I can't help but notice that ESPN is behind the times when it comes to throwing out names of Heisman candidates. It shouldn't bother me, except for the fact that ESPN has a stranglehold on the whole Heisman award show, stat tracking, and fan polling to the point where it majorly influences who is in the running from the beginning of September to the end of December.

Tedd Ginn is currently on their list of Heisman hopefuls along with some other clowns who don't deserve to be there. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourselves- the stats don't lie- and Ginn isn't even the best receiver on his team. Here is how Ginn stacks up with three other receivers in the NCAA- all of whom are not on ESPN's prestigious list of Heisman knockouts.

Tedd Ginn - WR OHIO STATE 331 yards from scrimmage; 5 touchdowns

Mario Manningham - WR MICHIGAN- 463 yards from scrimmage; 7 touchdowns

Calvin Johnson - WR GEORGIA TECH -447 yards from scrimmage; 7 touchdowns

Robert Meacham - WR- TENNESSEE- 585 yards from scrimmage; 5 touchdowns

want some non BCS affirmations that Ginn is either overrated by ESPN or isn't playing as well as he can?

Johnnie Lee Higgins- WR- UTEP - 493 yards from scrimmage; 6 touchdowns.

How about from non- BCS schools consistently getting pummeled by BCS schools?

Jared Dillard WR- Rice- 516 yards from scrimmage with 7 touchdowns; including scores against UCLA, Texas, Houston, and Florida State. Not bad competition. So what if they lost to Army? He picked up his game by reaching pay dirt three times!!!!

And what about Sidney Rice from South Carolina?

161 yards from scrimmage and five touchdowns.

In one game!

But ESPN.com is right Ted Ginn is the best receiver in the nation. Which is why he is currently the only receiver among this list mentioned in their weekly Heisman hopefuls list compiled by Chris Spielman. Sorry Chris, maybe you shouldn't have quit your day job with the Detroit Lions- although I don't blame you.

Jon Gunnells is a journalism senior at Michigan State University who is about to watch the first Tigers playoff game of his life in 56 minutes. He would also whomp on Chris Spielman in all things college football. He can be reached at gunnell2@msu.edu or by hitting the pound key on your Verizon Wireless phone.

Thoughts on Michigan Football:

Michigan defeated Minnesota  28-14 this weekend, but before I even had time to watch the replays my State fan friends were already talking smack. 

"If Michigan was so good why did they only win by 14."

 I must have heard this at least three times since Saturday. People downplaying a fourteen point win, yet when we talk about USC's 28-14 win over Michigan in the 2004 Rose Bowl- USC thumped them. Isn't this a double standard? And didn't Michigan State just lose Illinois? How comments are like that even remotely justified.

Thoughts on High School errrr Michigan State Football Reading the newspaper today I realized that Michigan State cared more about who was planting what on the 50-yard line after Saturday's game- than what was on the scoreboard.

And it's not like a team that just lost to bottom feeding Illinois even has the right to oppose a flag plant in the first place- but the ironic thing is they were the ones who started the flag planting in the first place.

Forget about Notre Dame and the Golden Megaphone trophy- nobody brings the Megaphone trophy to the games anyway. What is important is that the players are more motivated to fight after games they lose, and taunt the Irish after wins, than they are to beat a team with as much prestige as my flag football team.

Say what you want about who was right or who was wrong but ask yourself a question: Would Ohio State ever flag plant, or get in a fight after a game? What about Auburn, USC, Michigan or Texas? Definately not. So if John L. Smith wants his team to become elite like the powerhouses I've mentioned maybe he needs to
have his team act like one. Otherwise they will never play like one.

And its not like he's going to have a long time to do it. Surely the search for John L.'s replacement began moments after the loss to Illinois but is there anyone really out there. Gary Barnett and Rick Nueheisel and Steve Mariucci come to mind as great replacements for the Spartans. They would surely help continue the trend of Spartan coaches who couldn't control their teams actions on and off the field.

Mid-Major coaches are a tough breed to choose from too- Smith has proven that since he came up from Lousville as did Dan Hawkins with this terrible thing he calls a football team over in Colorado. Then you have the coordinators and assistants from around college football in the NFL, but would anyone really leave a job in the NFL to coach for MSU and risk career suicide? And would anyone leave a cushy job as a play caller to take the reigns of a program struggling to breathe right now?

Probably not.

 Thoughts on Howie Long's thoughts on the Lions:

 During Sunday's NFL pre game show on FOX Howie Long stood up for Matt Millen crediting Millen with a tough job in managing the Lions. As if his Radio Shack commercials aren't bad enough, he has the nerve to support Matt Millen the worst general manager in the history of sports. Yes he is way worse than Isaiah Thomas.

When the Lions hired Millen in 2001 he was in charge of rebuilding a mediocre team who had limited success in four previous decades. A few sporadic playoff appearances, a couple wins, and a whole slew of 8-8, 9-7 and 10-6 records. The Lions needed a little help to become a little more consistent, take some shape, and become a contender now and then. But with Millen, the best they have done is 5-11. Basically, Howie Long supports a guy who has managed to rebuild so poorly that it needs to be rebuilt again. He supports a general manager who drafts terrible players, chooses poor coaches, makes bad media decisions (calling Johnny Morton gay) and offends fan more than anything else. He also supports a team president who has presided over the worst stretch of Lions football ever. You look it up. In the pantheon of terrible Lions stretches has there ever been a worse five years for them? No.

 I could go on for hours but the point is clear, the Lions have always been terrible, Millen has made them intolerable, he is just as bad, if not worse than any one else in the organization. Every one is to blame, and if Howie Long doesn't think so, maybe he should ask himself how he would evaluate the situation if this was his favorite team.

If someone told me back in May that on this day in September the Tigers would own a one game lead in the AL Central I probably would have had them institutionalized. But now here it is-September 18, and all my excitement has shifted elsewhere.

It's no that I'm not a Tigers fan- really I am - and I've been one before 2006. I can't even count how many classes I skipped or lectures I diregarded in the spring to focus on Tigers baseball-but since football season came around baseball doesn't seem as important.

I've always thought football was the greatest sport to follow-especially college, but now- even with the first Tigers pennant race of my era- I can't get excited over baseball.

If I someone could have harnessed the excitement I had back in April, maybe I'd actually care that  I have tickets for next Friday's game agains the Royals, one's I had hoped would enable me to see the Tig's capture their first playoff birth in 18 years. I should be excited that Tigers tickets go on sale tomorrow for the playoffs. We're talking ALDS, ALCS and World Series. But instead of dropping down $90 for a skybox seat in a potentail October matchup versus some pushover from the NL, I'm thinking I'd rather spend that money on a Michigan-Ohio State ticket- which is running anywhere from $500-$2,000 on Ebay right now. And it's only three games into the season!

This coming from a guy who has already spent $500 on two sets of season tickets. One for Michigan, one for Michigan State and a couple scattered games for Central Michigan, Boston College, Western and hopefully the Tennessee-LSU game later this season.

After all that, I don't know why I don't feel inclined to at least try for a World Series ticket. Especically since I paid for 16 seperate tickets to 16 games in 2004 at Comerica Park where the Tigers went 0-16, including two more losses against the White Sox during a July road trip.

Then again- I don't know anyone in their right mind who would go see the Tigers play to an 0-18 record if football season was going on which makes me think that even though the Tigers are sweet, and I'll be excited over them in April, Michigan football is where it's at in the fall.

Of course I haven't been able to say that in a while considering Michigan dropped it's previous six road openers leaving them out of the national title race befrore the thick of the Big Ten race. But now things are different. The win against Notre Dame proves that new defensive coordinator Ron English is on to something. His "Old English D" has me seeing shades of a 1997 team that led the nation in defense and subsequently defeated Washington State for a Rose Bowl win and share of the national title.

Michigan still has a few key matchups to go undefeated  into their rivalry match with Ohio State-Wisconsin being one of them. I will preview that later on this week-but now its time to watch the Tigers

I just wanted to stop by and say that today's Michigan-Notre Dame game was a thing of beauty. Much better than that Nebraska game I wrote four posts about in December.

That is all. 

Two must be worth at least double!!!!!

And  three pictures are worth a whole bunch more!!!!

Thanks also to NEED FOR SHEED.COM  for this lovely cartoon.