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Making the turn. Yes, that’s a golf term. But today, it is also apropos as it pertains to college football. For, as evidenced by all the teams with records of something-and-something that add up to at least a half-dozen games played, and as proven by the fact that the leaves in the trees are now the same brown and red hues as Nick Saban’s face at Neyland Stadium last weekend, the 153rd season of the greatest sport on Earth has just crossed over the halfway point.
Whenever someone makes the turn on the links, they usually swing through the clubhouse and the 19th Hole, where a group of Judge Smails-looking gentlemen are leaning on the bar, overserved, watching college football and declaring who is the best, worst and in between that the game has to offer. They have those conversations amid shelves of dusty trophies commemorating member-guest tourney champs, closest-to-the-pins and holes-in-one.
So, with that true making-the-turn spirit in mind, allow us to pour a glass of amber liquid and hand out some brass and particle board hardware from the local trophy shop, as we present our 2022 ESPN.com Midseason College Football Awards.
The Peyton Manning October Heisman Award
Hendon Hooker, Tennessee. No one ever had a bigger lead in the midseason Heisman Trophy race than the original Tennessee Sheriff did in 1997, but as we know now, Manning finished second in December, just as fellow Vols Hank Lauricella, Johnny Majors and Heath Shuler did before him. Hooker outdueled reigning stiff arm king Bryce Young in Neyland Stadium, but when the ballots are cast at season’s end, Hooker will still have to overcome Vols’ Heisman history and also the recent history of guys winning the game but losing the trophy. See: Deshaun Watson vs. Lamar Jackson (Clemson 42, Louisville 36 in 2016). Then again, Hooker and his team would 100% take Watson’s ’16 consolation prize right now. Celebrating a natty in January.
Side note: Hooker should receive bonus points because he wrote a children’s…
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Source : espn
