards games and maybe even a superduper performance just to stay in consideration.  The Ingrams and Tebows of the world can have two or three down games and still be under consideration.  That's the politics of it.

Not to mention, the ones who vote are past Heisman winners from the big schools (USC, Florida, Notre Dame, etc.) and journalists from big city newspapers.

 YES!!!

RAY: Marshall Faulk has a son (age 10) who lives in the Carlsbad Calif area and played pop warner football with my grandson.  The boy is a carbon copy of Marshall.................get him the ball and that is the last you see of him.  For a kid he even has all the 'moves' necessary to be a running back - UNbelievable!!!  Very sweet kid. He and my grandson became best buds and even though my grandson now lives back east, those kids stay in touch.  Marshall would come to some of the games, very nice in person.

Boy, could USC use Ryan! 

YES !

Ryan deff deserves it ! 

he busts arse every game!

No.

I do not think he is the best player in college football. 

I haven't seen anyone putting up better numbers, especially on a consistent basis, so I wouldn't object if he won it. Hopefully he can finish strong and at least cause a lot of misgivings among the voters if they won't hand the hardware to him.

By the way, did anyone else catch the crazy play in the USC-ASU game in which the Trojans' quarterback threw a pass that deflected off two of his teammates' hands and bounced off the foot of a third player into the hands of a Sun Devils defender, who ran down the field only to have the ball stripped just before he went down but recovered by a teammate who then did some crazy running of his own?

Although Pat HIll has done an outstanding job, a couple things have to happen for any of his players to get national respect. First being.........GET OUT OF THE WAC! Second put bigger schools on your schedule. Wisconsin, Cincinnatti & Boise State are a step in the right direction, you need to play bigger schools. USC, ND, top SEC teams?

Many of the bigger schools refuse to play Fresno because they don't want to get beat by them. Kansas is a classic example of a bigger school deciding not to re-engage Fresno. Who is the best PLAYER in the NCAA? That's actually hard to say, but there is no doubt that Ryan is the best RB. Every team they play know Ryan is getting the ball 20-30 times a game and he still punishes them. His biggest game was against Boise, I may be biased, but Ryan's numbers speak for themselves.

Ryan's pretty good..  definitely better than some of those currently on the Heisman short list.

For the Maxwell award I gotta go with Christian Ponder, QB from my alma mater...

Just got this from motopoet.   He'll probably post it on this "About the boy" page when he gets it up.  Cool site though for those not familiar with the hubbub.

http://www.ryanmathews.net/

WOW!! how awesome is that!!!!!

Deserve consideration? Yes. The Heisman? No. If for a running back I think I'd have to give it to Toby Gerhart of Stanford.

Fresno State plays a tough enough schedule now. What a dumb comment...they have already play ed Wisconsin and Cincinnati with Illinois to follow. Much tougher out of conference schedule than Florida or Texas...and an unbeaten Boise State is in their conference.

Best player in college ball this year, in my not so humble opinion: Brody Eldridge of the University of Oklahoma. He has played tight end, guard AND center, due to injuries on the offensive line. And he's played well at all three.

The most dominant player: Nebraska's Ndamikong Suh. But, since defensive players and especially linemen will never get it...so be it.

The award is going to go to Colt McCoy, who I always thought was a character in a Chuck Norris movie. And then McCoy and the Longhorns will lose to the Kansas St. Mildcats in the Big 12 championship game.

It's an unusually crazy year in college football.

 Fresno State plays a tough enough schedule now. What a dumb comment...they have already play ed Wisconsin and Cincinnati with Illinois to follow. Much tougher out of conference schedule than Florida or Texas...and an unbeaten Boise State is in their conference.

Talk about a dumb statement.  Boise State would be in the bottom half of the SEC, Big 10 or SWC.

I think Mathews is one of the best backs in the NCAA because of his combination of size and speed.  When I got to see him in person at the NMSU game, I was surprised how big he had gotten over last season.  He was stopped several times in the backfield and he was able to either run through arm tackles or fall forward on big hits.  His breakaway speed for his size is also apparent.  Once he gets behind teh linbackers he's outrunning dbs, usually the fastest people on a team.

I think Ingram from Alabama will get it because of his production and the school he plays for.

Gerhart from Standford also has a good chance.

McCoy and Tebow should not even be invited to NYC. They've played too many bad games this year.

Being in the bottom half of the SEC is not necessarilly a putdown but they would struggle week in week out to win in that conference.  Boise State is much better than at least 7 schools in the Big 10.  SWC (I guess you mean Big 12) would give Boise a little trouble but they would win their fair share.

For Fresno State to get more prominence they have to beat Boise and win the WAC outright.  They can play schools from all over the country but winning the WAC should be the most important goal for the team.

For Fresno State to get more prominence they have to beat Boise and win the WAC outright.  They can play schools from all over the country but winning the WAC should be the most important goal for the team.

Christian Ponder? Is he even in the discussion for the best player in the ACC?

I think he'll do great things next year with the 'Noles as he continues to develop.

Ron, you know less about college football than you do politics. The SWC? It hasn't been in existence for, what, 15 years or so? And if you think Boise State would be in the bottom half of the SEC or Big Ten or the Big 12, you're smokin' something.